Hitachi Data Systems and CommVault sign worldwide distribution agreement.

Hitachi Data Systems and CommVault Systems, Inc., a provider of Unified Data Management solutions, has announced a worldwide distribution agreement whereby Hitachi Data Systems will offer co-branded QiNetix software as the "Hitachi Data Protection Suite, powered by CommVault," across all HDS world-wide market segments. The Hitachi Data Protection Suite will be integrated into the Hitachi Business Continuity Solutions framework, enabling customers to leverage the strength and synergy of CommVault's QiNetix product suite with HDS' powerful storage portfolio, to maximize data protection and reliability at reduced costs. Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, both parties may provide support, training and professional services to customers and will work together to add new products and features to current offerings.

This distribution agreement builds upon the companies' existing relationship and extends the parties' efforts to deliver joint solutions for non-disruptive backup. HDS based its partnership decision on CommVault's proven technology, product direction, flexibility and ability to execute. Integrating the QiNetix suite into HDS' existing data management portfolio delivers a unique and powerful solution that can be optimized to meet the specific needs of customers' applications, resulting in an extremely cost- effective and reliable way to manage data.

HDS' selection of CommVault QiNetix as its Hitachi Data Protection Suite was based on four key criteria: strength of industry-leading products, seamless scalability across multiple, heterogeneous market segments with a single code base; a single unified management interface, and CommVault's ability to embrace and extend Hitachi's software products and storage management framework.

For CommVault, the relationship extends their reach in the global enterprise storage space, facilitating faster growth by partnering with the industry leader in large-scale storage virtualization solutions.

"HDS' strategic direction is to provide storage management software that empowers Application Optimized Storage solutions," said Jack Domme, vice president, Storage Management Software, Hitachi Data Systems. "As a result, we need to offer a powerful set of management tools that's common across the entire Hitachi storage product line. Our partnership with CommVault, to seamlessly integrate Hitachi Data Protection Suite, complements our software suite of products and enables us to address the needs of the data protection market."

Bob Hammer, CommVault's Chairman and CEO said, "This agreement is a win for CommVault, HDS and our mutual customers. The integration of our QiNetix technology into HDS' storage software marries two industry-leading architectures into one seamless solution, greatly enhancing customers' application and data protection with a high-performance, easy-to-use solution."