EMC has introduced a voluntary Centera certification initiative as part of its ISV integration program.
A spokesperson for EMC said the new certification was voluntary. It would be made available to vendors who wished to have their integration assessed or to confirm that their integration met certification requirements.
"While EMC has assisted partners to coding to best practise, the actual 'certification' piece is new, and not just an update of an existing program," the spokesperson said.
The storage vendor has claimed the certification program will speed customer implementations of content addressed storage (CAS), by minimising the need for customers to test applications and do custom development work.
An initial set of EMC Centera certified applications had been completed. Centera had a "free and open" application programming interface (API), supported by 400 partners, resellers and ISVs, the company added.
EMC was working with VeriTest, a testing division of application testing firm Lionbridge, to verify the applications passed "strict integration criteria", it said in a statement.
So far, applications from Documentum, Legato, Arkivio, Acartus, BMC Software, Bustech, Iron Mountain, IBM, Veritas, NICE, Stellant and Zantaz had been certified.
Tom Heiser, general manager of EMC's Centera division, said Centera had a range of third-party support.
"The EMC Centera Certification Program helps our customers and partners by addressing any issues up front, in the lab, rather than at the customer site," he said. "This is the initial group of ISVs to be certified with many more in process."
Certified companies could use the EMC Centera Certified logo and attend events such as EMC Technology Summits and participate in EMC channel initiatives.