The global alliance between Hitachi and Sun Microsystems will see Sun South Africa competing with EMC for the high-end market. Sun does not see usual rival Hewlett-Packard - another Hitachi partner - as its main competition for the storage market.
"We are looking at also selling [Hitachi products] into non-Sun markets," comments Stefano Mattiello, MD, Sun South Africa. "We`re making no bones about it - we want to take EMC out of the market." Sun will not re-badge Hitachi`s products.
Mattiello confirms that he is meeting with Hitachi and local Hitachi distributor, reseller and subsidiary Shoden Data Systems this week. Shoden MD Fannie van Rensburg confirms that he will be working with Sun`s local office to identify where the two companies can work together.
The deal allows Sun to complement its mid-range T3 network-attached storage product with a high-end direct attach storage and storage area network offering. Hitachi and Sun will cross-license and distribute one another`s storage software, and they intend to collaborate on the development of future storage software.
"This agreement enables us to augment the success of the Sun StorEdge T3 array in the midrange and the enterprise with the new Sun StorEdge 9900 series," comments Mark Canepa, executive VP, Sun network storage. "With the Sun Enterprise 10000 and the newly introduced MidFrame servers, we are now delivering open, end-to-end Sun systems into high-end glass house environments."
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