Hitachi Data Systems Delivers First Step in Storage Pooling Strategy with Solutions for Mixed SAN-NAS Environments.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

Storage Networking World Spring 2003

Booth # P3

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 15, 2003

Storage Leaders Hitachi Data Systems and Network Appliance 

Introduce Co-developed, Co-branded Enterprise NAS Gateway;

Customers Reap Benefits from NAS Gateway Solution

Storage industry leader Hitachi Data Systems Corporation today announced the availability of the co-developed, co-branded HDS NetApp(R) Enterprise NAS Gateway. The gateway enables customers to leverage the unsurpassed performance, capacity, and availability of Hitachi Freedom Storage(TM) systems and NetApp storage solutions to consolidate disparate SAN, NAS, and DAS islands into a common open storage pool under the HiCommand(R) Management Framework. The NAS Gateway will be available exclusively through Hitachi Data Systems and selected resellers.

Customers benefit from the HDS NetApp Enterprise NAS Gateway through better storage asset utilization, consolidated storage resources, and simplified management. For customers who have deployed Fibre Channel SANs, the addition of a NAS gateway allows data accessibility to a broader range of servers and applications and helps today's business share its valuable data across wider corporate networks.

"The convergence of NAS and SAN is a clear trend in the market," said Tony Prigmore, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Storage Group. "These two leaders in storage have come together to provide a solution that will be a boon to customers seeking to add the power of a high-performance storage system like the Lightning 9900 V Series to their NAS environment."

"We are excited about working closely with Network Appliance, the NAS market leader. Our combined leadership in SAN and NAS technology makes this gateway the best-of-both worlds solution for many customers," said Dave Roberson, president and COO, Hitachi Data Systems. "We will leverage our expertise in storage networking to ensure success in delivering SAN-NAS solutions. Enabling NAS services for Hitachi Freedom Storage systems is critical for Hitachi Data Systems to achieve overall storage market leadership."

"Customers need solutions that extend their SAN deployments with additional capabilities for data and file sharing over broader corporate networks," said Mark Santora, senior vice president of marketing at Network Appliance. "Customers can now deploy the HDS NetApp Enterprise NAS Gateway to expand and enhance the functionality of their existing SAN infrastructure and easily provision SAN storage for NAS applications. Together, NetApp and Hitachi Data Systems are able to provide a best-in-class solution that helps customers integrate storage resources on their own terms, according to their own needs, and without compromise."

The HDS NetApp Enterprise NAS Gateway is a special-purpose NAS server that can attach directly or through a Fibre Channel SAN fabric to external Hitachi Freedom Storage systems rather than relying on in-the-server storage. The solution thus leverages customers' existing investments in enterprise-level storage and SAN infrastructures to provide scalable, high-performance file access services using inexpensive Ethernet connections. The resulting consolidation of storage maximizes flexibility in planning storage growth, improves storage utilization, and taps the full value of Hitachi Freedom Storage systems and management software. The result is reduced operational costs through vastly simplified enterprise data management, improved data protection, and greater disaster preparedness.

Availability

The products within the HDS NetApp Enterprise NAS Gateway are included in the gFiler series. The GF940 and GF960 (and clustered versions) scale in capacity to 48TB, attach to the Hitachi Freedom Storage Lightning 9900(TM) V Series systems and are available immediately. The GF825 and clustered version of the GF825 scale in capacity to 6TB, attach to Thunder 9500(TM) V Series systems, and will be available June 30, 2003.

Customers choose the Hitachi/Network Appliance Solution

Phillips Medical Systems

Philips Medical Systems, manufacturer of advanced X-ray equipment, MRI and CT scanners, already familiar with Network Appliance technology, chose an Hitachi Lightning 9970V in combination with a NetApp FAS940c because of its reliability, scalability and SAN/NAS connectivity.

"The outstanding performance and ease of installation were beyond our expectations," said Philips Medical Systems Unix systems manager Harry den Harink. "A first measurement showed the performance of the NAS solution to be 3 times faster than the current production environment. Also the cluster fail over set up and tests appeared to be very easy and functioned without noticeable interruption to the users."

Philips Medical Systems department of Medical IT believes this consolidated NAS/SAN environment is the right choice for further expansion of a reliable, manageable, scalable and high performance storage platform.

GRZ IT Center GmbH Austria

"At GRZ we are constantly looking for ways to make our storage infrastructure simpler, faster, and easier to manage," said Dr Hermann Sikora, Managing Director, GRZ IT Center GmbH Austria. "By using the Hitachi Data Systems/NetworkAppliance gateway, we can now maintain and manage all of our NetApp and Hitachi storage systems in a cohesive, consolidated environment."

Industry Endorsement for the HDS NetApp Enterprise NAS Gateway

Brocade

"As a longtime partner of both Hitachi Data Systems and Network Appliance, we share their commitment to creating storage environments that are simpler, more secure, and easier to manage," said Jay Kidd, Brocade Vice President of Product Marketing. "We're pleased to see them deliver a high-quality solution that allows customers consolidate SAN, NAS, and DAS islands into a common open storage pool under the HiCommand Management Framework."

Datalink

"More and more of our customers are demanding a way to get the most out of their storage networks. By bridging the gap between SAN and NAS with the Enterprise NAS Gateway, Hitachi Data Systems has given us the best-of-both worlds solution to bring to our customers," said Charlie Westling, vice president of market development, Datalink. "As a key channel partner for Hitachi Data Systems, we believe this will create new revenue growth for both our companies."

IDC

"Hitachi Data Systems has demonstrated their commitment to the NAS market with this new product," said John McArthur, Group Vice President, Worldwide Storage Research IDC. "By partnering with Network Appliance, a leader in the NAS market, they have produced a solution that allows customers to consolidate the management and support of their NAS and SAN environments."

McDATA

"Hitachi Data Systems and Network Appliance have taken a significant step toward the future of consolidated storage by building a robust connection between leading NAS and SAN environments. McDATA supports the use of NAS Gateways as the intelligent approach to SAN/NAS convergence, and this solution is interoperable with and can be optimized by a McDATA storage network," said Mike Gustafson, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, McDATA. "As a key partner of both companies, McDATA applauds their vision and is working with both companies to provide our mutual customers scalable, high-performance storage solutions."

RBC Capital Markets 

"Hitachi Data Systems is making a strong move to meet customer requirements for enterprise class file storage services based on common data center storage infrastructure," said Robert Montague, Managing Director, Systems Area Network Research, RBC Capital Markets. "The coupling of Network Appliance's leading NAS technology with Hitachi's high-performance Lightning RAID system should provide customers a strong offering, and support Hitachi's continued market penetration efforts."

About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems is committed to enabling organizations worldwide to exploit the full potential of information. By following and deploying our TrueNorth(TM) strategy, we provide customers with a broad range of storage solutions to simplify, protect and optimize their information infrastructures. Our offerings include centralized and distributed storage systems and software, professional services, complemented by best-of-breed products through channel partners and industry alliances.

With 2,700 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts business through direct and indirect channels in the public, government and private sectors in over 170 countries. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.hds.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 320,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2001 (ended March 31, 2002) consolidated sales totaled 7,994 billion yen ($60.1 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors, including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's Web site at http://global.hitachi.com.

Note to Editors: Hitachi Freedom Storage, HiCommand, Lightning 9900, Thunder 9500 and TrueNorth, are trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems.

NetApp is a registered trademark and Network Appliance and The evolution of storage are trademarks of Network Appliance, Inc.

(C) Hitachi Data Systems is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd.