Sun Microsystems, Hitachi, HDS extend global relationship to deliver data centre storage solutions

Sun Microsystems, Hitachi, Ltd and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), recently announced that they have extended the terms of their global distributor agreements and related collaborative agreements for an additional two years, 12 months before the existing agreement was due for renewal.

The original agreement, signed in August 2001 and now extended through 2006, has enabled both companies to successfully deliver high-availability and high-performance end-to-end data centre solutions.

"This partnership is a win for Sun, HDS and Sun customers," says Mark Canepa, executive VP of Sun Network Storage. "We are able to solve critical customer problems such as data centre consolidation and application availability with a best of breed product. At the same time, we are able to deliver to our customers a fully tested and integrated end-to-end IT solution with a single service contract for support."

"Hitachi is pleased to extend our partnership with Sun, which has allowed us to expand our customer base as well as assert our leadership in data centre storage," adds Dave Roberson, president and COO of Hitachi Data Systems. "This agreement provides proof that both companies are committed to driving forward the concept that collaboration is vital in an industry where customers require open, interoperable, high-performance storage solutions from trusted vendors."

Since the original agreement, Sun has supplied more than five petabytes and 90 000 drives of Sun StorEdge 9900 series systems, based on the Hitachi Freedom Storage Lightning 9900 V Series platform. Market share for these products has grown from zero to almost 10% in less than 18 months (IDC, March 2003).

"We decided to upgrade and consolidate our data storage environment into two Sun StorEdge 9980s in order to realise greater efficiencies," comments Ken Karls, SAP Service Line Manager for Dow Corning. "Not only have we reduced the cost and complexity of our computing environment, but we have been very pleased by the seamless experience and continuous uptime during a migration that took place in only three weeks."

Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will extend their collaboration for hardware, software and services to seamlessly provide improved integration and ease of management in complex environments. Collaboration between the companies consists of marketing, sales support, services and joint customer support centres, in order to provide a better experience for customers in the form of management, interoperability and flexibility in the areas of business continuance and storage management. The extended agreement provides increased investment protection for customers as a result of the continued joint innovation.

"The Sun/Hitachi relationship has been a win for both companies, as well as Sun customers, who benefit from a world-class data centre offering," concludes Randy Kerns, partner, Evaluator Group. "In the end, Sun has gained competency and expertise in data centre storage as a result of this partnership, and can offer customers this solution as part of its own portfolio and as part of the Sun end-to-end infrastructure."