The December 2014 announcement about EMC examination codes E20-597, E20-377 and E20-375 was useful to candidates preparing for changes expected in January 2015. Those codes are not a responsible starting point for a new examination booking in 2026. Rather than treating a historical launch notice as a current exam catalog, readers should examine what the codes represented and how to investigate any surviving or successor certification.

The original article was published on 22 December 2014. Specific examination launch windows and vendor documentation are archival and are not evidence that the listed codes remain active.

Understanding an exam announcement from 2014

Technology certifications are often aligned to vendor product generations, professional job roles and partner programs. When an issuer announces new assessments, it may change the exam objectives, retire an earlier code or introduce a path for people already holding credentials. These changes can matter to candidates who are near the end of a study plan.

In late 2014, the three named EMC codes belonged to the certification-planning conversation of that time. Today’s reader should not assume that the same assessments are offered through the same booking process or that the company branding and qualification hierarchy remain unchanged. The date is part of the meaning of the notice.

Why exact exam codes must be verified

An examination code is a precise identifier. A single mistaken character can lead to an entirely different assessment or an obsolete study guide. In the original title, one of the codes was written with a letter-like form that could be confused with a numeral; this is one reason an up-to-date issuer catalog is essential before purchasing any course or registration.

For archive research, preserve the codes as historical references and compare them with the documentation available at the time. For new preparation, record the exact live code from the current issuer page. If no live entry exists, do not search for a third-party workaround that purports to sell an unavailable exam.

The underlying enterprise storage skills

Storage professionals need to understand availability, backup, recovery, capacity planning, access controls, monitoring and the trade-offs between storage architectures. They often support systems where the cost of data loss is more significant than the cost of a hardware component. These concepts continue to matter even when an older certification code has disappeared.

A useful skills exercise can compare the restore behavior of a file-level backup with an application-aware backup in a safe lab. Record recovery point objectives, recovery time objectives and verification results. That evidence is more portable between vendors and generations than memorizing the names of retired products.

Separating vendor, credential and technology versions

EMC products became part of Dell’s broader enterprise technology portfolio. A historical EMC certification may therefore appear in old training materials under a different corporate label than a current program. This does not make the old exam automatically equivalent to a modern Dell Technologies credential.

Check whether the current issuer offers a related qualification, what its candidate requirements say and whether the exam measures storage implementation, cloud infrastructure, backup, engineering or sales support. Treat overlap as a reason to investigate, not as proof of a direct certification upgrade path.

A reliable decision process for candidates

Start with the technologies used in your current or target role. Find the issuer’s active program catalog, inspect the exact exam and objectives, and identify any version prerequisites. Then compare available training with hands-on tasks you can demonstrate, including safe change control and recovery validation.

Keep historical exam documentation for professional records where useful, but do not claim that a retired code proves competence with every later product generation. Vendors change programs, and employers should evaluate the candidate’s date of achievement and subsequent practical experience together.

What to do next

Use the E20-597, E20-377 and E20-375 names only as 2014–2015 historical references. Verify any modern storage or infrastructure certification at the issuing organization’s current catalog before scheduling or purchasing preparation materials.