Hitachi Makes Storage Virtualization History Shipping Over 4,500 Intelligent Virtual Storage Controllers Worldwide.

Hitachi Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller Continue Storage Virtualization Market Dominance; Generating Billions of Dollars in Sales

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Bolstering its high-end storage virtualization market leadership, Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), today announced that Hitachi, Ltd. has shipped more than 4,500 intelligent virtual storage controllers worldwide, outpacing competitors still attempting to gain a foothold in this critical market. By being the first and only major vendor to implement storage controller-based virtualization, Hitachi created a new category with its ability to provide advanced storage, data and content services for externally attached arrays.

"Hitachi's largest competitors have failed to adequately respond and there is now clear market validation with over 4,500 Universal Storage Platforms implemented to date," said Tony Asaro, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "As each day goes by, Hitachi gains greater insight, knowledge, experience, and customer footprint, and is becoming the leader in enterprise-class storage virtualization, while leveraging its flagship Universal Storage Platform solutions. It is a brilliant strategy and visionary in scope. The rules of the game are changing and Hitachi is well-positioned for the next generation."

The revolutionary Hitachi Universal Storage Platform and its rack-mounted variant, the Network Storage Controller, continue to represent the pinnacle of high-end, enterprise storage systems and large-scale storage virtualization solutions available in the industry today.

"Hitachi's flagship products Co the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller Co are also its virtualization products, unlike competitors who continue to rely on peripheral devices for their virtualization strategy. Clearly, Hitachi is the leader in storage virtualization in the industry today," said Brenda Peffer, vice president, Global Marketing, Hitachi Data Systems.

"Storage virtualization continues to be an IT imperative with the goal being better asset utilization, consistent, dynamic and scalable performance with easily tiered storage, availability and dynamic provisioning capabilities. Virtualization is an enabler for IT organizations to more effectively control and manage dramatic storage growth to meet today's ever challenging information requirements," said Carl Greiner, senior vice president and analyst, Ovum.

The Hitachi Universal Storage Platform continues to change the industry dynamics of data storage by powering an embedded virtualization layer capable of managing up to 32 petabytes of internal and external storage, logical partitions for the creation of secure Private Virtual Storage Machines, and sophisticated storage-agnostic remote copy that greatly simplifies business continuity Co driving continued market share gains that have positioned Hitachi at the forefront of storage virtualization.

"Hitachi is enabling customers to work with a safe, stable platform that they already trust and are familiar with Co an intelligent storage controller," said Hu Yoshida, chief technology officer, Hitachi Data Systems. "CIOs don't want to worry about another device and yet another layer of management sitting in the middle of the network in front of their storage systems. Network-based virtualization products' access to physical volumes is based on managing an extent level mapping table in a device on the network. These mapping tables create vendor lock-in and an exposure to losing data. In Hitachi's controller-based solution, external storage data is presented in cache for processing and then stored back so that the extent mapping is contained with the data on the external device and not in the network, which is the case with some vendors' virtualization appliances. In fact, Hitachi's solution has no dependence on the network and can support direct attach, mainframe attach, and LAN/WAN attach. Based on our superior design, we have provided our customers with a massively parallel storage controller architecture that enables virtualization by simply turning the feature on. It's really been a simple choice for our customers."

About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems leverages global R&D resources to develop storage solutions built on industry-leading technology with the performance, availability and scalability to maximize customers' ROI and minimize their risk. By focusing on the customer's perspective as we apply the best hardware, software, and services from Hitachi and our partners, we uniquely satisfy our customers' business needs. With approximately 3,200 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts business through direct and indirect channels in the public, government and private sectors in over 170 countries and regions. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at http://www.hds.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE:HIT) (TOKYO:6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 356,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2005 (ended March 31, 2006) consolidated sales totaled 9,464 billion yen ($80.9 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 website at http://www.hitachi.com.

[c] 2006, Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. Hitachi Data Systems is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd. Application Optimized Storage is a trademark of Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. All other trade names, trademarks, and service marks used herein are the rightful property of their respective owners.