EMC Corporation has made headlines in Asia with its plans to set up a Research and Development (R&D) facility in Singapore as part of its Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) growth strategy pumping in USD 160 million in the process.
This announcement further reinforces EMC’s decision to invest more than USD1 billion by 2010 to strengthen EMC’s R&D, customer support, and go-to-market capabilities in the APJ region.
With the support of the Singapore Economic Development Board, a portion of the investment will be used to set up a new South Asia Development Laboratory (SADL) in Singapore. The SADL will house three entities; an EMC E-Lab-- the first of its kind outside of North America-- a separate lab for qualification of next generation digital storage solutions as well as a customer Proof-of-Concept center.
Although EMC declined to give an exact breakdown on how much it will be spending in each area, it did however state for the record that the remaining monies will be invested in partner enablement and support for customers to grow their business in the region.
EMC’s E-Lab, which has trademarked its name, set up its first lab in Massachusetts in the early 1990s. It has employees in the hundreds and 2 billion dollars worth of equipments, networks and services.
The Singapore-based ECM E-Lab is set to follow in the same footsteps, conducting the IT industry’s most rigorous, end-to-end interoperability and integration testing for the region, spanning every major server platform, infrastructure software component and networking element.
“…EMC’s choice of Singapore to site the SADL, including the first E-Lab outside its home country, demonstrates our advanced R&D infrastructure and talent base which are able to undertake highly knowledge-intensive and complex activities,” said Mr. Ko Kheng Hwa, Managing Director of Singapore’s Economic Development Board in a release.
EMC is looking to recruit a team of 100 research and development engineers and plans to leverage the local engineering talent pool in Singapore whilst at the same time keeping its options open, sourcing for foreign talents as well.
Elaborating on the decision to establish the SADL in Singapore, Steven Leonard, President, EMC Asia Pacific & Japan said, “EMC’s decision to make an additional significant investment in Singapore over the next five years was made easier through strong government support as well as the immediate availability of advanced infrastructure and engineering talent here.
“EMC’s R&D investment in Singapore reaffirms our commitment to our customers and partners throughout Asia Pacific and Japan. The SADL will help EMC further extend the value our technologies bring to customers needing to store, protect, optimize and leverage their information assets.”
The location of where the lab will stand has yet to be decided since it requires a demanding 15,000 square feet. EMC’s Senior Vice President of Common Storage Platform Operations, Joel Schwartz, confirmed with SDA Asia that the first phase of the lab will be up and running by the end of 2007. It has already entered talks with suppliers and partners as well as two of Singapore’s tertiary educational institutions and research institute Data Storage Institute.
EMC anticipates that this most recent investment will be a critical accelerator for the storage and disc manufacturing ecosystem in Singapore, enhancing Singapore’s position as base for high-technology engineering.
“With 60 percent of IT spending coming from outside the US, EMC is focused on growing our international business more aggressively. The SADL demonstrates a strategic commitment to meet customer needs globally and take advantage of the highly trained and experienced talent that exists around the world,” Schwarz added.
EMC combines the best-of-breed platforms, software, and services into high-value, low-risk information infrastructure solutions that help customers maximize the value of their information assets, improve service levels, lower costs, react quickly to change, achieve compliance with regulations, protect information from loss and unauthorized access, and manage and automate more of their overall infrastructure. EMC helps organizations of every size around the world keep their most essential digital information protected, secure, and continuously available. |
