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Hitachi Vantara Unveils AI Operations Software and New Flash Storage Systems to Fuel Data Center Modernization Initiatives


Hitachi Vantara, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., is making updates to its data infrastructure portfolio, including new AI-enhanced data center management software and an expanded lineup of flash storage systems designed to reach a broader range of customers. According to the company, the new systems and AI operations software deliver the agile data infrastructure and intelligent operations customers need to accelerate data center modernization efforts.

Hitachi’s new high-performance storage systems provide a 100%-data-availability guarantee, and integrated, and cross-platform AI-powered analytics and IT automation software. The all-new, all-flash and hybrid Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) systems and AI operations software have been designed to give customers agility and automation to reduce costs and increase operational efficiencies. Developers will gain increased flexibility and can now run more workloads in a single system through Docker and Redhat Openshift container integration with Swarm and Kubernetes orchestration.

As data center operations become more complex, operational efficiencies can deteriorate and the risks of downtime or data loss increase, according to Hitachi, which is introducing the advanced AI operations software portfolio,  including Hitachi Infrastructure Analytics Advisor, Hitachi Automation Director and Hitachi Data Instance Director, in order to deliver a more agile data infrastructure.

Hitachi Infrastructure Analytics Advisor (HIAA) delivers an AI-powered “brain” to provide data center insights by looking across the data path, including virtual machines, servers, networks and storage. HIAA uses machine learning to more efficiently optimize, troubleshoot and predict data center needs. HIAA provides the ability to mine telemetry data to predict when new storage purchases will be required, improving budget planning and helping to prevent performance dips. Machine learning analyzes all resources associated with storage to help ensure the right resource is purchased. In addition, it provides   4x faster root-cause analysis using a patented AI engine that analyzes telemetry data and configuration changes across the data path to isolate issues and uses a new heuristic engine to recommend resolution. Integration with Hitachi Automation Director allows immediate fixes based on best practices.

Hitachi Automation Director (HAD) software provides an “engine” for orchestrating the delivery and management of IT resources so that teams can focus on innovation. A customizable solution, HAD automates core IT service delivery routines including virtual machine, network zoning and storage and data protection tasks to reduce errors that impact uptime, customer experiences and return on investment (ROI). HAD has been enhanced to integrate with IT service management (ITSM) tools, including the ServiceNow platform, for improved tracking and control of IT resource delivery; improve REST API integration for provisioning of third-party resources, including storage; take commands from HIAA for issue remediation and storage configuration data; and automate the set up of Hitachi Data Instance Director (HDID) data protection to safeguard against data loss or downtime.

The new integrations between HIAA, HAD, and HDID are part of Hitachi’s growing AI operations initiative to help customers begin the journey to autonomous operations. These offerings are now available both independently and packaged together with Hitachi VSP.

Supporting agile data infrastructure, Hitachi’s new all-flash VSP F series and hybrid-flash VSP G series systems provide a 100% data availability guarantee and up to 3x more IOPS performance and 2.5x greater scalability compared to prior VSP models. In addition, cloud and container integration allow more workloads to run on a single system, while helping to eliminate data silos and support new workloads.

The new enterprise-class Hitachi VSP models include the all-flash VSP F700 and VSP F900 and the hybrid flash VSP G700 and G900 systems. To reach a broader range of customers, Hitachi is introducing new midrange models. They include the VSP F350, F370, G350 and G370 systems. The systems are powered by the next generation of Hitachi Storage Virtualization Operating System, SVOS RF, which has been re-architected for increased performance, scalability and data efficiency. All new VSP systems are backed by Hitachi’s new flat service model and come with a Foundation software package that includes Hitachi’s proven infrastructure analytics and copy data management software. All new Hitachi VSP systems are available now.

The new systems have significant improvements compared to prior VSP models, the company says. This includes the ability to scale to more than 2.4M IOPS and 41GB/s of bandwidth; up to 70% more IOPS per core for increased price/performance; 8x more volumes and one million snapshots per system; and up to 3.4x faster deduplication and 5x faster SVOS-based compression.

For complete details, go to www.hitachivantara.com.


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