Hitachi unveils cloud roadmap

Data Systems (HDS) has revealed a cloud strategy based around renting software and hardware to customers wanting to build private clouds, ZDNet reports.

The three-tiered pay-per-use scheme sees the company bring together three flavours of cloud software under one grand scheme for customers with HDS hardware who want to create their own private clouds.

The move adds a systems integrator element to HDS' hardware vendor strategy, bringing it closer to companies like IBM and HP.

"Ultimately, what customers want is to be able to pay for all of their technology, whether it's hardware or software or mixed, and leave the vendor or the services provider with all the technology challenges around delivering that," explains HDS' European CTO, Bob Plumridge.

Information Week says Hitachi is competing in an increasingly crowded field, and more vendors are offering cloud storage along with other cloud services to enterprises large and small.

The Hitachi Information Cloud includes an Information Cloud, a Content Cloud and an Infrastructure Cloud, and they use the Hitachi Content Platform and technology from its BlueArc NAS and Parascale acquisitions.

HDS claims the Infrastructure Cloud provides a single, virtualised platform for all data by converging virtualised server, storage and networking resources that can scale on demand, Channel Register states.