EMC Corporation today announced an independently administered and managed EMC Centera Certification Program. This program helps customers more efficiently deploy EMC's leading content addressed storage (CAS) platform with applications from independent software vendors (ISVs). EMC is working in conjunction with VeriTest, the testing division of Lionbridge, a leading third-party application testing company, to verify that these applications pass strict integration criteria.

Testing and certification minimizes a customer's application testing and custom development. With certified applications, customers can more rapidly and more cost-effectively implement a Centera-based enterprise archiving solution. Centera's success is driven in part by the availability of a free and open application programming interface (API), which is supported by more than 400 partners, resellers and many of the world's leading ISVs.

Applications from EMC's Documentum and Legato acquisitions were among the first to become EMC Centera Certified. In addition, the following companies have completed application testing and received EMC Centera Certification: Arkivio, Acartus, BMC Software, Bustech, Iron Mountain, IBM, Veritas, NICE, Stellent and Zantaz.

Tom Heiser, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EMC's Centera Division, said, "The wide range of third-party support is one of the leading reasons EMC Centera has seen such success over the past three years. The EMC Centera Certification Program provides a more detailed technical integration process that helps our customers and our partners by addressing any issues up front, in the lab, rather than at the customer site. We selected VeriTest because of its strong reputation and ability to provide testing at a state-of-the-art facility that covers a range of Centera-specific criteria and meets the highest levels of quality. This is the initial group of ISVs to be certified with many more in process. "

John Clancy, Executive Vice President of Iron Mountain's digital business unit, said, "The seamless integration of our Connected back-up and recovery software with EMC Centera is key to helping telecommunications providers effectively roll out managed services that help their subscribers better protect their data. The EMC Centera Certified logo provides further assurances to our customers that we have done the integration work in the lab so they can concentrate their efforts on building and expanding their service offerings."

In addition to being able to use the EMC Centera Certified logo, companies that have been certified are able to attend events such as EMC Technology Summits and can participate in other marketing activities targeted at EMC channel/reseller partners.

"At the VeriTest Storage Lab, we provide a real-world storage networking environment that allows EMC Centera partner applications to be thoroughly tested on EMC Centera, which helps mitigate risk for customers," said Satish Maripuri, Chief Operating Officer, Lionbridge. "VeriTest's experience and skills in storage testing and our years of expertise in developing, executing, and marketing certification programs will be invaluable to the success of this program. Increasingly, customers agree that advanced testing and certification is beneficial because it ultimately saves them time and money by enabling them to deploy their IT solutions faster and more effectively."