Hitachi Data Systems Analyst Day Continues
This is the second post from the Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) analyst event. Nearly all of the technical issues have been resolved. Power is now available at all of the analyst tables and the WiFi network is now working.
BlueArc Update
Mike Gustafson, SVP and GM Network Attached Storage
BlueArc was acquired by HDS in 2011. So, it is interesting to listen to a newcomer talk about the company. "Customer centric at scale information solutions" is how he described HDS. He points out how important a blueprint or path to the future is in today's dynamic environment.
Mike plans to present the marketplace and shared vision, BlueArc's position and growth plan, and what he sees as the company's product advantages.
- Marketplace
- Information and data is driving the world
- Very, very large data sets and millions of small files are driving industry change
- Hitachi now has integrated the entire stack allowing it to focus on solving problems of scale
- BlueArc is focused on delivering the most scalable file system to the market
- BlueArc position
- HDS and BlueArc have been partners for years and the integration has not caused unexpected things. It has made more resources available and that will allow accelerated product cycles and faster growth.
- Integration has meant that the company now has the ability to move from hardware to systems to complete solutions. This is allowing the development of vertical specific as well as horizontal solutions.
- The acquisition was made based upon growth and the development of the content cloud. They're projecting as much as a 40% compound annual growth rate.
- Product advantages
- Offering a scale up, scale out and scale deep (?) product strategy based upon a common product infrastructure.
Mike then presented a number of customer success stories.
Delivering on our Strategy
John Mansfield, SVP, Global Solutions Strategy and Development
John presented what they're doing that is supporting the company's growth and a discussion of what they're doing next.
- Launched the following products in 2011
- Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform
- Hitachi Command Suite
- Hitachi Data Ingestor
- Hitachi NAS Plaltform software V8
- Hitachi Compute Blade and Hitachi Compute Rack (converged solution is based upon blade only)
- VMware VAAI integration
- Cloud services and packaged solutions
- Shipped
- Shipped more than 2,000 systems
- 19,000 virtual controllers shipped since 2004
- Worldwide development
- U.S.
- U.K.
- Asia
Executive Panne
The HDS executives bravely allowed a room full of industry and financial analysts to ask questions at will. The topics ranged from asking HDS to compare its storage virtualization plans to those put forward by other suppliers to questions about the impact on HDS' business from the flooding in Thailand.
Of course, the HDS executives suggested that they had a technological lead on competitors. That being said, it appears to me that HDS' messages seem very much like IBM's from two years ago and EMC's from last year. The catch phrases used, of course, were different, but the concepts were the same.
HDS believes that there will be very little impact on their business this quarter and is carefully gaging the potential impact of product shortages. One executive said that HDS was watching the supply of each type of storage devices and was already in contact with its largest customers to advise them on which product orders would prevent an impact on their purchases. It was also mentioned that HDS' new storage virtualization products could optimize current storage usage and reduce or eliminate the need for new storage devices to be installed.
All-in-all, it was a lively and interesting panel.
Afternoon sessions
HDS customers are going to present their use of HDS' technology. If I hear anything unique and interesting, I'll let you know.