"We'll continue to focus on tight business processes, while embracing the technological innovations that allow us to better serve our customers," Mirchandani said in a statement following his appointment. As CIO he will report to the .

"Sanjay has extensive industry experience, and is deeply attuned to the business across global markets," Goulden said.

As head of the ominous sounding Office of Globalisation Mirchandani led the storage vendor's global growth and developed international partnerships through its Global Alliance program. He was also responsible for their global delivery centres in India, China, Russia and Israel. The 44-year-old will retain these responsibilities as well as the CIO title.

Before joining EMC, which owns a stake in and e-business consultancy Conchango, Mirchandani was at Microsoft, firstly as managing director of Microsoft in India and rising to become regional vice president of enterprise services in Asia and president of the Asia Pacific Region.