Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform Research Report:
Hitachi High-performance NAS Solution Sheet
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Hitachi High-performance NAS Solution Sheet
A TechValidate Research Report
This is a short format research report describing how users address business or technology challenges with their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform. All information contained in this report was sourced directly from users with first-hand experience deploying their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform. TechValidate verifies the identity of all users involved in its research studies and guarantees anonymity so that they can speak candidly.
Market Trends and Context
Sourced from TechValidate’s network of thousands of technology end users, TechValidate’s market research illustrates the operational challenges and purchasing environment facing today’s organizations.
Challenges to Optimal IT Growth
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TechValidate Analysis
Managing for growth has never been more difficult in the IT world. As IT professionals grapple with multi-dimensional growth challenges (e.g. storage, server and networking scale, application loads, user growth, etc.) the challenges can seem to grow faster than the available solutions. The candor of this response, with 63% of IT pros admitting non-optimal structures, indicates loud and clear that innovative vendor approaches are still greatly needed. |
Cost Control Improvements Needed
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TechValidate Analysis
Despite the well documented TCO focus of most IT professionals in their organizations, the sense of self-imposed pressure to do “more with less” is incredibly intense, with 73% believing they should be better than they are at controlling costs. This may stem from a more systemic issue within the IT community: A tendency to address broad IT challenges that have a large business impact, yet inevitably creep in their scope and associated costs over time. Once embarked upon, committed cost structures within IT initiatives become very difficult to control. The actionable insight from this metric is a need for deeper inspection of demand and necessity driving various IT expenditures within the organization. |
What IT issues are consistently "Top of Mind" in your organization?
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TechValidate Analysis
Not surprisingly, economic issues remain the top-of-mind concern for IT professionals. Thereafter a “suite” of considerations take up relatively equal precedence in IT pros’ minds. What all of these issues share in common is a tactical, actionable focus on making an organizations information infrastructure avaible, secure, and implemented in a planned fashion. Alas, at the end of the day, the bottom line is the bottom line: controlling costs is on the IT pro mind. |
Strategic Virtualization Focus Areas, 2009
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TechValidate Analysis
Virtualization is a key lever for IT organizations to achieve greater management economies of scale and efficiency out of their infrastructure. Our research sourced from our network of IT professionals indicates that IT organizations are investing aggressively in all forms of virtualization to gain operational efficiencies. Specifically, we see IT organizations continue to consolidate IT resources, whether they be server or storage, to improve management and wring cost out of the system. |
Solution Benefits
From our surveys of Hitachi users, we have collected the following statistics, testimonials, and verified facts about their usage and deployment of their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform.
HNAS Supports Business Growth Needs
Our HNAS platform provides a way to grow our NAS solution with our user base, without having to select a new platform every time business growth rates change. The clustered hardware ensures that we have peace of mind from a redundancy point of view, should failures occur.
HNAS Performance and Scalability Simplifies Consolidation
For the most part, it is the performance and scalability which helps us consolidate and simplify management of our NAS infrastructure.
Cluster Namespace Simplifies Administration
Our HDS NAS allows us to have a global name space across our data centers, ensuring that we have a consistent view of our data everywhere.
HNAS Dynamic Provisioning Reduces Cost
The provisioning helped to reduce cost and maintenance.
HNAS with VMware Reduces Cost
In conjunction with VMware ESX, we are able to save time and reduce costs for testing new software by building virtual machines in a few hours rather than a few weeks.
HNAS Helps Cut OPEX
31% of IT organizations reduced their Operating Expenditures (OPEX) costs by 15% or more by deploying their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform.
Intelligent Storage Tiering a Valued Capability
33% of IT organizations chose to purchase their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform because of its Intelligent Storage Tiering (HSM/ILM).
Most Experience Application Performance Improvement
52% of IT organizations increased their application performance by between 10% and 20% or more after deploying their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform.
Most HNAS Systems Used with Microsoft Windows
55% of IT organizations are using CIFS to connect to their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform.
HNAS with Oracle
36% of IT organizations use the their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform in conjunction with Oracle Applications.
HDDS and HCP Drive Purchases of HNAS
11% of IT organizations chose to purchase their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform because of its integration with Hitachi Data Discovery Suite and Hitachi Content Archive Platform.
HNAS Helps to Reduce Costs
55% of IT organizations reported that one of the primary rationales for purchasing their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform was to reduce costs.
Solution Case Studies
TechValidate has compiled short profiles detailing how and why these organizations deployed and purchased their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform.
Case Study: Large Enterprise Computer Services Company
Challenges
- Cited that the top reasons for purchasing their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform were to:
- Consolidate storage
- Decrease backup window
- Meet disaster recovery objectives through data replication
- Support business growth expectations
Environment
- Main use is primary storage for block-based applications (via iSCSI or FC).
- Deployed in conjunction with the following applications:
- Microsoft SQL Server database
- Microsoft Exchange
- Microsoft Sharepoint
- Oracle Applications
- Uses the following protocols:
- ISCSI
- CIFS
Benefits
- Purchased their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform for its integration with Hitachi SAN Storage Arrays
- Reduced Operating Expenditures (OPEX) costs by 23%
- Increased application performance by between 20% and 30%.
Testimonials
“HNAS streamlined administration with increased throughput”
Case Study: Global 500 Financial Services Company
Challenges
- Cited that the top reasons for purchasing their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform were to:
- Reduce costs
- Consolidate servers
- Consolidate storage
- Improve data access performance
- Simplify data management
- Decrease backup window
Environment
- Main use is primary storage for files and objects.
- Deployed in conjunction with the following applications:
- Microsoft SQL Server database
- Microsoft Exchange
- Microsoft Sharepoint
- Oracle Applications
Benefits
- Purchased their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform for the following reasons:
- Performance and scalability
- Intelligent Storage Tiering (HSM/ILM)
- Cluster Namespace (I.e., Single Namespace)
- Integration with Hitachi SAN Storage Arrays
- Integration with Hitachi Software (E.g., HUR, MetroCluster, HiCommand, etc.)
- Integration with Hitachi Data Discovery Suite and Hitachi Content Archive Platform
- Increased application performance by between 30% and 50%.
Case Study: Regional Health Care Company
Challenges
- Cited that the top reasons for purchasing their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform were to:
- Reduce costs
- Improve data access performance
- Simplify data management
Environment
- Main use is primary storage for block-based applications (via iSCSI or FC).
- Deployed in conjunction with the following applications:
- AGFA IMPAX
Benefits
*Purchased their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform for the following reasons:
- Performance and scalability
- Intelligent Storage Tiering (HSM/ILM)
- Cluster Namespace (I.e., Single Namespace)
Testimonials
“The provisioning helped to reduce cost and maintenance.”
Case Study: Federal Government
Challenges
- Cited that the top reasons for purchasing their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform were to:
- Consolidate servers
- Consolidate storage
- Support business growth expectations
Environment
- Main use is primary storage for files and objects.
- Deployed in conjunction with the following applications:
- Microsoft SQL Server database
- Microsoft Exchange
- Microsoft Sharepoint
- VMware vSphere
- Uses the following protocols:
- Fibre Channel (FC)
Benefits
- Chose to purchase their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform for the following reasons:
- Performance and scalability
- Integration with Hitachi SAN Storage Arrays
- Saved $100K compared to traditional storage alternatives.
- Saved $100K of capital expenditures (CAPEX) by scaling capacity and I/O throughput independently.
- Reduced Operating Expenditures (OPEX) costs by 5%
- Increased application performance by 10% or less.
Testimonials
“Hitachi offered a standardised platform for an organisation that previously had not standardised this tech.”
Case Study: Global 500 Banking Company
Challenges
- Cited that the top reasons for purchasing their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform were to:
- Consolidate servers
- Consolidate storage
- Support business growth expectations
Environment
- Main use is secondary storage for files and objects (backup/restore, DR, etc.).
- Deployed in conjunction with the following applications:
- Oracle Applications
- VMware vSphere
- Uses Fibre Channel (FC) to interface with HNAS
Benefits
- Purchased their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform for the following reasons:
- Performance and scalability
- Integration with Hitachi SAN Storage Arrays
- Saved $50K compared to traditional storage alternatives.
- Saved $20K of capital expenditures (CAPEX) by scaling capacity and I/O throughput independently.
- Reduced Operating Expenditures (OPEX) costs by 25%
- Increased application performance by between 20% and 30%.
Testimonials
“In conjunction with vmware esx we are able to save time and reduce costs for testing new software by building virtual machines in a few hours rather then a few weeks. "
Case Study: Fortune 500 Telecommunications Services Company
Challenges
- Cited that the top reasons for purchasing their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform were to:
- Reduce costs
- Consolidate storage
- Simplify data management
- Decrease backup window
- Support business growth expectations
Environment
- Main use is test/dev.
- Deployed in conjunction with the following applications:
- Microsoft SQL Server database
- Oracle Applications
- Uses the following protocols:
- ISCSI
- NFS
- CIFS
Benefits
- Purchased their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform for the following reasons:
- Performance and scalability
- Cluster Namespace (I.e., Single Namespace)
- Integration with Hitachi SAN Storage Arrays
- Saved $10K compared to traditional storage alternatives.
- Saved $7K of capital expenditures (CAPEX) by scaling capacity and I/O throughput independently.
- Reduced Operating Expenditures (OPEX) costs by 30%
- Increased application performance by between 20% and 30%.
Testimonials
“For the most part, it is the performance and scalability which helps us consolidate and simplify management of our NAS infrastructure. "
Case Study: Large Enterprise Industrial Manufacturing Company
Challenges
- Cited that the top reasons for purchasing their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform were to:
- Reduce costs
- Consolidate servers
- Improve data access performance
- Support business growth expectations
Environment
- Main use is primary storage for files and objects.
- Deployed in conjunction with the following applications:
- SMB/CIFS file access for Citrix clients
- Uses the following protocols:
- NFS
- CIFS
Benefits
- Purchased their Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform for the following reasons:
- Performance and scalability
- Integration with Hitachi SAN Storage Arrays
- Saved $500K compared to traditional storage alternatives.
- Saved $500K of capital expenditures (CAPEX) by scaling capacity and I/O throughput independently.
- Reduced Operating Expenditures (OPEX) costs by 30%
- Increased application performance by between 10% and 20%.
Testimonials
“Our HNAS platform provides a way to grow our NAS solution with our user base, without having to select a new platform every time business growth rates change. The clustered hardware ensures that we have peace of mind from a redundancy point of view, should failures occur.”
Research Methodology
This research report is based upon data collected from customers of Hitachi. TechValidate surveyed 23 users and purchasers of Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform between October 20, 2009 and November 9, 2009. Respondents had the following demographic profile:
- 35% of respondents were from a Large Enterprise (> 5,000 employees), 17% of respondents were from a Small Business (<100 employees), 13% of respondents were from a Global 500 Company
- 13% of respondents were from the Educational Institution industry, 13% of respondents were from the Media & Entertainment industry, 13% of respondents were from the Government industry
About TechValidate
TechValidate is a trusted third party service that verifies the usage, configuration, and benefits of technology products and services. We directly communicate with users to collect and validate information about their deployments. Our promise to the end user community is to provide unbiased, verified information about the usage and benefits of technology products and services. Read more about how TechValidate works at www.techvalidate.com.
Contact Information
TechValidate
TechValidate Software, Inc.
info@techvalidate.com |
Hitachi750 Central Expressway |
Document Details
| Status: |
Validated
|
| Validated On: | Dec 18, 2009 |
| TVID: | 9F3-60B-D74 What's this? |
About this Document
This downloadable document is a short format research report describing how users address business or technology challenges with Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform.
All information contained in this report was sourced directly from users with first-hand experience deploying Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform. This report may also contain perspective supplied by Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform. This content is clearly labeled.
TechValidate verifies the identity of all users involved in its research studies and guarantees anonymity so that they can speak candidly.
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