'Thought Process Of Storage Economics To Spur Virtualisation'

Hitachi Data Systems has entered the mid-range storage segment with its new NAS offerings. Sunil Chavan, director, Content and File Services, Hitachi Data Systems, talks about how the new products can give competitors a run for their money.

How and why did you feel the need to come out with this product?

Hitachi has done extremely well in the enterprise segment recently. However, according to IDC, 65 percent of the storage market is in the mid-range segment. We wanted to tap this market. There are already established players like EMC and NetApp in the market, who are the leaders in this segment. To compete with them, we needed to come out with a product, which could be comprehensively distinguished from the ones they are offering. We took nearly a year to do that. Now, we have arrived.

Also, after the recession, people are looking for products, which can give them maximum facilities with minimum investment. Keeping that in mind, the launch of this product has been quite timely from our end.

What is unique about the Hitachi offering? Which sectors do you think will be early adopters?

Our products can be distinguished from those of our competitors taking two key things into account. First and foremost, all the features that we are providing with our enterprise-level solutions are integrated into this product as well. A unified solution like such is not provided by anyone else in the market. They have specific features for the solutions that they provide for this segment, which are distinct from what they provide for their enterprise clientele.

Secondly, when our competitors talk about ‘Intelligent Tiering’ capability, their file management only consists of storing the files. On the other hand, what we have done is optimise the space by migration of files into the lower tiers or to the archives, if they haven’t been accessed for a very long time.

We are expecting sectors like media and entertainment, telecom, research and development, banking, education and healthcare to be early adopters as these are the sectors where data generation is maximum.

We have been hearing a lot about data and document management in the recent past. Why has everyone suddenly realised the importance of the same?

I think we all realised the importance of document and data management quite some time ago. It just so happened that after the dot.com crash, the issue got sidelined because there were other things to focus on. However, since 2005, companies have started focusing on the importance of data management again. This realisation, which hit the enterprise segment then, has now come down to the mid-size segment as well. And as there are products available, a solution possible and an offering tailored to meet their IT budgets, we are seeing a lot of traction in this space.

What about virtualisation? Where do you think it is heading?

We have always believed in virtualisation. In fact, we have been quite active in the field for a very long time now. Our association with market leaders like VMware and Microsoft HyperV is an indication of the same. All our products, including this one, are fully equipped to be compatible in a virtualised environment. As far as I see it, virtualisation is not the end but the beginning. The need for optimising space and the thought process of storage economics are only going to catch on to those, who have not yet climbed the bandwagon.

Cloud computing in the storage space is being talked about a lot these days. What is HDS doing in the cloud computing space?

Yes, cloud computing in the storage space is being spoken of quite a lot these days. We already have an infrastructure in place for the same and you will be hearing about our new solutions very soon, this month itself, in fact. We are in talks with some big players already for deployment.

In fact, this product will also play a big role in our planned cloud computing solutions for mid-size companies. Indian companies are excited about this technology. People are now also looking at cloud computing for their internal departments and not just as a third-party service. This thought process has taken root and the prospects seem quite bright.