Hitachi Vantara announces integrated solution with Microsoft Azure.

Hitachi Vantara, the modern infrastructure, data management and digital solutions subsidiary of Hitachi (TSE: 6501), today announced the next evolution of its collaboration with Microsoft to launch Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP) for Azure Stack HCI. The powerful and streamlined hybrid cloud solution increases business agility and delivers enhanced cloud management across multiple environments including data centres, branch offices and edge computing, providing businesses with greater visibility and control over how their data is stored, managed and utilised.

A 2022 report found that more than four in five organisations were deploying a hybrid cloud model, an increase over the previous year, due to the flexibility provided by balancing data between public cloud, private cloud and on-premises. However, as the volume of data continues to grow exponentially, the complexity of managing multiple environments can lead to a lack of integration across data sources that limits a company’s ability to extract business value, and it can drive up management costs.

The new joint solution combines the power of Azure cloud services with the scalability and flexibility benefits provided by the Hitachi UCP cloud infrastructure. As a result, customers can run workloads consistently and seamlessly within on-premises data centres, cloud environments, or edge locations while leveraging the flexibility to scale capacity up or down based on business needs. Additionally, the solution utilises intelligent automation, advanced analytics, and provides ‘single pane of glass’ viewing to increase data visibility and make management of hybrid cloud infrastructure easier.

“Our customers have enormous volumes of distributed data at the edge, core and cloud requiring easy and resilient access to analyse in real-time to make informed decisions, custom tailored to meet dynamic business demands,” said Dan McConnell, senior vice president, Product Management-Storage, Hitachi Vantara. “Through our collaboration with Microsoft, and our end-to-end engineered systems approach, we help optimise our customers’ cloud architecture to better harness their data, lower operating costs and improve application and user experiences.”

Hitachi Vantara’s new hybrid cloud solution is now generally available, and supports organisations utilising a mix of traditional and newer container-based applications. Key customer benefits include:

• Flexibility and choice: Hitachi’s UCP for Azure Stack HCI supports multiple validated configurations, which enhances the hybrid cloud portfolio and extends modern application infrastructure possibilities, including architecture powered by Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP). Customers also have the option to purchase the Azure solution with the Hitachi EverFlex infrastructure-as-a-service subscription model for greater scalability and pay-per-use pricing to align IT costs with business needs.
• Scalability: Customers can deploy the new UCP hybrid cloud solution starting with just one Hitachi server and scale up to 16 nodes, allowing them to leverage a range of configurations and optimised data management for specific analytics and requirements.
• Vertical solutions, global reach: Customers in vertical industries such as manufacturing, financial, retail, telecommunications, health care, media, and entertainment benefit from Hitachi’s Vantara’s deep domain experience to meet these industry-specific business needs and compliance requirements. Additionally, Hitachi has a leading supply chain and installation services worldwide to deliver a robust and comprehensive Azure hybrid cloud experience across the globe.

In addition to Hitachi UCP for Azure Stack HCI, Hitachi Vantara also validated two Azure Arc-enabled data services providing modern application solutions for Microsoft customers. This enhancement allows customers to modernise important applications and deliver cloud services across IT locations with centralised Azure Arc management.

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