EMC creates new managed services portfolio

SINGAPORE--Storage giant EMC has launched a managed services portfolio to help businesses manage their information infrastructure.

The portfolio, which comes under the purview of EMC's Technology Solutions group, aims to provide businesses with onsite technical assistance. Dedicated EMC personnel will help customers in the areas of administering, protecting and storing information.

There are over 4,500 employees worldwide who belong to the EMC Technology Solutions organization, with about 1,000 staffers delivering managed services.

According to Gery Messer, vice president for Asia-Pacific and Japan of EMC Technology Solutions Group, the company can support short-term engagements to supplement a customer's existing storage operations, or offer long-term storage management.

He added that the EMC Managed Services portfolio combines the company's in-house industry expertise and ITIL (IT infrastructure library)-based storage management best practices. The portfolio offers "residency services", which provides onsite EMC professional service personnel for a defined duration.

Messer noted that managed storage services is gaining popularity in the region, and revealed that EMC has over 50 residences located across the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan.

The storage vendor claims to have secured one customer in Singapore and signed up another in Japan.

"What is less publicized but already a reality on the ground, is the fact that more Asian customers are starting to prefer and adopt a hybrid model of keeping the ownership of the IT assets," he said.

The portfolio also includes managed utility services, which combines onsite services with pay-as-you-grow asset procurement; as well as storage management services, which provides assigned personnel to the customer site to provide storage management support that meets agreed-upon service metrics.