Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) has announced plans to help customers address regulatory compliance and data management requirements through strategic enhancements to its Hitachi Lightning 9900 V Series of enterprise storage systems.
The storage vendor also announced software products that enable customers to deploy multi-tiered storage configurations and build robust business continuity platforms.
"Companies are understandably concerned about the impact of globally emerging data regulations," says Fanie van Rensburg, MD, Shoden Data Systems. "Hitachi's product enhancements represent important steps in its plans to assist customers address critical business requirements while creating fully compliant data environments."
The storage vendor has addressed three areas of concern - data retention, business continuity and consolidation - in its quest to provide fully compliant storage solutions.
"Regulatory preservation of data is achieved through the availability of an open systems version of HDS's LDEV Guard data retention manager," explains Van Rensburg. "It is fully integrated into all Lightning 9900 V Series storage systems and allows customers to preserve and protect sensitive enterprise information."
Functioning as a WORM (Write Once Read Many), Open LDEV Guard enables immutable record retention. Once data has been written, it can be retrieved and read by authorised applications, but not altered or deleted, for the mandated retention period - a function not integrated into any other vendor's storage offering.
"Another important consideration in meeting regulatory requirements is the ability to comply with the terms of resumption of service agreements," he comments. "Rapid resumption of service (SLAs) is increasingly mandated by industry and government organisations. As part of its announcements, Hitachi has introduced Three Data Centre Copy, which provides secure, rapid resumption of service, regardless of the scope of disaster or incident."
Three Data Centre Copy is implemented for mainframe environments using Hitachi CopyCentral, which automates centralised enterprise-wide management of Hitachi TrueCopy and ShadowImage software through a single, consistent management interface.
Additionally, the introduction of eCopy provides server-less backup between the Lightning 9900V and a variety of supported tape drives. "By leveraging ShadowImage technology, server overheads typically associated with backup are eliminated," says Van Rensburg.
In terms of maximum cache capacity, the Lightning 9900V Series has doubled from 64GB to 128GB. Control memory has doubled from 3GB to 6GB (in the system's Hi-Star architecture), and non-disruptive field upgrade capabilities have been provided - all with the aim to reduce TCO and improve ROI.
Finally, to help mainframe customers further consolidate their storage environments, Hitachi has announced a 50% increase in ESCON connectivity to 48 ports.
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With offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town, Shoden Data Systems (Pty) Ltd is the sole distributor for Hitachi Data Systems in SA. In addition, Shoden Data Systems is the sole distributor of INRANGE Technologies Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of Channel Extenders, Fibre Channel and ESCON/FICON directors. Shoden Data Systems is also a Veritas Premier Partner, providing integrated, managed, best-of-breed storage area network solutions to the marketplace, as well as a distributor of VMware, virtual machine software for Intel-based systems. Based on more than 200 collective years of experience in the service, support and marketing of Hitachi products, Shoden Data Systems uses its intellectual capital and industry leading products to provide customers with total solutions in the storage, enterprise servers and connectivity arenas. The following offerings are available:
1. Storage - the HDS Freedom storage range, including Lightning 9900 and 9500.
2. Connectivity - the Inrange FC/9000 Fibre Channel/ FICON Director, ESCON Directors and Channel Extenders.
3. Servers - Fujitsu Siemens PrimePower range of servers.
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 maximise customers' ROI and minimise 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 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.eu.hds.com.
Hitachi, Ltd
Hitachi, Ltd (NYSE: HIT), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 340 000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2002 (ended 31 March 2003) consolidated sales totalled 8,191.7 billion yen ($68.3 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://www.hitachi.com.
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