EMC Expands Scope, Launches Educational Services Center in Nigeria

EMC, a leading provider of IT storage hardware solutions to promote data backup and recovery and accelerate the journey to cloud computing, has expanded its operations in Nigeria in order to support the growing market demand and customers needs in the country.
 
Similarly, the company is extending its Educational Services offering to clients in Nigeria through a brand new local training center that will enhance customers’ readiness and ability to redefine their IT application and usage.

Speaking during a press conference held in Lagos on Tuesday, Adrian McDonald, president of EMC Europe, Middle East and Africa EMC said that the expansion of its operations with the opening of a new office in Lagos has become important following the country’s position in the African IT market.

He said: “The expansion of EMC’s operations in Nigeria has become imperative in light of the consistent growth of the local economy.  In addition, with 2014 set to see unprecedented change in the technology industry as one era of computing gives way to the next – built on mobile, social networking, cloud services and Big Data analytics technologies – Nigerian businesses are looking for the tools and support to help them manage this challenge and redefine the delivery of IT so that it becomes a truly competitive advantage to their business”.

Another key element of EMC’s expansion in Nigeria is the launch of its new training center in Lagos which will deliver a comprehensive range of leading-edge IT courses to businesses, channel partners and service providers, as well as EMC employees.

On his part, Mr. Rasheed Jimoh, regional manager for English Speaking West Africa, EMC, described the Nigerian market as, “growing fast and technology needs are evolving as business leaders increasingly look to IT to help enable, drive and lead their strategic initiatives.  Many organizations have recognized the need to invest in cloud computing, Big Data analytics and information security solutions. EMC is keen to bring the knowledge transfer closer to Nigeria’s and West Africa professionals through our Educational Services Programs and to help our customers to effectively lead their IT and business transformation.”

The Company said that the courses will cover a range of systems and solutions such as EMC VNX Series high-performing unified storage; Data Domain protection storage for back-up and archive; NetWorker back-up and recovery software; VMAX enterprise storage systems; VMware; Big Data analytics; and cloud computing.

The training center will host up to eight courses each quarter, catering for approximately 200 attendees from Nigeria and West Africa throughout its first year of operation.

 Nazim Fraijat, managing director for EMC in Levant and Emerging Africa, added that, “Globally there is a fast-growing knowledge gap in the area of information storage and analytics, due in part to the rapid adoption of virtualization technologies and the emergence of cloud computing infrastructure at a rate much higher than that of the available skills in the market. Across the world organizations and IT professionals are being challenged to meet evolving business and strategic requirements, while controlling explosive data growth”.

Meanwhile, McDonald, summarized the goal stating that, “EMC values its customers and partners in Nigeria who are contributing to our growth in the country and across the region. Our new office in Lagos reiterates our commitment to helping enterprises across Nigeria achieve their business objectives as they transform their IT infrastructure. Customers in Nigeria and the region continue to call on EMC as their top choice for their IT transformation journeys and we remain committed to and focused on delivering innovative products and solutions which enable our customers to reduce their costs, increase their revenues and deliver new value to their customers”.