Hitachi Enterprise Cloud Changes the Game for Enterprise Cloud Deployment

SINGAPORE (October 12, 2016) — Hitachi Data
Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501), today announced
three new ways to improve and accelerate digital transformation initiatives.
Current market offerings lack flexibility and choice for customers, forcing IT
to face on their own a gauntlet of obstacles and dead ends. To address this,
Hitachi Data Systems has introduced:

·         Hitachi
Enterprise Cloud (HEC) for organizations that choose private and
hybrid cloud to automate data center operations and application delivery.

·         Hitachi
Management Automation Strategy, which helps organizations simplify the
management of their infrastructure.

·         Enhancements
to Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP) 2000 and UCP HC for
organizations that want to transform and modernize their IT infrastructure with
economical and open converged and hyperconverged systems.

The application-specific, ready-to-use HEC platform
combines pre-engineered, pre-built service catalogs with a dedicated converged
platform, software and HDS- and/or partner-delivered services, helping users
reduce operational costs and accelerating private and hybrid cloud deployments.
Available now, the first instantiation of the HEC family, Hitachi Enterprise
Cloud with VMware vRealize® Suite leverages the VMware vRealize
Air® Cloud Management Platform™ (CMP). The solution is available on or off
premises in a traditional acquisition model or a usage and outcome-based
managed cloud solution.

“Hitachi’s announcement today is a great example of
the VMware vRealize platform accelerating the cloud journey for the enterprise.
Hitachi Enterprise Cloud with VMware vRealize Suite is built with first-class
server and storage infrastructure. The platform creates a powerful on-ramp for
our mutual customers to leverage VMware vRealize Suite as their cloud
management platform in order to lower operational costs and increase business
agility.” – Rob Smoot, vice president, Product Marketing, Cloud Management
Business Unit, VMware.

The new Hitachi Management Automation
Strategy delivers modern infrastructure management software
that meets the simplification imperative driven by cloud adoption. It also
supports the motivation to consume IT as a service (ITaaS), whether
applications are traditional or in the next generation. The new strategy is a
growing portfolio of automation-focused software that includes UCP Advisor,
which delivers simplified, smart converged management for individual and
multiple UCP 2000 systems.

“Intelligence, agility and
customer-centricity are the three main business imperatives in the drive toward
digital transformation and IT has a pivotal role to play in its success or
failure. Driving to greater infrastructure agility to deliver on those
imperatives is a challenge for IT teams. The automation and simplified
management stipulated in the Hitachi Management Automation Strategy are central
to meeting those challenges.” – Eric Hanselman, Chief Analyst, 451 Research

In addition to the availability of the UCP Advisor
software, there are significant new enhancements to Hitachi Unified Compute
Platform’s (UCP) performance, scale and ecosystem support that create valuable
new options for customers. Both UCP 2000 and UCP HC systems support faster
Intel Broadwell processors and have optional support for Hitachi Data Ingestor,
Hitachi Content Platform and WAN Optimizer to provide unique and customizable
solutions. UCP 2000 also sees 8X server scalability, now to 128 nodes, and a
number of networking and security enhancements. Furthermore, HDS has extended
the system to support OpenStack environments. UCP HC expands with a high
capacity 2U/1-node hybrid and all-flash system with up to 26TB of usable flash
capacity, extending the ability of the hyperconverged portfolio to deliver high
performance and scale for analytics and transaction-oriented applications among
other real-world functions.

Further extending
choice and flexibility to customers, HDS also rolled out several new
as-a-service managed cloud offerings, including Storage as a Service (STaaS),
Compute as a Service solutions, a new as-a-service analytics solution for IT
service management and operations, and new choices for remote operations
services. The company also announced that its Backup as a Service, Archive as a
Service, and Disaster Recovery as a Service now provide complete approaches to
data protection.

“Digital
transformation is the catalyst that promotes new types of innovation and
creativity, improves customer experience and reinvents the business model and
business process. Hitachi Data Systems is committed to providing effective and
practical alternatives that can accelerate business transformation and break
down the obstacles facing IT. Hitachi Enterprise Cloud provides more options
than ever before to help organizations perform their digital transformation.”

– Devangi Patel, vice
president, cloud go-to-market, Hitachi Data Systems