Hitachi Data Systems Continues to Add Innovation in Midrange Storage

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — June 29, 2009 — Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) and the only provider of Services Oriented Storage Solutions, today introduced enhancements across hardware and software to its award winning Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 family to give customers improved operational efficiency, performance, reliability, and security.

“The Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 family has the capability to manage extremely complex tasks and enables a level of operational efficiencies not found in other modular storage products,” said Mike Walkey, Senior Vice President of Global Channels, Hitachi Data Systems. “With these innovative enterprise-class enhancements, Hitachi Data Systems continues to raise the bar for modular storage and shows its commitment to providing compelling storage consolidation solutions for the Channel.”

As part of the Hitachi Storage Solutions portfolio, the Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 family delivers best-in-class advanced features such as symmetrical active-active controllers and a SAS backplane to allow for maximum configuration flexibility in virtual server and tiered storage environments. Combined with the newly announced capabilities, Hitachi continues its legacy of innovation and focus on bringing the best in operational efficiency and performance to the customer. Enhancements to the storage platform include:

Operational Efficiency

* High Density Storage Expansion Tray – more than doubling the capacity of the standard tray, the High Density Storage Expansion Tray installs up to 48 drives in 4U, or today’s equivalent of 48 terabytes, offering the industry’s most reliable, available, best price performance ratio for a dense storage system. As data growth continues to expand, customers require more floor space and Hitachi provides a cost effective and space efficient solution. The benefits of the expansion tray allow customers to use it for content archiving, disk-to-disk backup, NAS consolidation, or for cloud computing. Now customers can drastically increase their gigabyte per square foot while lowering the cost of managing their systems.
* Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning software – brings the enterprise-class advantages of thin provisioning such as cost savings, automated performance optimization and easy provisioning, to Hitachi midrange customers. As previously announced, this function is generally available in the second half of this year.

Performance

* 8Gb/sec Fibre Channel (FC) Host Ports – connects the latest generation of host bus adapters and switches for the maximum throughput and connectivity on Adaptable Modular Storage 2300 and 2500 systems. Customers benefit from increased performance, enhanced data protection for Tier 1 applications, and improved management of unstructured data growth. Generally available in the second half of this year.

Reliability

* Adaptable Modular Storage 2500DC – specifically designed to meet the most stringent requirements of a Telco central office (NEBS and ETSI) as well as direct current (DC) datacenters. With the Adaptable Modular Storage 2500DC, customers may realize energy and cost savings, as studies show that DC powered data centers use power more efficiently than alternating current (AC) powered data centers.
* NEBS Level-3 Compliant Switch – when combined with Adaptable Modular Storage 2500DC, Hitachi Data Systems delivers a complete NEBS-compliant SAN from one vendor and delivers value, flexibility and agility in infrastructure consolidation through Virtual SAN technology. The combination fully supports FC connectivity through 24 4Gb/sec dedicated FC ports. Additionally, the Cisco MDS 9124 SAN switch features integrated redundant power supplies to support either AC or DC power installations.

Web Resources
Find out more about the Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 family:
http://www.hds.com/products/storage-systems/adaptable-modular-storage-2000-family/index.html

Read what CTO Hu Yoshida has to say about the news: http://blogs.hds.com/hu

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About Hitachi Data Systems
Hitachi Data Systems Corporation provides Services Oriented Storage Solutions that enable heterogeneous storage to be dynamically provisioned according to business needs and centrally managed via industry-leading Hitachi storage virtualization software. With over 4,100 employees, and as an integral part of the Hitachi Storage Solutions Group, Hitachi Data Systems delivers storage infrastructure platforms, storage management software, and storage consulting services through direct and indirect channels in over 170 countries and regions. Its customers include nearly 60 percent of the top 100 companies on the Fortune 500®. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.hds.com.