Hitachi Vantara Expands Smart Data Center Intelligence and Automation for Self-Optimizing Data Centers

New Partnership with Vigilent Adds AI-Driven Cooling; Intelligent SAN Optimization, and Automated Provisioning Lower Data Center Costs

SAN DIEGO – Sept. 26, 2018 – Hitachi Vantara, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), today at NEXT 2018 announced enhancements to its Smart Data Center solution that elevate the use of AI and real-time analytics to further its vision of optimizing all aspects of IT operations across data centers. These enhancements help enterprises deliver business outcomes by maximizing the power of data no matter where it resides – from the data center to the cloud and out to the edge – and move them forward in today's digital, data-driven business landscape.

Smart Data Center is a complete end-to-end subscription service that is pre-engineered to maximize speed of delivery yet flexible enough to adapt to each organization's data center requirements. It is designed to optimize global data center service health, capacity management, performance management and cooling. By advancing the use of automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, the Smart Data Center solution creates self-optimizing data centers that lower IT operational costs, reduce risk and increase IT agility to respond to business change.

The latest enhancements advance Smart Data Center beyond the initial focus on intelligent management of compute and storage resources into facilities infrastructure with continuous optimization using AI-Driven Cooling, intelligent SAN optimization and automated provisioning of heterogeneous storage.

Optimization with AI-Driven Cooling
Hitachi Vantara is partnering with Vigilent, the leading provider of dynamic cooling management systems, to help deliver the Smart Data Center cooling optimization module. Vigilent technology uses machine learning, IoT temperature sensors, and closed-loop control to enable Smart Data Center to proactively monitor and analyze data center cooling, self-correct temperature and airflow issues, and provide IT administrators with improved operational control.

This partnership enables Smart Data Center to provide:

• Up to 38 percent average annual savings;
• Increased data center capacity by ensuring cooling equipment is performing at maximum capacity, allowing facilities to increase the load on existing infrastructure;
• Improved data center thermal reliability by eliminating most data center hot spots and enabling dynamic cooling that automatically responds to any changes in the data center;
• Enhanced data center management control with the ability to specify the exact maximum air temperature delivered to each rack in the data center;
• Increased IT management insight based on advanced analytics that easily identify where there is sufficient or insufficient thermal redundancy as well as which cooling equipment needs maintenance.

"Cooling can create significant business risk. It also is an area that is ripe for operational and efficiency improvements," said Dave Hudson, chief executive officer at Vigilent. "The Smart Data Center cooling optimization module automatically manages thermal stability, reduces energy and other operational costs and unlocks stranded IT capacity. We are excited to be working with a global industry leader such as Hitachi Vantara to further strengthen Smart Data Center with our dynamic cooling management technology."

Intelligent SAN Optimization
Smart Data Center from Hitachi Vantara can lower storage costs with real-time, continuous optimization of SAN resources that enables efficient and cost-effective use of storage assets. It also identifies when hot and cold spots are developing within Hitachi storage to help ensure efficient utilization of storage assets and placement of storage in appropriate tiers based on costs and defined service performance requirements.

Smart Data Center gives IT managers the insights they need to make informed operational and budgeting decisions through advanced predictive analytics and dynamic dashboards that provide a visual mapping of application storage on a cost and performance basis. Machine learning-driven predictive and prescriptive insights help customers identify opportunities and recommendations for optimization. It also provides the ability to perform AI-based simulations that allow customers to evaluate future scenarios before Smart Data Center takes action on their behalf.

Smart Provisioning
Smart Data Center now includes automated provisioning of heterogeneous storage assets, covering end-to-end processes from planning to execution. It provides the ability to orchestrate IT provisioning tasks in an automated fashion through analytics-based capacity and performance insights, along with machine learning-driven recommendations that are integrated with ITSM applications. Customers benefit from time savings by eliminating the need to make many manual changes in the data center, reduced data center and IT services downtime, and improved operational and regulatory compliance with the ability to document changes. Smart provisioning capabilities also free up budget and SAN resources for allocation to other strategic projects.

"Data center customers are increasingly seeking opportunities to use artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to lower costs and deal with the growing IT complexity within and across data centers," said Bobby Soni, chief solutions and services officer at Hitachi Vantara. "By offering higher levels of automation and optimization, the Smart Data Center from Hitachi Vantara is helping customers streamline operations and create self-optimizing data centers."

Availability

Smart Data Center is generally available as a fully managed, on- or off-premises solution offering. For more information, please visit https://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/products/it-operations-management/smart-data-center.html.

Additional Resources

Blog post, "What's News with Smart Data Center," by Eric Silva

About Hitachi NEXT 2018
NEXT 2018 is the premier event for the digital revolution. It's for data-driven innovators who lead the transformation in their industry. They lead with clear insights drawn from their own data to make the right decisions for the best results. Data changes the way the world works, advancing business and even society itself. There can never be too much data and it can never come too quickly if organizations manage, govern, mobilize and analyze it effectively. At NEXT 2018, leaders see what's next for their data in IT, operational technology and the internet of things, from Hitachi and our many partners. They bring back insights and strategies they can use right away to transform their businesses and build them for tomorrow. At NEXT 2018 we change the way the world works. NEXT 2018 is held September 25-27 at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront in San Diego, California. For more information and to register, please visit HitachiNEXT.com.

About Hitachi Vantara
Hitachi Vantara, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., helps data-driven leaders find and use the value in their data to innovate intelligently and reach outcomes that matter for business and society. We combine technology, intellectual property and industry knowledge to deliver data-managing solutions that help enterprises improve their customers' experiences, develop new revenue streams, and lower the costs of business. Only Hitachi Vantara elevates your innovation advantage by combining deep information technology (IT), operational technology (OT) and domain expertise. We work with organizations everywhere to drive data to meaningful outcomes. Visit us at www.HitachiVantara.com.

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About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society's challenges, combining its operational technology, information technology, and products/systems. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal 2017 (ended March 31, 2018) totaled 9,368.6 billion yen ($88.4 billion). The Hitachi Group is an innovation partner for the IoT era, and it has approximately 307,000 employees worldwide. Through collaborative creation with customers, Hitachi is deploying Social Innovation Business using digital technologies in a broad range of sectors, including Power/Energy, Industry/Distribution/Water, Urban Development, and Finance/Social Infrastructure/Healthcare. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS
Brian Garabedian
Hitachi Vantara
Brian.garabedian@hitachivantara.com
+1 408.386.4621

Ashley Paula
Weber Shandwick for Hitachi Vantara
apaula@webershandwick.com
+1 415.262.5975

HITACHI is a trademark or registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. or its affiliates. Vigilent and AI-Driven Cooling are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vigilent Corporation. All other trademarks, service marks, and company names are properties of their respective owners.