There’s been a bit of a shakeup over at EMC this morning, with the storage giant announcing the appointment of the vastly experienced Vic Bhagat as its new CIO. The company put out a press release this morning shedding some light on its boardroom shuffle, revealing that Bhagat, who also assumes the role of Executive Vice President, will take control of its Information Technology, Global Business Services, Indirect Procurement and Global Centers of Excellence organizations.

It’s a bit early to say what kind of impact Bhagat might have on the organization, but those in the know will appreciate that this is a fine bit of headhunting by EMC and one that makes perfect sense in light of the company’s recent efforts to augment its service offerings, most notably in Big Data.

So what does Bhagat bring to EMC? Well for a start, here we have a 30-year industry veteran with a proven track record of delivering the goods for his employers across a wide range of sectors – including IT, development centers, shared services operations and business processes. Bhagat spent more than two thirds of his highly successful career at GE of course, where he helped grow that company’s Aviation Services, Corporate, Global Growth and Operations, India and Southeast Asian divisions.

More recently, Bhagat was one of the main figures behind the success of Accenture’s Big Data Analytics practice for natural resources, and it’s likely that the experience he picked up here will be of vital importance for EMC as it looks to drive its own success in Big Data.

Howard Elias, EMC’s President and COO, hinted at the future direction of the company under Bhagat while making his announcement on the appointment.

“Having known Vic for several years, we are delighted to have him join EMC’s leadership team,” said Elias.

“Vic’s ability to lead large-scale transformative initiatives, his tenure and accomplishments as a true change agent, and his deep international experience will be instrumental as we continue to build on the central role these organizations play in helping customers transform their IT through cloud computing, transform their businesses through Big Data and do so in a safe and trusted way.”

Bhagat (pictured left) also touched on the transformation that he’ll be helping to direct, saying that he was thrilled to be joining the company at this stage of its evolution.

“I’ve admired and worked closely with EMC over the years, and look forward as, together, we transform the industry through Cloud Computing, Big Data and Trusted IT solutions,” enthused the new CIO.

Bhagat takes over from Sanjay Mirchandani, who held the roles of CIO and Executive Vice President of EMC for more than seven years. During his tenure, Mirchandani is widely credited with establishing the company’s global Centers of Excellence, and leading the transformation that shaped EMC into the major cloud storage player it is today.

Mirchandani will remain with EMC as one of the company’s key executives, interacting with customers and supporting growth market initiatives.