EMC opens Microsoft Windows Competency Centre

Furthering its pivotal role as the world leader in external RAID storage for Microsoft Windows environments, EMC today announced the opening of the EMC Windows Competency Centre.

The new centre leverages EMC`s long-standing alliance with Microsoft to test and pre-qualify new Microsoft products in storage network environments, demonstrate storage networking best practices for the Windows platform and simulate specific customer environments for testing prior to installation.

John Whitney, Vice President of Technology at investment counselling firm Montag & Caldwell, said: "Storage is the foundation of our information infrastructure, so when we were considering a networked storage solution for our Windows environment, we wanted more than mere assurances that the solution would work. By visiting the EMC Windows Competency Centre, we saw the proposed EMC solution in action and consulted with the centre`s engineers on the Windows-specific questions we needed answered."

"EMC has invested countless engineering hours and resources in developing best practices for storage networking in Windows environments," said Tim Rice, Director of the EMC Windows Competency Centre. "The EMC Windows Competency Centre brings the sum of EMC`s investment to customers by demonstrating, in real-world environments, storage networking best practices and solutions to specific customer challenges."

Sandi Thomas, Microsoft`s General Manager of Global Services & Technology Partners, said: "The EMC Windows Competency Centre is both an Authorised Microsoft Solutions Provider and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, bringing the highest levels of Windows expertise to our joint customers. Microsoft and EMC have a long-standing relationship built on innovation and technical collaboration. The Windows Competency Centre is the latest fruit of our joint engineering efforts."

Microsoft and EMC

According to IDC, EMC is the world leader in external RAID storage for Microsoft Windows environments. EMC has been working directly with Microsoft and has supported Windows environments since 1995. EMC and Microsoft formed a strategic alliance in February 2000 designed to help organisations worldwide more effectively build and deploy highly reliable, available and manageable business solutions using Microsoft Windows technology. EMC has since opened a dedicated Windows engineering lab in Bellevue, Washington, next to the Microsoft campus. And, most recently, EMC announced a co-branding agreement with Dell for the EMC CLARiiON line of enterprise storage systems, significantly extending EMC`s reach in providing networked storage solutions for Windows environments.