By Patricia Harris
Source: www.hitachivantara.com
It has been three months since we proudly announced the combination of Hitachi Vantara and Hitachi Consulting. In the short period of time since the announcement, our already rapidly changing world has evolved in ways we could not have imagined.
COVID-19’s toll on humanity has been withering and our hearts go out to all who have been touched by the virus, and to those who continue to fight to mitigate its impact daily.
The virus is of course also transforming the way business is being done.
Enterprises worldwide are having to rely more than ever on their digital infrastructure as millions of employees shift from working in offices to working at home.
Leaders are simultaneously placing new importance on data-driven insights about the health of their supply chain, manufacturing and business processes, distribution, service and customer support. There has never been a more important time for a seamless, reliable core-to-edge-to-cloud data infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the rise of valuable new AI and ML applications that unlock new customer value, the explosion of data, and the race to modernize legacy business applications for the cloud all continue unabated.
Against this dizzying backdrop of challenges and opportunities, all of us at Hitachi Vantara have been hard at work to deliver a digital infrastructure technology roadmap that will not only help our customers survive, it will help them to thrive. Our 3-year Statement of Direction showcases the significant investments we are making in our digital infrastructure and data storage solutions. And yes, we’re doing all the above with a heightened focus on optimizing ROI and delivering the most flexible consumption and financial offers in our history.
I encourage you to take a deep dive into our three-year roadmap here, but let me spell out a few priority areas of innovation for our Digital Infrastructure solutions:
1. Block and Network Attached Storage – With the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform 5000 Series we already have the world’s fastest data storage array, and there is so much more platform innovation to come as we tackle more complex and advanced data workloads. Expect us to add more products with NVMe interfaces and storage class media (SCM); more offerings for mid-sized enterprises, and, a little further out, more use of FPGA-based technology for even more highly efficient cost saving data reduction.
2. Object Storage and Content Management – Customers can expect Hitachi Vantara to push beyond data management and governance in the next two years. We’ll go deeper into data operations for improved access, visibility, protection, cost optimization, search and analytics for all our customers data. Customers can also count on us to support next gen workloads, to provide full Amazon S3 API support, and to deliver a common object repository to connect edge and user devices. Beyond that, expect us to enable mobility between private, public and hybrid clouds.
3. Software Defined Storage – Since the inception of Storage Virtualization Operating System (SVOS) RF, our vision for software defined storage has been to deliver a single enterprise data platform. As part of our roadmap, you can expect our leading storage operating system to run on third party hardware, to run in the cloud, and to offer one management solution for software defined and traditional storage.
4. Storage Management – AI Ops capabilities within offerings such as the Hitachi Ops Center are already bringing huge advancements in configuration, analytics monitoring, orchestration and data protection. In the coming 12 months, we expect to further extend the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for AI Operations. We’ll deliver even greater simplicity and efficiencies across the data path from VM to storage, and we’ll also enable new administrative working models that incorporate a cloud experience.
5. Hyperconverged and Converged Infrastructure – Hitachi Vantara’s recent acquisition of IP from Kubernetes start-up Containership signaled our intent to enable customers to more easily deploy and manage Kubernetes clusters and containerized applications. In the coming 12 months, we’ll also integrate our converged and HCI offerings with application modernization solutions. And beyond the next twelve months, we’ll bring our AI-driven predictive analytics and troubleshooting to hybrid cloud infrastructure.
As you can see, we’ve made tremendous strides in recent months, with significant new advancements to come. I’m immensely proud of our team’s focus on delivering the best digital infrastructure offerings in the market.
I’m also immensely grateful for their continued dedication and customer-focus during this time of uncertainty. I firmly believe that we will get through this together by keeping our partners, employees and customers close. We value your partnership, and we welcome your continued feedback.
