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Hitachi Data Systems Tops Midrange NAS Category in Storage Magazine’s 2014 Quality Awards for the 2nd Consecutive Year

January 21, 2014


HDS Crowned No.1 by Customers for Sales Competence, Product Quality, Product Features, Product Reliability and Technical Support

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — January 21, 2014 — Hitachi Data Systems Corporation (HDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), today announced it has been recognized as the top midrange network-attached storage (NAS) vendor by the readers of Storage Magazine/SearchStorage.com in the publication’s 8th annual Quality Awards for NAS. This marks the 2nd consecutive year that HDS was awarded top honors.

The Storage Magazine/SearchStorage.com Quality Awards survey measuring user satisfaction with NAS products is designed to identify and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use. HDS was awarded top marks for Hitachi Unified Storage (HUS) with Hitachi NAS Platform (HNAS) and surpassed competitors in 5 main categories for midrange NAS arrays, including Sales-force Competence, Initial Product Quality, Product Features, Product Reliability and Technical Support.

“This recognition is a testament to our high standards of quality, service and support – each of which is fundamental to our business and more importantly to our customers” said Mike Canavan, vice president of file and content solutions, Hitachi Data Systems. “We are deeply committed to giving our customers solutions backed by Hitachi NAS and HUS. These solutions offer reliability and data integrity that is essential for today’s mission-critical business applications, without sacrificing performance or service. To continue our momentum, we look forward to tighter integration with converged computing and VMware environments, with intelligent migration tools. Thank you to all of our customers and those who participated in the survey for this honor.”

Highlights of Hitachi Data Systems rankings and comments by Storage Magazine (scores on a scale from 1.00 to 8.00 with 8.00 being highest) include the following:

  • Overall Rating: Midrange NAS – 7.00: “Hitachi prevailed in the midrange NAS group last year with a near-7.00 performance, and repeats as a winner this year…It's a showing that's as impressive for its consistency as it is for the high bar it set for the group.”
  • Sales-force Competence – 7.14: “Hitachi's march through the midrange ranks began with a stunning 7.14 for sales-force competence, the second highest mark ever for this category.” Hitachi earned particularly high marks for ‘my sales rep understands my business,’ and was recognized for having a knowledgeable sales support team.
  • Product Features – 7.06: “Hitachi secured its second 7.00-plus category score with 7.06 for product features -- the third highest for this category ever. Hitachi came out on top for all seven statements in the category, paced by five scores of 7.00 or better, including a dazzling 7.35 for mirroring features, along with excellent results for snapshots and remote replication, and management features.”
  • Technical Support – 6.98: “Hitachi topped off its romp through the midrange rating categories with a 6.98 for tech support, built on five grades of 7.00 or better. Hitachi was high scorer on all eight statements…Hitachi's best showing was for having knowledgeable third-party support partners (7.14), along with a couple of 7.11s for delivering support as contracted and taking ownership of issues, and a brace of 7.00s for timely resolution of problems and knowledgeable support personnel.”

About Storage Magazine’s Quality Awards
The Storagemagazine/SearchStorage.com Quality Awards are designed to identify and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use. The results are derived from a survey of qualified readers who assess products in five main categories: sales-force competence, initial product quality, product features, product reliability and technical support. Its methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminates market share as a factor. The objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendor name, reputation or size. Products were rated on a scale of 1.00 to 8.00, where 8.00 is the best score. A total of 403 responses provided 594 product evaluations.

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About Hitachi Data Systems
Hitachi Data Systems provides information technologies, services and solutions that help companies improve IT costs and agility, and innovate with information to make a difference in the world. Our customers gain compelling return on investment (ROI), unmatched return on assets (ROA), and demonstrable business impact. With approximately 6,300 employees worldwide, Hitachi Data Systems does business in more than 100 countries and regions. Our products, services and solutions are trusted by the world's leading enterprises, including more than 70% of the Fortune 100 and more than 80% of the Fortune Global 100. Visit us at http://www.hds.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 326,000 employees worldwide. The company’s consolidated revenues for fiscal 2012 (ended March 31, 2013) totaled 9,041 billion yen ($96.1 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, power systems, construction machinery, high functional material & components, automotive systems and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.


Press Contacts:

Hitachi Data Systems
Chris Drago
(408) 410-4591
christopher.drago@hds.com