Hitachi Vantara – a modern infrastructure, data management, and digital solutions subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501) – recently announced the next evolution of its collaboration with Microsoft to launch Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP) for Azure Stack HCI. This streamlined hybrid cloud solution increases business agility. It delivers enhanced cloud management across multiple environments, including data centers, branch offices, and edge computing, providing businesses with greater visibility and control over how their data is stored, managed, and utilized.
There was a 2022 report that found over four in five organizations 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. But 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 can drive up management costs.
This new joint solution combines the power of Azure cloud services with the scalability and flexibility benefits of the Hitachi UCP cloud infrastructure. And as a result, customers can run workloads consistently and seamlessly within on-premises data centers, cloud environments, or edge locations while leveraging the flexibility to scale capacity up or down based on business needs. Additionally, the solution utilizes intelligent automation and advanced analytics and provides ‘single pane of glass’ viewing to increase data visibility and make the management of hybrid cloud infrastructure easier.
Hitachi Vantara’s new hybrid cloud solution is now generally available and supports organizations utilizing a mix of traditional and newer container-based applications. Key customer benefits include:
1.) 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). And 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.
2.) 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 optimized data management for specific analytics and requirements.
3.) Vertical solutions, global reach: Customers in 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.
Along with Hitachi UCP for Azure Stack HCI, Hitachi Vantara validated two Azure Arc-enabled data services providing modern application solutions for Microsoft customers. This enhancement allows customers to modernize important applications and deliver cloud services across IT locations with centralized Azure Arc management.
KEY QUOTE:
“Our customers have enormous volumes of distributed data at the edge, core and cloud requiring easy and resilient access to analyze in real-time to make informed decisions, custom tailored to meet dynamic business demands. Through our collaboration with Microsoft, and our end-to-end engineered systems approach, we help optimize our customers’ cloud architecture to better harness their data, lower operating costs and improve application and user experiences.”
– Dan McConnell, senior vice president, Product Management-Storage, Hitachi Vantara
