Hitachi Data Systems Wins Award for ''Developing ROI and Business Case Support for Storage Area Networks''

Business Wire, June 27, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

Company Honored in The Bitpipe Second Annual White Paper

Awards, Co-sponsored by PR Newswire, InformationWeek,

Network Computing, ZDNetUK and IT World Canada

Hitachi Data Systems, the world's fastest growing enterprise storage provider and a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), will be honored in "The Second Annual White Paper Awards," produced by Bitpipe, the leading syndicator of in-depth information technology content, and co-sponsored by PR Newswire, InformationWeek, Network Computing, ZDNet UK and IT World Canada. The award will be presented at a special "White Paper Warehouse" event in Toronto, Canada on June 26.

"The purpose of this award is to recognize the diligence, effort, and creativity of IT companies in producing white papers, and highlight their value to the IT community," said Jay Habegger, CEO of Bitpipe. "Hitachi Data Systems' white paper -- 'Developing Return on Investment and Business Case Support for Storage Area Networks' -- was selected on the basis of its contribution to the networking category."

Award entries were judged by a panel of editors and analysts from several leading IT analysts and publications and recognize excellence in technical writing in the fields of Computer Hardware, Software, Networking and Telecommunications and Services. White papers were judged on the basis of editorial quality, format and presentation, and end user utility. Winning papers will receive promotion and recognition in the IT community, including special listings on sponsor Web sites.

"We believe that this award validates the importance of educating the IT community not only on product features and functionality, but also on the practical business aspects of implementing new storage solutions," commented Scott Genereux, vice president, Global Marketing at Hitachi Data Systems. "We are honored by the recognition, and excited by the opportunity to spread the word about how to define SAN strategies from an economic and business perspective. I would like to extend congratulations to David Merrill, the author of the white paper."

The award-winning white paper from Hitachi Data Systems describes return on investment (ROI) opportunities directly tied to storage area networks (SAN) and pooled storage architectures. Twenty-nine unique ROI modeling cases are outlined in the paper, including empirical data references that can be used in building business case justifications for SAN implementations. The paper and ROI methodology are the foundation element for HiReturn(TM), a new pre-sales service offering from Hitachi Data Systems to help customers determine ROI for storage purposes

"Developing Return on Investment and Business Case Support for Storage Area Networks" can be found at http://www.hds.com/pdf/3SAN_ROI_Wht_Ppr.pdf

About Bitpipe

Bitpipe distributes content from over 3,500 leading IT vendors and over 60 top analyst firms including Gartner, IDC, Aberdeen Group, Meta Group, and Yankee Group via the Bitpipe Network. The Bitpipe Network reaches over 21.7 million unique visitors through agreements with Yahoo!, CNET, ZDNet, InformationWeek, COMDEX, ITworld, Computerworld, TechRepublic and over 60 other leading IT and business-related websites.

About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems, the fastest growing enterprise storage provider, is a leading supplier of storage hardware, software, solutions and services. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), Japan's largest electronics company, HDS is committed to providing the storage infrastructure for the world's most information-intensive corporations. With 2,600 employees, Hitachi Data Systems does business through direct sales and resellers in the public and private sectors in 170 countries on six continents. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.hds.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 320,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2001 (ended March 31, 2002) consolidated sales totaled 7,994 billion yen ($60.1 billion(a)). 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://global.hitachi.com.

(a) At an exchange rate of 133 yen to the dollar.

Hitachi Data Systems is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark of (Hitachi, Ltd. Freedom Storage and Thunder 9200 are trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems.