Hitachi Data Systems and APTARE Enter Global Partnership to Deliver Optimized Backup Resource Management Software

Business Wire, April 7, 2005

SANTA CLARA, Calif. & CAMPBELL, Calif. -- Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), and APTARE, Inc., a leading provider and pioneer of heterogeneous backup resource management software, today announced a global partnership that will help IT departments more effectively manage their data protection environments. Under the agreement, Hitachi Data Systems will leverage the APTARE StorageConsole Suite to deliver its Hitachi HiCommand Backup Services Manager software later this year. APTARE functionality will help Hitachi Data Systems customers report on and manage complex backup and recovery environments, enhancing predictive analysis and problem resolution within enterprise data infrastructures.

The inability to validate the success of backups is a top data protection concern in today's IT environment. A recent Enterprise Strategy Group study(1) revealed that storage administrators have a lack of visibility into backup environments and therefore find themselves spending unnecessarily large amounts of time and labor managing the backup process. In addition, 50 percent of survey respondents said their data was not adequately protected and 23 percent said they could not validate if a backup was successful until they tried to recover it. The Enterprise Storage Group also found up to a staggering 60 percent of backups do not properly execute in typical network environments, therefore concluding that data backup will be the single largest operational problem IT organizations face over the next several years.

APTARE technology will help Hitachi Data Systems' end-users ensure their organizations' critical data assets are adequately protected and available. The forthcoming HiCommand Backup Services Manager software will simplify the task of backup reporting and monitoring and enable customers to avoid data loss through advanced forecasting and analysis capabilities, ultimately reducing the pain and risk of the tape backup and restore process. The technology is one of the latest elements of Hitachi Data Systems' Application Optimized Storage(TM) solutions, launched in May 2004, that enable customers to precisely match business application requirements to Hitachi storage system attributes -- such as cost, performance, and data protection -- through leveraging the HiCommand Storage Area Management Suite.

"By partnering with APTARE, we will be able to offer our worldwide customer base the best available backup and recovery resource management solution on the market," said Jack Domme, vice president, Storage Management Software, Hitachi Data Systems. "APTARE's technology integrates nicely with our HiCommand Storage Management Software suite and further strengthens our ability to provide customers with Application Optimized Storage solutions. This partnership will also offer our customers a cost effective solution to address the complex legislation requirements for business continuity planning, data protection and privacy."

APTARE is leading an evolution of portal-based storage management tools to centralize, visualize, and simplify the management of complex enterprise data protection environments. Today, more enterprises are choosing APTARE as the de-facto standard for heterogeneous pro-active and early warning system-based management of complex backup and recovery environments. With its patented technology for analyzing and proactive reporting of backup and recovery systems, down to the file level, APTARE can forecast, analyze, and predict imminent threats to protect critical corporate data assets and enhance the power and control provided for different user groups throughout the storage utility.

"Partnering with Hitachi Data Systems will greatly extend our reach and help us deliver a new generation of proactive portal based storage management solutions," said Richard Clark, President and CEO, APTARE. "IT management and storage administrators will now have the ability to provide real-time visibility into the heartbeat of their backup and recovery environment. With a rich set of role-based personalized views, CIOs will be empowered with single pane-of-glass dashboards of their entire enterprise data protection status; storage administrators will be provided with detailed, predictive analysis tools with drill-down to the file level; and end-users can securely initiate and track their own data recovery."

About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems leverages global R&D resources to develop storage solutions built on industry-leading technology with the performance, availability and scalability to maximize customers' ROI and minimize their risk. By focusing on the customer's perspective as we apply the best hardware, software, and services from Hitachi and our partners, we uniquely satisfy our customers' business needs.

With 2,900 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts business through direct and indirect channels in the public, government and private sectors in over 170 countries. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.hds.com.