Enterprise Customers to Benefit from Open, Standards-Based
Framework for Controlled Automation of Storage Management
NetWorld+Interop, Las Vegas, May 7, 2002 — With the goal of simplifying the complex management of storage resources, Hitachi Data Systems today announced that it has expanded its highly successful HiCommand device management product into the HiCommand™ Management Framework, an integrated software package for automating and simplifying the tasks performed by storage professionals. HiCommand provides a standards-based open and modular storage management framework into which Hitachi-developed software and independent software vendor (ISV) products can 'plug and play.'
"Our goal is to drive down the cost of storage management with an open and integrated architecture that gives customers access to the best products on the market," said Marlene Woodworth, vice president, general manager, Global Marketing and Operations. "The Hitachi TrueNorth™ vision and HiCommand Management Framework are designed to make even the most complex functions of storage management both easier to perform and less expensive. The HiCommand Management Framework will enable administrators to manage 10 to 20 times as much storage capacity as is currently possible with available tools."
The HiCommand Management Framework is fully compliant to emerging Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) open standards, including Common Information Model (CIM). It includes an open messaging bus based on an industry standard, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), that enables third-party products to participate.
"Customers will truly benefit from the freedom of choice that the HiCommand Management Framework offers," said Steve East, vice president, Storage Integration, Hitachi Data Systems. "The ISV community is already embracing the software and has been instrumental in providing innovative solutions within the storage management marketplace. With TrueNorth and HiCommand Management Framework they will continue to have the opportunity to do so. The HiCommand Management Framework will be populated with ISV offerings as well as our own, while ensuring that all components are integrated seamlessly."
The core component of HiCommand is a policy automation module that translates business rules into storage commands. This module automates many functions now carried out manually, thereby improving the productivity of storage professionals and driving down costs. The software framework includes modules from Hitachi as well as products developed by ISVs including data replication and recovery management, performance management and SAN topology management. The first component available is HiCommand Device Manager, formally known as HiCommand.
An integrated storage system manager, HiCommand Device Manager enables customers to configure, monitor, and tune via a single graphical user interface (GUI) over an IP connection device, allowing central management of Hitachi Freedom Storage™ systems and heterogeneous, storage platforms. HiCommand Device Manager supports the Hitachi Freedom Storage™ Lightning 9900™ V Series as well as Lightning 9900 and Thunder 9200™ systems, Sun StorEdge 9900 Series, and T3 arrays, making it the first device manager to fully support other vendor's products. HiCommand Device Manager is currently licensed in over 100 sites throughout the world.
"As the cost of managing storage systems typically runs $7 annually for every $1 spent on purchasing the equipment, HiCommand Management Framework will dramatically increase the productivity of storage administrators by simplifying and reducing the actions required to provision, access, backup, recover and manage ever increasing information storage requirements," Woodworth explained.
"Our relationship with Hitachi Data Systems extends our line of Sun StorEdge Complete Storage Solutions to the high-end data center and helps enable extreme consolidation for Sun's customers," said Jim Hebert, general manager, Network Storage, Sun Microsystems. "Hitachi's TrueNorth effort compliments Sun's Storage ONE initiative. Together we are working toward the same common customer-friendly vision of driving open industry standards for storage management."
HiCommand APIs will remain open and available to all ISV software vendors enrolled in Hitachi Data Systems' ISV Developer's Program, ensuring open access to the array through any participating ISV's product. To date, over 50 ISVs have access to the HiCommand APIs, and several companies, including BMC, InterSAN and TrueSAN, today have products integrated with the HiCommand Device Manager.
"BMC Software's PATROL® is already integrated with HiCommand Device Manager to provide enhanced storage management and monitoring of enterprise storage systems, and now supports the new Hitachi Freedom Lightning 9900 V Series," said Helmuth Klemm, vice president, Enterprise Storage Management, BMC Software. "Because the HiCommand Management Framework was designed as an open framework, it allows us to seamlessly integrate solutions like PATROL with HiCommand. We will continue to work with Hitachi Data Systems to provide solutions supporting a wide range of Hitachi devices."
"As an early adopter of the Hitachi HiCommand Storage Management Framework APIs, CreekPath Systems has enjoyed a strong and fruitful relationship with Hitachi Data Systems," said Mike Koclanes, CTO and Founder , CreekPath Systems. "We continue to support the HiCommand environment, and are proud to participate in Hitachi's TrueNorth, a truly strategic vision of open and collaborative storage solutions that will meet the needs of enterprise customers. By participating in Hitachi's TrueNorth vision, CreekPath System expands an incredible relationship with not only Hitachi, but with many program participants to enable CreekPath to continue providing heterogeneous policy-based, process driven storage management."
HiCommand Device Manager is available today. Other HiCommand Management Framework modules will be announced throughout 2002 and early 2003. The framework will be fully populated by both Hitachi and ISV partner products. Hitachi Data Systems will provide HiCommand Device Manager to all customers who have licensed previous versions of HiCommand and are under product maintenance.
Hitachi Data Systems, the fastest growing enterprise storage provider, is a leading supplier of storage hardware, software, solutions and services. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), Japan's largest electronics company, Hitachi Data Systems is committed to providing the storage infrastructure for the world's most information-intensive corporations. With 2,600 employees, Hitachi Data Systems does business through direct sales and resellers in the public and private sectors in 170 countries and regions on six continents. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at http://www.hds.com/.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 2001 (ended March 31, 2002) consolidated sales of 7,993.7 billion yen ($60.1 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 www.hitachi.com.
Contacts: PR
Jodi Reinman, Hitachi Data Systems, (408) 970.1050, jodi.reinman@hds.com
At an exchange rate of 133 yen to the dollar.
Freedom Storage, Lightning 9900, and HiCommand are trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems. BMC Software, the BMC Software logos, and all other BMC Software product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of BMC Software, Inc.
Newsroom
