NIIT and EMC form global alliance for storage technology education

NEW DELHI

MARCH 20, 2007

EMC, a leader in information infrastructure solutions, and NIIT, Asia's
largest IT trainer, announced a global alliance to address the emerging
knowledge gap in the global storage technology and develop a resource base of
trained and certified information storage professionals. Through this strategic
partnership, NIIT and EMC will offer advanced level of education and
certification on storage technologies in India and 31 other countries worldwide,
where NIIT has its network of education centres. This will be the first such
global alliance signed by EMC.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed by Tom Clancy,
VP, Education Services and Productivity, EMC Corporation and G Raghavan,
President, NIIT's Individual Learning Business, in the presence of Vijay K
Thadani, CEO, NIIT and Manoj Chugh, Country Manager, EMC India and SAARC.

Under this initiative, EMC and NIIT will offer product-agnostic storage
technology training and certification to NIIT students and professionals,
globally. EMC will offer the latest tools, technical resources and open
curricula on emerging storage technologies while NIIT will leverage its rich
expertise and inherent strength in Instructional Design and Education Delivery,
through its large network of Education centres across the globe.

Commenting on the relevance of the program Tom Clancy said, “Information
storage and management is among the top concern areas for organizations
globally. Rapid information growth; multiple storage technologies and solutions;
and regulatory compliance pressures have further increased storage complexity.
As a leader in information infrastructure technology, EMC is committed to help
the industry and academia bridge the emerging storage technology knowledge gap.
Our partnership with NIIT will help make a significant impact in building a
technically superior workforce, both within the academic community, as well as
among IT professionals.”

Initially, NIIT will offer the new storage program under its 'Edgeineers
Series' aimed at engineering students and working professionals. The courses
will be mapped to international certifications in this field-EMCSTA, EMCST and
EMCSTe. These courses will also be incorporated into NIIT's career programs
such as NetworkLABS, in due course. In India, the programs will be made
available at 50 NIIT centres, in the first phase. The programs will also be
available in 31 other countries where NIIT has its network of education centres.

As a part of the partnership, NIIT and EMC will soon undertake a joint
exercise to educate technology professionals, IT career aspirants and industry
at large on the benefits of new skill sets. The storage curriculum offered will
be product agnostic and will enable learners to work in a heterogeneous,
multi-vendor IT and storage technology environment.