Sydney, 08 July 2003: TAB Limited, one of Australia's largest wagering companies, has substantially broadened its technology infrastructure with the purchase of a state-of-the-art storage and connectivity solution from Hitachi Data Systems, the leaders in the enterprise storage market.
TAB has acquired two Lightning 9980™Vs, Hitachi Data Systems' most advanced hardware, and a SAN fabric made up of Cisco's brand new 9216 fibre channel switches. The new system has been installed in separate data centres in Sydney to support TAB's two mainframes, 20 mid-range servers and 300 smaller servers supporting 800 — 900 PC desktops.
TAB takes an innovative stance on customer service, having recently introduced new facilities via the Internet, speech recognition and other voice functionality, but these were placing pressure on its existing back-end systems. To ensure TAB could better support its new service offerings and drive future business growth, it was essential for the company to introduce the best storage technology available.
With its unique sales environment based on high-volume transactions, TAB's success is directly linked to the availability, efficiency and security of its systems. Upon investigation, TAB found it would be more economical and reliable to overhaul its systems rather than build upon the existing storage technology.
Ken Doughty, Chief Information Officer, TAB Limited said: "We were looking for a system to support both our mainframes, and our family of open systems which was driving much of the need for increased storage. With a technology environment characterised by exponential growth and a prevalent number of disparate systems, centralising the storage allowed us to gain improved control over our entire environment.
"We choose Hitachi Data Systems as it provided us with the best technology solution, at a competitive price, which will allow us to grow with this technology. "
Michael Cremen, Managing Director, Australian / New Zealand, Hitachi Data Systems said, "It is safe to say this is a leading edge implementation. The consolidation principle of SANs has been talked about for quite a few years but not many are actually using the technology on such a scale to achieve these results. TAB prudently identified its business drivers prior to making a technology decision, and yet was enterprising enough to embrace new technology to meet its needs. The careful planning the company undertook in conjunction with Hitachi Data Systems has ensured this has been a very successful rollout".
The deal also illustrates Hitachi Data Systems' commitment to its new technology partner Cisco. The TAB rollout denotes one of the first Australian purchases of the new Cisco switches.
Gerard Lithgow, Cisco Australia and New Zealand Director of Storage Area Networking, said; "Cisco's approach to Storage Area Networking is based on the belief that centralising data management makes financial sense, because it reduces complexity and increases the visibility of real time data. Cisco's heritage in networking and our strong relationships with our partners means that organisations can work us to most effectively design and deploy their data management infrastructure.
In May 2002, Hitachi Data Systems launched its high-end Lightning 9900V series, a new line of enterprise-class storage hardware, as a first step in it's TrueNorth™ strategy for open information management. Within six months, Hitachi Data Systems took number one position in market share in the enterprise storage arena. With enhancements to the Lightning 9900V series announced in January 2003, the company has continued to lead the industry in the superiority of its technology.
Hitachi Data Systems enables organisations worldwide to exploit the full potential of information. Adhering to our TrueNorth™ vision and strategy, we provide customers with a broad range of storage solutions to simplify, protect and optimise their information infrastructures. Our offerings include centralised and distributed storage solutions complemented by best-of-breed products from channel partners and industry alliances.
With 2,700 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts business through direct and indirect channels in the public, government and private sectors in over 170 countries and regions. Our 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 ($US60.1 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
TAB Limited is an Australian-based provider of entertainment services specialising in Wagering, Media and Gaming. The company, privatised in 1998, grew out of a NSW Government agency established in 1964. The company conducts a broad range of Wagering services under its RaceTAB and SportsTAB banners, owns Sky Channel - a satellite television service, the 2KY 1017 AM radio network, and a Gaming business that incorporates maxgaming and Data Monitoring Services (DMS).
Cisco Systems is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. See http://www.cisco.com for further information.
Media Contacts:
Caroline Hendra, McGregors International (Hitachi Data Systems)
Phone: 02 9904 0666, Email:caroline.hendra@mcgregors.com.au
Heidi Osbourne, Love Communications (Cisco Systems)
Phone:02 9362 8533 , Email:heidi@lovecommunications.com.au
Cisco is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. (Cisco®). All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners
Freedom Storage, Lightning 9900 is a trademark of Hitachi Data Systems. © 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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