EMC Expanded Research Focus Incorporates West Coast Universities and Startup Collaborations

HOPKINTON, Mass., April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today announced it has joined Plug and Play Tech Center as a corporate partner, further advancing EMC Innovation Network collaboration with university research and startup communities around the world.  The partnership is one of the focal points for EMC Research West, the company's newly organized local research network, connecting EMC's operations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Southern California, and Pacific Northwest with centers of emerging technology.

"Startup companies continue to be a tremendous driver of innovation for the IT industry," said Jeff Nick, EMC Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.  "Plug and Play Tech Center will give EMC's technology community access to startup activities, which will complement the organic development of new concepts at our R&D centers on the West Coast and around the world.  We look forward to helping many of the companies hosted at the Plug and Play Tech Center move their ideas forward."

"Technology innovation flourishes when entrepreneurs have access to a worldwide network of business development resources," said Kayvan Baroumand, COO of Plug and Play Tech Center. "By collaborating with leading technology companies like EMC, Plug and Play can accelerate a technology startup's ability to empower its users and bring a wealth of benefits to people's digital lives and communities. We're pleased to have EMC as a sponsor of Plug and Play Tech Center.  Working with the technology giant affords a heightened ability to work at the forefront of collaborative development and market evolution."

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, PlugandPlayTechCenter.com is a community of over 280 technology startup companies in the areas of Web 2.0, software (SaaS), systems, semiconductor and telecomm verticals.  Since its inception in January 2006 the center has helped the startups raise in excess of $800 million in venture funding.  The startup companies have created a cumulative value of 2 Billion Dollars.

"Being a corporate partner of the Plug and Play Tech Center affords EMC's scientific, technological, and business minds a unique way of discovering the industry's hottest innovations," said James Moore, Director of EMC Research West. "By collaborating with startups hosted at the center EMC is able to influence, identify, and nurture the technologies it finds most compelling.  Access to intriguing companies and inspiring events make Plug and Play Tech Center a perfect focal point for our research program."

EMC's partnership announcement with Plug and Play Tech Center coincides with Jeff Nick's keynote address at the CloudPlay conference, where he described the company's technology strategy for cloud computing.  Nick outlined key enabling technologies for virtual private clouds that EMC is working with the EMC Innovation Network and partner ecosystem to develop.  A copy of Nick's presentation is available at both CloudPlay and Labs, part of the EMC Community Network, where research and innovation topics are openly discussed with teams across the globe.

Founded in 2007, the EMC Innovation Network is the company's global research collaboration, connecting advanced technology researchers with university and industry partners, including startup companies, from around the world.  Following the motto, "expand knowledge locally – transfer it globally," the network builds fruitful collaborations between EMC's R&D operations and the technology communities in each region.  By bringing together talent from inside and outside the company, EMC is expanding its knowledge in strategic areas of technology through a continual exchange of information.

The addition of the Plug and Play Tech Center partnership will increase EMC's already significant involvement in the West Coast R&D community, complementing its research initiatives in local communities in Massachusetts and North Carolina. In June of 2009, EMC added a partnership with MIT Media Lab as part of its EMC Research Cambridge program, a sister program to EMC Research West. EMC's R&D presence on the West Coast includes offices in Santa Clara, Pleasanton, and Pasadena, California, and Seattle, Washington.

About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.

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SOURCE EMC Corporation