Hitachi Positioned in "Leaders" Quadrant for Midrange Enterprise Disk Arrays

Hitachi Data Systems' Product and Execution in the Midrange Market Continue to Build Momentum

SANTA CLARA, Calif., January 22, 2007—Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), today announced it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the "Leaders" quadrant in the, "Magic Quadrant for Midrange Enterprise Disk Arrays, 2H06"¹ report.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant evaluates vendors for their ability to execute and completeness of vision.  According to Gartner, vendors positioned in the "Leaders" quadrant, have the market share, credibility, and marketing and sales capabilities needed to drive the acceptance of new technologies. "Leaders" also demonstrate an understanding of market needs, is an innovator and thought leader, and has well-articulated plans that customers and prospects can use in designing their storage infrastructure and strategies.

Hitachi Data Systems delivers highly versatile and highly scalable channel-optimized advanced midrange storage systems—the Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage and Workgroup Modular Storage lines (models AMS1000, AMS500, AMS200, and WMS100). Hitachi's midrange storage line-up leverages many high-end features such as RAID-6, Logical Cache Partitioning, Host Storage Domains, and Virtual Ports, that many other midrange systems do not offer. These capabilities enable IT organizations to optimize the performance of and provide secure data access to vital business applications, such as Microsoft Exchange, ERP, CRM, or databases.

Intellidyn Corporation processes, analyzes, and compiles millions of intricate information records in order to deliver customized consumer data, faster and more comprehensively than the competition, with zero-defect. Challenged with an avalanche of industry regulations, expanded services, and 24/7 availability demands, Intellidyn turned to Hitachi Data Systems for a very nimble, responsive, and ultra-scalable storage design.

"Right out of the box, Hitachi's storage solution, based on the AMS500, gave us an immediate 300 percent improvement of application performance," said Peter Harvey, president and CEO of Intellidyn. "Hitachi's midrange storage systems have enabled us to successfully introduce some very innovative products to the market that will catapult how data can be furnished to our clients."

"By extending many of our high-end competitive advantages to the midrange storage buyer, we are continuing to take share in this important market segment and this report is yet another validation of our strategy," said Brenda Peffer, vice president, Global Marketing, Hitachi Data Systems. "Together with our partners, we are delivering advanced storage capabilities such as tiered storage, native multi-protocol support and non-disruptive on-the-fly data movement to the midrange market enabling organizations to strategically align business applications and storage infrastructure so that cost, performance, reliability and availability can be matched to specific business requirements."

For additional information about Hitachi Data Systems' midrange storage solutions, visit www.hds.com.

Magic Quadrant Disclaimer
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted December 2006 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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 3,200 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
Jennifer Mercer
(408) 970-7062
jennifer.mercer@hds.com

Hill and Knowlton Public Relations
Julie Mullins
(415) 281-7123
julie.mullins@hillandknowlton.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. All other trade names, trademarks, and service marks used herein are the rightful property of their respective owners.