Hitachi Data Systems Expands Lead in Enterprise Storage With Introduction of Lightning 9900 V Series

Business Wire, May 7, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

NetWorld Interop 2002 Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 7, 2002

Storage Systems Based on Second Generation Hi-Star Switched Architecture Deliver Massive Consolidation for Simplified Infrastructures, Protection for Critical Information, Optimized Resource Utilization, Reduced Total Cost of Ownership and a More Rapid ROI

Hitachi Data Systems, the world's fastest growing enterprise storage provider, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), today announced Hitachi Freedom Storage(TM) Lightning 9900(TM) V Series, its second generation of intelligent storage systems based on the Hi-Star(TM) switched architecture. With built-in virtualization-assist features, extensible support for connectivity options, and triple the bandwidth of its predecessor, the Lightning 9900 V Series provides enterprise storage customers with new levels of consolidation possibilities, complete protection of mission-critical data, and better optimization of resources to achieve reduced total cost of ownership, and a more rapid return on investment.

"The introduction of the new Lightning 9900 V Series, as part of our TrueNorth strategy, signals the beginning of a new era for enterprise storage data management," said Dave Roberson, president and COO, Hitachi Data Systems. "By exploiting the power of intelligent storage to simplify information management, the Lightning 9900 V Series offers our enterprise storage customers what they require to be successful in today's global economy -- a truly scalable storage architecture that is simple to use and manage, that complements our new HiCommand Management Framework."

The Lightning 9900 V Series provides breakthrough simplicity through intelligent pooling of heterogeneous server platform data. Offering true scalability with up to 75TB of raw capacity, the Lightning 9900 V Series features the second-generation Hi-Star switched architecture, which delivers unparalleled bottleneck-free performance with nearly three times the aggregate bandwidth and twice the cache of the first generation Lightning 9900 Series. By simplifying and consolidating storage management, the Lightning 9900 V Series allows Hitachi's enterprise customers to build the storage network that best suits their needs while reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) and delivering a more rapid ROI.

"Hitachi Data Systems has eclipsed its own best-in-class Lightning 9900 performance with the V series," said Steve Duplessie, founder and senior analyst, Enterprise Storage Group. "As storage performance once again becomes the bottleneck of the future, it's nice to know that HDS has already solved the problem. Being part of one of the world's largest R&D organizations (Hitachi) clearly has its benefits."

The Lightning 9900 V Series offers broad capabilities that allow for massive consolidation, extreme bandwidth, and native connectivity/protocol options. Two models are available in the series:

-- Lightning 9970V. The single-cabinet Lightning 9970V features all the architectural advantages, speed, reliability, and advanced software functions of the Lightning 9900 V Series. This highly cost-effective system is ideal for strategic deployment in a smaller footprint that scales up to 9TB of raw capacity. The Lightning 9970V is designed to support specific mission-critical applications and smaller-scale consolidation.

-- Lightning 9980V. The performance and scalability of the multi-cabinet Lightning 9980V enables customers to consolidate vast amounts of storage across open systems and mainframe servers. Multiple storage systems from multiple vendors can be consolidated into just one Lightning 9980V to pool storage resources and enable information sharing across disparate platforms, dramatically lowering IT costs and extending capital investment.

"We chose to install Hitachi Data Systems' Lightning 9900 V Series because we were seeking a comprehensive storage platform, complete with powerful management software and an intelligent hardware infrastructure," said Randy Overbey, Senior Vice President, Northern Trust. "The broad capabilities of this storage system have allowed us to consolidate and simplify our diverse infrastructure -- leading to better performance and a lower total cost of ownership."

"With this new product, Sun is delivering reduced total cost of ownership and extreme data consolidation solutions to enterprise customers," said Bill Cook, vice president of sales, Sun Microsystems. "We're seeing enormous excitement and opportunities and delivering some serious heartburn to the folks in Hopkinton."

Virtualization-Enabled to Reduce Management Complexity

The new Lightning 9900V Series systems feature a virtualization assist layer to ease storage management complexity and better utilize resources. This virtualization layer offers the ability to mix heterogeneous servers on a single port and provide security to the Logical Unit (LUN) level. The Hitachi virtualization assist layer is comprised of three key elements that strategically clear the way for simplified management and massive consolidation: