New e-mail archiving solutions - powered by IXOS software - designed for addressing increasing regulatory compliance requirements
STORAGE NETWORKING WORLD, ORLANDO, FLA. 27 October, 2003 - Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), today introduced solutions designed to help companies address the growing need to store and manage email and other unstructured content.
Delivered by the company's Global Solution Services (GSS) division, HDS today announced two e-mail archiving solutions, the Message Archive for Compliance, which enables companies to retain an unalterable archive of e-mail and instant messages for the fixed period of time mandated by SEC 17a4, Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel II and other regulatory requirements, and the Message Archive for E-Mail, which removes size-limits from user e-mail boxes. As part of today's news, HDS also announced the Archival Policy Design Service to help customers institute policies that remove the challenge of administering burgeoning e-mail infrastructures and satisfy e-mail-specific regulations.
IDC forecasts that the total number of e-mails sent daily worldwide is growing from 9.7 billion in 2000 to 35 billion in 2005. The increasing growth of unstructured content — including e-mail, instant messages, documents, and images — will soon outstrip the storage requirements of traditional structured data. The requirements for managing these content types differ from structured data, where increased demand can be addressed by simply adding more storage capacity to existing data centers. By contrast, managing unstructured content requires a new, solutions-based approach that addresses the regulatory compliance challenges facing customers.
"Hitachi Data Systems has taken a strategic look at integrating products and services to provide e-mail management today, and broader unstructured content capabilities in the future," said Ken Beaudry, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global Solution Services, Hitachi Data Systems. "HDS isn't asking customers to learn and manage a second, non-standard storage infrastructure. What we've come up with is unlike anything being described by others in the market — and the solutions GSS has designed can be extended to provide archive and retention for a wide range of content types and for specific vertical industries."
The Message Archive for Compliance solution enables companies to retain an unalterable archive of e-mail and instant messages for the fixed period of time mandated by key regulatory requirements. This solution is fully indexed and searchable, allowing companies to more efficiently respond to audits, discovery requests or other situations where prompt delivery of unaltered email is critical.
The Message Archive for E-mail removes difficult-to-administer e-mail inbox size limits. Administrators and end users can establish archival rules that migrate messages from primary to secondary storage yet preserve the client interface — making archived e-mail readily accessible, searchable, and retrievable.
Both e-mail archive solutions introduced today are built on the industry-leading Hitachi Lightning 9900™ V and Thunder 9500™ V Series storage systems and IXOS-eCONserver software (see separate press release) for message archiving.
The Message Archive for Compliance solution is integrated with the recently announced Hitachi Open LDEV Guard data retention manager software that provides disk-based WORM (Write Once Read Many) capabilities, and enables immutable record retention and the creation of compliant storage environments. Once data has been written, it can be retrieved and read by authorized applications, but not altered or deleted, for the mandated retention period — a function not integrated into any other vendor's storage offering. In addition, Open LDEV Guard properties are preserved through Hitachi ShadowImage™ in-system replication, Hitachi TrueCopy™ remote replication, or HiCopy cross-system replication between the Lightning 9900 V Series and Thunder 9500 V Series storage systems.
Through the new Archival Policy Design Service, GSS consults with customers to develop policies that address regulatory mandates concerning e-mail records.
"We've seen a dramatic increase in the need to store, index, preserve and retrieve unstructured content," said Ken Beaudry. "This has been especially true as new regulatory requirements are mandating that companies preserve and have access to records that cannot be altered. Besides the risk of incurring fines for non-compliance, the potential cost of legal discovery involving e-mail has been a primary concern given recent high-profile litigation. With the introduction of Hitachi's new e-mail archival solutions, customers have an answer to some of their most pressing business issues."
Hitachi Data Systems' recent enhancements to the Hitachi Thunder 9500™ V Series and Lightning 9900™ V Series product lines, as well as its introduction of new data lifecycle management solutions and storage management software offerings, accelerates its leadership position by providing:
IXOS SOFTWARE AG is a leading provider of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions. The IXOS offering ranges from solutions for the efficient management and display of web information, to optimization of business processes, to the secure, long-term archiving of all business documents in a dependable document repository. A global team of highly qualified consultants, combined with 24/7 support, complements the broad solution portfolio. Through its partnerships with leading international hardware and software providers and system integrators, IXOS ensures the implementation of innovative technologies and the availability of comprehensive industry-specific expertise. Its financial stability makes IXOS a dependable partner both now and in the distant future. In more than 3,000 installations spanning diverse industries, IXOS has helped companies reduce expenses, improve productivity, and enhance their competitiveness. More than 2 million users around the world enjoy the benefits of IXOS ECM solutions. IXOS SOFTWARE shares are traded in the TecDAX 30 Index of the Frankfurt, Germany stock exchange using the ticker symbol "XOS" (WKN 506150; ISIN: DE0005061501). In the U.S., American Depository Shares (ADSs) are traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange using the ticker symbol "XOSY".
Hitachi Data Systems leverages global R&D resources to develop storage solutions built on industry-leading technology with the performance, availability and scalability to maximize customers' ROI and minimize their risk. By focusing on the customer's perspective as we apply the best hardware, software, and services from Hitachi and our partners, we uniquely satisfy our customers' business needs.
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. 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. (NYSE: HIT), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 340,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2002 (ended March 31, 2003) consolidated sales totaled 8,191.7 billion yen ($68.3 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 http://global.hitachi.com.
Contacts:
Greg Peverill-Conti, Hitachi Data Systems, (617) 451-6070, gregpc@blancandotus.com
Marie-Charlotte Patterson, IXOS SOFTWARE AG, (610) 355-7490, marie-charlotte.patterson@ixos.com
Lightning 9900, Thunder 9500, TrueCopy, and ShadowImage are trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. All other trade names, trademarks, and service marks are the rightful property of their respective owners.
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