Microsoft's Pre-tested and Validated Trusted Solution Platform (TSP) for Exchange and SQL Server Delivers Superior Availability and Performance; Reduces Risk, Complexity, and Cost; Simplifies Support
San Francisco, California, 26 September, 2000 — With today's announcement of Microsoft's Trusted Solution Platform (TSP) at its Enterprise 2000 event here, Hitachi Data Systems has become the world's only storage provider selected to date for use in this new high-availability environment for enterprise e-mail and database applications. Enterprise 2000 servers establish the foundation on which future applications will be built to implement Microsoft's.NET strategy.
TSP is a packaged combination of hardware, software, services, and support jointly developed by Microsoft, Hitachi Data Systems, and McDATA Corp. It is designed to deliver high availability, enhanced scalability, and reduced total cost of ownership for Microsoft® Exchange 5.5 and SQL Server 7.0 applications running in Windows® 2000 Advanced Server environments. All elements of TSP are tested and qualified for interoperability and scalability, and are delivered ready for operation in the customer's environment.
"Hitachi Freedom Storage is perfectly suited for use in any solution aimed at high availability and scalability," said Chris Henderson, Hitachi Data Systems vice president of high-availability solutions. "Its selection as the storage component for TSP provides outstanding value to customers running two of the world's most important applications for business productivity. With Microsoft, McDATA, and Hitachi teamed to deliver TSP, customers can have confidence in an extremely robust environment for their fast-growing Exchange and SQL Server populations."
TSP links Windows 2000 Advanced Server Edition clusters with Hitachi's Freedom Storage™ Lightning 9900™ system and McDATA's ED-5000 Enterprise Class Director™, allowing customers to expand their TSP infrastructures smoothly, economically, and with minimal disruption. (All Hitachi Freedom Storage products, including the Lightning 9900, the 7700E, and the 5800 models, have been certified by Microsoft for operation with Windows NT® 4.0 and Windows 2000 operating systems.)
TSP overcomes the scalability and availability limitations of conventional network, server, and storage technologies while reducing operational cost through massive consolidation. It is tuned for optimized performance in an environment of clustered servers and takes advantage of the increased bandwidth inherent in Storage Area Networks (SANs) for moving data at high speed between storage and servers.
"Microsoft and its partners are listening to their customers," said Dan Tanner, Senior Analyst, Storage and Storage Management, Aberdeen Group. The timing is right for a high availability solution for Exchange and SQL Server. Large organizations with hundreds of thousands of Exchange users are ready to step up to a more scalable, more robust environment. Microsoft, Hitachi Data Systems, and McDATA propose to deliver aspirin for their customers' IT headaches."
"The TSP announcement is a big step for Microsoft," said David Hill, Research Director, Storage and Storage Management, Aberdeen Group. "With large enterprises having as many as 500,000 Exchange users, the need for a powerful, high availability storage solution has never been greater. Partnering with quality vendors such as Hitachi Data Systems and McDATA, Microsoft presents an industrial-strength offering designed to reduce TCO and improve scalability in Windows 2000 environments."
"The TSP offering will bring much needed high availability to large enterprises running Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server in a Windows 2000 Advanced Server environment," said Mike Kahn, Chairman of The Clipper Group, Inc., technology acquisition consultants in Wellesley, Mass. "With this offering, Microsoft and its partners have paid close attention to the customers' need for a quality solution. Bravo!"
"Microsoft is now delivering a solution that meets the mission-critical demands of enterprise environments," said Carolyn DiCenzo, Chief Analyst, Storage Software Management, Dataquest. "TSP represents Microsoft's commitment to work with established, data center-proven partners like Hitachi Data Systems and McDATA to provide high availability solutions for enterprise customers that are fully tested and supported for individual IT environments."
"The bottom line is that SQL Server and Exchange are absolutely mission critical applications. This partnership takes the necessary steps to move these apps from the mid-tier to the very highest caliber data center. This is mainframe class, bullet-proof infrastructure for mainstream applications," said Steve Duplessie, Sr. Analyst, The Enterprise Storage Group.
"Microsoft is now ready to take on the enterprise," said Jack Scott, Managing Partner of Evaluator Group, Inc., a Denver based disk storage research and analysis firm. "By partnering with data center-proven vendors like Hitachi Data Systems and McDATA, Microsoft has delivered an enterprise-class, data center-ready storage solution that meets the high- availability demands of the world's largest Exchange and SQL Server users, enabling them to take full advantage of Windows 2000 Advanced Server environments."
"This is the first time Microsoft is stepping up to the plate for the enterprise storage customer," said John Webster, Senior Analyst and IT Advisor, Illuminata. "The company's ability to team up with enterprise-class 'big iron' vendors like Hitachi Data Systems and McDATA to develop a scalable and highly available storage solution for Exchange and SQL Server demonstrates a serious focus by Microsoft on enterprise computing."
"Microsoft needed enterprise-class partners in order to deliver enterprise-class availability for Exchange and SQL applications," said John McArthur, Vice President of Storage Research at IDC. "McDATA and HDS understand the needs of the enterprise, because they've lived in the data center and the data center is the heartbeat of today's technology-enabled company."
"For companies with an extensive reliance on Exchange and SQL Server applications, TSP meets an urgent requirement for enterprise-class high availability," said Carl Greiner, Vice President & Director of Enterprise Data Center Strategies at META Group.
"This three-way partnership brings a solution to bear that resolves a specific operating pain both in and beyond the enterprise," said William P. Hurley, Program Manager, E-Networks & Broadband Access, The Yankee Group. "The pain is corporate e-mail systems, particularly Microsoft Exchange. As these systems have become central business operations, a new manner of architecting highly reliable solutions has become necessary. TPS is such a solution."
Committed to helping customers exploit the value of information technology for success in the Internet economy, Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), is a leading provider of business solutions for the world's most information-intensive corporations. For further information on Hitachi Data Systems, access http://www.hds.com.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 1999 (ended March 31, 2000) consolidated sales of 8,001 billion yen ($75.5 billion). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://www.hitachi.co.jp.
1 At an exchange rate of 106 yen to the dollar.
Contacts: PR
Media Contact: Bob Neudecker, 408-970-4450, bob.neudecker@hds.com
Microsoft, Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Enterprise Class Director is a trademark of McDATA Corporation. 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 Lightning 9900 are trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems.
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