Strategies for Innovation: Nondisruptive, High impact Solutions for Large Businesses and Enterprises

Enterprises are constantly searching for ways to improve and enhance their storage infrastructure in a cost effective way — and that means improving the rate of data delivery and making it easier to share data, applications and resources without major expenditures for new equipment or software.

Whether it's through groundbreaking technology, new ways of structuring and managing storage, or a comprehensive new approach to storage as a business asset rather than just a technical necessity, there are many ways for organizations to innovate. But with storage occupying an increasingly vital role in the enterprise, the real key is to innovate in a way that does not require a wholesale overhaul of the IT infrastructure.

There are plenty of ways to increase availability, accelerate access to data, and share data securely both within and outside of the enterprise while avoiding serious disruptions or downtime. Whether it's a virtualization solution to simplify your complex network storage infrastructure or an archiving platform to better satisfy compliance regulations, Hitachi Data Systems can recommend strategies, solutions, and implementation plans to help you tackle your organization's data storage challenges and control costs at the same time.

Services Oriented Storage Puts Users First

Services Oriented Storage Solutions from Hitachi Data Systems treat the needs of users as priority number one by helping IT professionals meet or exceed the terms of service level agreements (SLAs). In focusing on users rather than the latest products or technologies, your organization is better positioned to meet your business needs without over investment in expensive equipment — or under investment in necessary tools.

This sensible, pragmatic approach to storage will only become more vital as organizations face increasing pressure to control costs while minimizing IT complexity, increasing operational efficiency, adapting to change and managing risk.

From storage virtualization to business continuity solutions, Hitachi Data Systems can help align storage infrastructure with business requirements so that IT always remains in step with the business as it grows and changes.

Consolidation Simplifies Infrastructure – and Management

Consolidation represents one of the pillars of a mature storage strategy. Smart storage consolidation helps reduce physical footprint, reduce operating expenses and increase the overall flexibility of your storage network.

Hitachi Data Systems recommends consolidating storage into pools that can be centrally managed and administered, allowing applications and servers across the organization to access storage. It increases utilization and efficiency while reducing total cost of ownership. Read A Blueprint for Business Resilience and Operational Efficiency to see how consolidation can benefit your organization.

Read A Blueprint for Business Resilience and Operational Efficiency

A Better Match of Dollars to Data with Tiered Storage

A tiered storage architecture starts from the premise that not all data is created equal — and where data is stored should depend on its type, use and business value. By applying more resources to the tiers with the greatest business value, your enterprise will see better performance for your storage dollar and a simplified, scalable way to grow.

The Hitachi Universal Storage Platform™ V and Hitachi Universal Storage Platform VM provide intelligent tiered storage by simplifying infrastructure and reducing costs throughout the storage network. Advanced virtualization capabilities ensure that these storage systems easily support tiered storage management for mission critical applications, virtual tape libraries and archiving.

Read the Guide

 Business Brief:
Storage Consolidation for Growing Environments More...

 In the Blogs:
Dynamic Provisioning: Who gets the benefits, the service provider or you?
by Hu Yoshida, CTO, Hitachi Data Systems More...

 White Paper:
Services Oriented Storage for Aligning Business and IT by IDC More...

 Podcast:
Enterprise Virtualization: Making It a Reality More...

Creating Real Time Alerts in Hitachi Tuning Manager 6.0, October 1, 2008, 9am PST, online
Hitachi Tuning Manager software provides customers with the capability of generating alarms to notify them when key performance, utilization and capacity thresholds are exceeded. Chuck Eaton, Principal Technical Consultant, will explain and demonstrate how to create these real time alarms using the new graphical user interface (GUI) in Tuning Manager that significantly simplifies this process. More...

Storage Networking World Fall 2008, October 13-16, 2008, The Gaylord Texan, Dallas, TX
Storage Networking World - the world’s largest and foremost storage networking event - where IT management and professionals learn, network and maximize their company's storage capabilities. At SNW, you can choose from over 100 educational sessions and network with peers from around the globe. More...

Mainframe Storage Virtualization: Making Modular Storage Useful to z/OS, October 15, 2008, 9am PST, online
Curious about how to use inexpensive modular storage in a mainframe environment? This WebTech session will demonstrate ways to expand the use of modular storage by virtualizing it into a z/OS® environment. You will learn the applications best suited for this added storage, learn how to plan for the addition and see a demonstration of the virtualization process using Hitachi Device Manager and Hitachi Universal Volume Manager. Joan Arnold-Roksandich, Account Consultant, will provide you with best practices, hints and tips to allow you to tame those open LUNS into 3390 volumes. More...

Crafting an Effective NAS Consolidation Strategy, October 22, 2008, 9am PST, online
Thinking it's time for network attached storage (NAS) consolidation at your data center? What are the top criteria to consider when you're planning a NAS consolidation project? What should you know before you start? Hear from George Pamboris, Director of NAS Product Management, and Linda Xu, Director of File Services Product Marketing, about what caused NAS proliferation, what challenges NAS proliferation has created for organizations large and small and, when you start a consolidation project, what criteria you will use to evaluate the options available. Learn why the Hitachi High-performance NAS solution is an option to consider if planning a file server or NAS consolidation project. More...

Storage Networking World Europe 2008, October 27-29, 2008, The Congress Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
The region’s largest independent conference dedicated to data and storage management this year will reprise its theme "Information in Motion". The conference will offer an attractive combination of ‘classic’ sessions such as server and storage virtualization, data security and IP storage tutorials, alongside new elements such as the green data centre and the Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) tracks, the Channel Summit and workshops on data center products testing and evaluation by analyst house ESG. More...

Effective Use of Virtualized Tiered Storage Systems, October 29, 2008, 9am PST, online
Join Hitachi Data Systems Chief Technology Officer Hu Yoshida for an informative discussion on solving key storage problems with the effective use of virtualized tiered storage systems. Like VMware for server environments, the ability to create new storage virtually and deliver differentiated tiers of storage as needed creates great cost efficiencies in the data center. Yoshida will describe how customers have taken advantage of virtualizing mixed types of storage systems to maximize their current investments. The characteristics and best uses of various classes of storage (Fibre, SATA, RAID types, internal, external) will be introduced along with network attached storage (NAS) and Content Archiving options. Expect a lively Q&A session at the end. More...

Prepare yourself for Hitachi Data Systems Certification!
The Hitachi Data Systems Academy is offering exam preparation sessions with onsite testing. The sessions provide participants with refresher training on key areas of expertise for the Hitachi Data Systems Certified Implementer credential and the Hitachi Certified Professional credential. Register for the workshop of your choice online through the Learning Center. The sessions can serve as an introduction for customers new to Hitachi Data Systems and for the seasoned student, the sessions provide a valuable review of Hitachi Data Systems infrastructure, products and technology.

Dates and Locations: October 14-15, 2008, Paris, France, November 4-5, 2008, Frankfurt, Germany, December 9-10, 2008, London, UK, December 9-12, 2008, San Diego, California. Other dates and locations are being considered. Contact hdscertifications@hds.com for more information.