Hitachi Data Systems Offers Free Storage Virtualisation through “Switch it On” Programme

Enables Customers to Increase Return on Storage Assets, Recover up to 50 Percent of Unused Storage Capacity

KUALA LUMPUR — April 23, 2009 — Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) and the only provider of Services Oriented Storage Solutions, today announced the “Switch it On” programme to help customers derive more efficiency out of their environments by improving the optimisation of their storage assets. As part of the programme, Hitachi Data Systems is offering *free storage virtualisation software which enables customers to consolidate all externally attached, third-party storage under common management and optimise with advanced capabilities such as transparent data movement, dynamic provisioning, intelligent tiering and disaster recovery.

“Programmes that promote storage efficiency are endemic right now and deservedly so,” said Mark Peters, senior analyst, the Enterprise Strategy Group. “Heterogeneous support and virtualisation are extremely valuable approaches both operationally and financially; however with ‘Switch it On’ Hitachi Data Systems strikes a new and welcome chord – it is not only exposing inefficiency and talking about what it can offer, but is actually helping its customers to do something to address it, without them having to get out their checkbooks.”

“Customers are increasingly aware that their data should be considered as digital assets," says Benjamin S. Woo, vice president, enterprise storage systems at IDC. “By consolidating and increasing utilisation through virtualisation technologies, customers can maximise the return on their digital assets as well as the return on the investment in the infrastructure that protects those assets."

Hitachi’s storage efficiency technologies and world class services and support provide customers the assurance that they can reclaim unused storage capacity, improve storage utilisation and realise a dynamic and efficient storage infrastructure optimised to meet business requirements. Hitachi Data Systems market proven storage virtualisation technology and dynamic provisioning help improve overall storage utilisation by up to 40 percent, recover up to 50 percent of unused storage capacity and reduce overall power, space and cooling costs in the data center. With more than 11,000 virtualisation-enabled controllers, Hitachi Data Systems is the undisputed market leader in the storage virtualisation space.

“This initiative reaffirms our commitment to help customers save money by enabling them to leverage existing assets they own and reclaim under-utilised storage capacity,” said Johnson Khoo, Managing Director, Hitachi Data Systems Malaysia. “Customers tell us we have the winning strategy because, unlike other storage vendors, our strategy is built upon enabling customers to do more with less and improving on operational and capital expenditures. By leveraging our market leading storage virtualisation technology, customers can dynamically thin provision not only internal storage, but external storage as well for non-disruptive data movement, copies, replication, business continuity and migration of thin volumes across externally virtualised storage.”

Hitachi Storage Efficiency Customers
With a nationwide network of 1412 Branches and 3,177 ATMs in 527 Indian towns and cities, HDFC Bank saves thousands of labor hours each year in part because of Hitachi virtualisation technologies. Mr. Harish Shetty, executive vice president of IT, HDFC Bank stated: “The Hitachi virtualisation solution has helped us simplify our storage management practice. We're not only able to enhance the life of our legacy assets but also to manage all assets in one single, virtualised pool — improving storage utilisation and operational efficiencies. We've drastically improved efficiency and productivity by delivering notably faster customer response times and keeping costs low for multiple snapshots of 3TB production databases."

HUK-Coburg, a large European insurance company, dramatically simplified its storage environment, improved storage utilisation and reduced operational costs. Since implementing Hitachi Data Systems’ dynamic provisioning technologies, HUK-Coburg has reclaimed 30% storage capacity. Renar Grunenberg, manager of data administration, HUK-Coburg said: “We capitalised on Hitachi virtualisation and tiered storage technologies to reduce operational and capital IT expenses by minimising the cost of doing business. We have reduced the number of systems and applications that needed to be managed separately and deferred storage purchases to the future for long-term savings, resulting in a lower total cost of ownership. Now we are actually doing more with less — we’re managing more capacity more effectively with less effort and less cost to operate.”