Hitachi Announces Major Support for its New ISV Partner Program

Hitachi Data Systems Joins Forces with Leading Independent Software Vendors CA, Open Text and Symantec to Take Share in the Active Archive Market

GARTNER STORAGE SUMMIT 2006 KISSIMMEE, Fl.—June 12, 2006—Hitachi Data Systems, provider of Services Oriented Storage Solutions™ solutions and a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), today announced worldwide support for its new independent software vendor (ISV) partner program. The program offers key services to companies that develop software that is interoperable with Hitachi storage solutions, particularly the newly announced Hitachi Content Archive Platform.

"We are creating an ecosystem of ISV partners to deliver an integrated, best-of-breed portfolio of hardware and software components from the industry's leading vendors," said Jack Domme, senior vice president, Global Solutions Strategy and Development, Hitachi Data Systems. "With comprehensive interoperability testing and validation programs in place, we are demonstrating a strong commitment to our customers to deliver cost-effective storage solutions optimized with their applications that match their business environment and safeguard their data for the long term."

"The Hitachi Data Systems ISV Partner Program provides its customers and partners a valuable service in ensuring that hardware and software components have undergone intensive quality assurance and interoperability testing," said Janet Waxman, vice president, Hardware, Channels and Alliances, IDC. "The strong collaboration between Hitachi Data Systems and some of the leading software vendors will enable clients to obtain and optimize the functionality from each company's products, while reducing potential IT support costs."

Fortifying Hitachi's entrance into the active archive market today, Hitachi welcomes several new application, file system, enterprise content management, and database archiving partners into its ISV program. (See related press release announced today, "Hitachi Introduces 21st Century Digital Archive Solution.") The Hitachi Data Systems ISV Partner Program is structured to recognize partner investments in and contributions to delivering solutions that drive joint success. Hitachi ISV partners receive marketing and technical support resources which scale up based on program participation. There are three levels of ISV partner participation in the program: platinum, gold and silver.

Platinum Hitachi ISV partners include: CA, Open Text and Symantec.

Program Recognition
"IT organizations have to better align data storage with their business applications in order to control infrastructure costs, minimize risk and fulfill evolving compliance and legal discovery requirements," said Mike Gundling, vice president of product management at CA. "Our participation in Hitachi's ISV program and our support for their Content Archive Platform is designed to help customers meet this challenge with seamlessly integrated, best-in-class solutions."

"We look forward to working with Hitachi Data Systems to deliver advanced solutions that will help companies improve the way they manage and store documents, e-mails and other content, while reducing costs and compliance risks," said Joseph McLaughlin, senior vice president of Global Partners at Open Text. "We're committed to maintaining the integration of our enterprise content management solutions with the Hitachi Content Archive Platform so that our mutual customers will be able to reap the business benefits of our best-of-breed content archiving solutions."

"Organizations rely on Symantec Enterprise Vault not only to safely and cost-effectively retain content, but also to grant easy and rapid access to the content when needed for business or legal purposes," said Nick Mehta, senior director, product management, Symantec. "The ability to leverage enterprise quality storage infrastructures, such as those offered by Hitachi Data Systems, creates a powerful and dependable archiving offering for customers."

Other participating ISVs include: Alero Technology, Arkivio, CaminoSoft, CommVault, Enigma Data Solutions, Kazeon, Mimosa Systems, Princeton Softech, Scentric, Signiant and StoredIQ.

Program Highlights
The Hitachi ISV Partner Program offers partners:

• Marketing Support – Provides partners with jointly developed collateral such as customer case studies, datasheets, solutions briefs, and the opportunity to post information on the Hitachi Data Systems corporate web site
• Events and Webinars – Enables partners to participate in dedicated sales webinars and Hitachi Data Systems corporate and regional events
• Technical Training and Support – Offers partners technical support and alliance management, access to Hitachi Data Systems interoperability laboratories and a range of complimentary or discounted Hitachi Data Systems equipment for development/testing
• Technology Collaboration – Access to product roadmaps and provides partners an opportunity to collaborate on future product offerings

Program Availability
For more information about the Hitachi Data Systems ISV Partner Program or to apply for program membership, visit: http://www.hds.com/partners/

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 approximately 2,900 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 http://www.hds.com.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 356,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2005 (ended March 31, 2006) consolidated sales totaled 9,464 billion yen ($80.9 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 website at http://www.hitachi.com.

Hitachi Data Systems
Mary Ann Gallo
(408) 970-4836
mary.ann@hds.com

Blanc and Otus
Aaron Grunwald
(415) 863-1214
agrunwald@blancandotus.com

© 2006, Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. Hitachi Data Systems is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd. TagmaStore is a registered trademark of Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. All other trade names, trademarks, and service marks used herein are the rightful property of their respective owners.