Worldwide Customers to Benefit from Global System Integration
Relationship with AGFA and Product Certification from FUJI
SANTA CLARA, California — December 3, 2002 — Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), today demonstrates its continuing commitment to serving the healthcare industry through relationships with two leading Picture Archive Communications Systems (PACS) providers for the healthcare market: AGFA Corporation and FUJI Medical Systems USA. These two PACS systems are certified with all current Hitachi Freedom Storage™ systems, including the new Thunder 9500™ V Series, a line of modular storage ideal for the high performance and high availability requirements of healthcare organizations.
"In this changing marketplace, there is a convergence of IT and medical applications that is underway," said Scott Genereux, vice president, Global Marketing and Business Development, Hitachi Data Systems. "To meet the requirements of this evolving technology environment, large scale healthcare providers need highly scalable, high-performance SAN solutions for their substantial digital archiving needs. We are pleased to join with leading healthcare PACS and informatics providers to deliver superior storage-based solutions that specifically address these requirements."
Today's announcement includes a Global Integrator Agreement with AGFA Corporation, whereby AGFA will provide Hitachi Freedom Storage solutions, backed by the support and services of Hitachi Data Systems, to its worldwide healthcare customers. Also, FUJI Medical Systems has validated Hitachi Freedom Storage solutions, guaranteeing their compatibility with FUJI Synapse PACS solutions.
These organizations need the ease of use and management, open systems compatibility, and versatility provided by a Hitachi Freedom Storage/PACS solution. Combining Hitachi Freedom Storage systems software and the HiCommand™ Management Framework with leading PACS solutions, healthcare providers will be able to consolidate and simplify their information infrastructures, protect their data with 24/7 availability and access, and optimize their storage resources to reduce total cost of ownership.
"The growth of medical digital images, such as MRIs, combined with compliance requirements from new government regulations, such as HIPAA, are driving storage demand among healthcare providers," said John McArthur, group vice president, Worldwide Storage Research, IDC. "These companies need scalable, secure storage solutions that can be easily integrated into existing infrastructures. Hitachi Data Systems' relationships with industry leading PACS vendors along with its commitment to open storage platforms places the company in a strong position as this market continues to grow."
"As a leading provider of Internet-based radiology services for healthcare providers, we have a strong understanding of the needs of the healthcare market," said John Lehman, president and CEO of INPHACT, Inc. "Hitachi Data Systems' TrueNorth commitment to open platforms makes its solutions ideal for the healthcare industry. The compatibility of Hitachi Freedom Storage with other systems gives healthcare providers the flexibility to manage disparate systems while keeping costs down. Our faith in the performance, reliability and availability of Hitachi Freedom Storage is why we use the 9900 series for our own storage, and as the storage foundation for the solutions we provide to our customers."
Hitachi Data Systems is committed to enabling organizations worldwide to exploit the full potential of information. By following and deploying our TrueNorth™ strategy, we provide customers with a broad range of storage solutions to simplify, protect and optimize their information infrastructures. Our offerings include enterprise and modular storage systems and software, professional services, fully complemented by best-of-breed products through industry alliances.
With 2,700 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts business through direct sales and resellers in the public, government and private sectors in over 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 www.hds.com.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 320,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2001 (ended March 31, 2002) consolidated sales totaled 7,994 billion yen ($60.1 billion*). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors, including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's Web site at www.hitachi.com.
*At an exchange rate of 133 yen to the dollar.
Contacts: PR
Jodi Reinman, Hitachi Data Systems, (408) 970-1050, jodi.reinman@hds.com
Hitachi Freedom Storage, Lightning 9900, Thunder 9500, Thunder 9200, HiCommand and TrueNorth are registered trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
© Hitachi Data Systems is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd.
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