EMC beat IBM and NetApp. Data News reported that "EMC has the broadest portfolio in storage hardware and software" in its issue the day after the award evening. The jury picked up on the fact that EMC had deepened and broadened its offer over the past years. "EMC has emerged from a supplier of external storage systems to a supplier of technology for IT infrastructure". Data News also remarked that this strategy pays dividends and that both IDC and Gartner have named EMC as absolute market leader in subsystems for external storage.

The Data News Awards for Excellence, which are sometimes also referred to as the Oscars of the Belgian IT sector, were awarded for the tenth time this year. First, Data News posted a list with likely winners on the Internet. Innovation, market impact, technology, name recognition and market share played an important role in these choices. Then, the readers nominated three companies for each of the twelve categories. A professional jury had the final say and decided on the ultimate winner.

More information about the Data News Awards for Excellence 2009 and EMC's recognition as 'Storage Vendor of the Year' is available in the Data News issue of 30 April, on the Data News website (www.datanews.be) and on www.onlyforcelebrities.be.

VMware, which is majority-owned by EMC, was also a winner. The market leader in virtualization was the 'Software Vendor of the Year' and beat IBM and Microsoft in the process.