Hitachi Data Systems Unveils Three-Tier Cloud Strategy

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) has announced the revamping of its cloud-based portfolio of services into a three-tiered strategy that aims to provide a single virtualisation platform for all data.

The pay-per-use services provide remotely managed private clouds for businesses, saving them from expensive storage area network upgrades as the volume of data increases. This convergence brings it line with competitors such as HP and builds on HDS’ recent acquisitions of BlueArc and ParaScale.

Three Clouds

The new HDS strategy is based around unifying three clouds – the infrastructure cloud, content cloud and information cloud – allowing organisations to create private clouds which use and process data more efficiently.

The infrastructure cloud unifies servers, storage and networking to provide a dynamic infrastructure and single platform for all data. This is achieved through Hitachi Cloud Services, which provide a fully managed, pay-per-use, cloud environment that allows organisations to offload the management of their data and reduce costs, or through the Hitachi Cloud Solution package for companies who want to build their own cloud.

The second component of this strategy is the content cloud which focuses on tools that aim to free data from applications, increasing its lifespan by allowing it to interact with other programs. HDS’ recent acquisition of BlueArc allows for a link between the infrastructure cloud and content cloud with automated movement of unstructured data.

Finally, the information cloud allows for the analysis of this data. Through the acquisition of ParaScale in 2010, HDS is able to provides tools that can process structured and unstructured data in a way that connects data sets to reveal patterns and assist organisations in sectors such as health, energy research and social infrastructure.

Jack Domme, CEO of Hitachi Data Systems said, “We realised early on the tremendous value that businesses could gain by putting disparate pieces of raw data onto a single platform where layers of intelligence could be wrapped around it.”

He continued, “Through both internal R&D as well as strategic acquisitions, we have built a portfolio that spans the storage, protection and accessibility of data, transforming it into actionable information and providing customers with a 360 degree view to tackle their toughest business challenges.”