According to local distributor, Shoden Data Systems, Hitachi Data Systems has announced a full-scale product assault on the network-attached storage (NAS) market, signalling the introduction of multiple new NAS products spanning the high-end enterprise to the SMB markets.
HDS begins its aggressive NAS product roll-out in 2005 with the introduction of next-generation embedded NAS Blades for the TagmaStore Universal Storage Platform (USP) products which, at introduction, will sell for a third of the price of comparable NAS gateways and filers.
With the newly introduced NAS Blades, Hitachi will focus on capturing new NAS gateway and filer sales opportunities, and on consolidating all existing NAS gateways and filers in an enterprise environment.
Fanie van Rensburg, MD of Shoden Data Systems, says: "A single NAS Blade enables consolidation of multiple NAS filers and large NAS workloads, and reduces the cost and headaches of procuring and managing dozens of islands of file servers or NAS filer appliances."
He continues: "As IDC forecasts the NAS market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14.7%, reaching $3.089 billion by 2008, the price/performance metrics of the new NAS Blade represent a significant opportunity to aggressively take market share from established NAS vendors."
"Offering a NAS blade in the USP is a smart move," says Tony Asaro, senior analyst for Enterprise Strategy Group. "HDS customers now have SAN and NAS storage in a single system that leverages the value of the USP including its scalability, reliability, data protection and virtualisation capabilities. For USP customers, the HDS NAS blade should be a no-brainer. For customers evaluating the USP, the combination of SAN and NAS makes it an even more compelling solution."
"Customers are increasingly looking for solutions that deliver block and file services from a centrally managed pool of storage resources," comments John McArthur, group VP and GM of Information Infrastructure Research at IDC. "This solution enables SAN and NAS to coexist within a single, highly scalable, centrally managed storage system, leveraging an embedded NAS blade architecture."
Customers can create tiered storage environments by moving NAS data to any storage system attached to the USP and integrate management of all SAN and NAS resources, with a single point of management for all data classes (NAS, FC, SATA, ATA, ESCON and FICON).
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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.
Shoden Data Systems also has strategic agreements with CNT - a provider of storage networking solutions, products and services - and is a reseller of Fujitsu Siemens Computers. In addition, the company is a Veritas Premier Partner, providing integrated, managed, best-of-breed storage area network solutions to the marketplace, and also distributes 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 - HDS Freedom storage range, including the enterprise-level Lightning 9900 series and the modular Thunder 9500 series
2. Connectivity - CNT and Brocade
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% 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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