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Like people, some companies move slower and perhaps more intentionally than others. Hitachi Data Systems is certainly one of those companies in the data storage industry.
For example, Hitachi launched its cloud storage services platform in May 2013, seven full years after Amazon launched its Simple Storage Service (S3) in 2006. It wanted to make sure it got it right.
HDS then ventured out with its own software-defined storage in April 2015, three years after VMware acquired Nicira (already known for “software-defined networking”) for $1 billion in 2012 and put the term “SDN” on the map using the Nicira IP. Just another option for HDS customers.
The company has no late-to-market issues with NAND flash, however. HDS has been right up to date when it comes to providing NAND flash in its arrays, having launched its solid-state storage in 2008, right around the same time EMC, Dell and NetApp added flash storage options to their products.
Hitachi on Nov. 10 expanded its lineup of all-flash and hybrid flash arrays, performance optimization software and data analytics capabilities. These include the all-flash Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) F series, enhanced models of the Hitachi VSP G series, next-generation Hitachi flash modules with inline data compression (FMD DC2) and enhanced Hitachi Automation Director and Hitachi Data Center Analytics tools for improved response times.
HDS has heavily invested in next-generation flash technologies for years, as represented by the more than 350 flash-related patents held by the company worldwide, more than any other vendor in the industry, HDS claims.
Hitachi said it has shipped more than 250PB of total flash capacity since 2008 in supporting some very large all-flash deployments for transaction processing-type business applications.
Key features of the new products include:
Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series: New additions to the industry-leading Hitachi VSP family–the VSP F400, F600 and F800–bring together all-flash storage and built-in automation software. The VSP F series offers 1.4M IOPS to meet demanding application requirements and uses new FMD DC2 (flash modules) to provide inline, no penalty compression. The VSP F series comes with optional synchronous and asynchronous replication available for complete data protection. The F series ranges in capacity from 12.8TB up to 448TB.
Second-Generation Flash Module Drive with Data Compression (FMD DC2): These use new FMD DC2 drives serve as the foundation of the VSP F series. The FMD DC2’s patented design uses a high-speed, parallelized architecture that HDS claims delivers about five times more write IOPs and three times more read IOPs than standard solid state drives (SSDs). It also includes multi-queuing technology that allows IO to be prioritized over background operations for improved low latency, even in heavy data sets. The FMD DC2 is available now in capacities up to 6.4TB and features inline compression.
Enhanced Hitachi Automation Director Software: Through predefined service templates and automated management workflows, Hitachi Automation Director provides users with self-service provisioning of flash storage to accelerate and streamline the deployment of new applications and resources faster.
New Hitachi Data Center Analytics: HDS claims this analytics package is the most efficient and scalable analytics software in the industry, but several other manufacturers make the same claim. Buyers need to do their own testing at all times.