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Hitachi Data Systems and AppIQ Enter Global Storage Management Software Partnership

Posted on: Monday, 27 October 2003, 06:00 CST

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 27, 2003--

Customers to Benefit from Improved Storage Management

Capabilities, Reduced Storage Management Costs

and Increased Product Depth

Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), and AppIQ, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise storage management software solutions, today announced a global partnership that supports Hitachi's storage area management software strategy.

The first result of this partnership is Hitachi Data Systems' delivery of new, co-branded storage management software applications based on the AppIQ StorageAuthority(TM) Suite. These new products add comprehensive, standards-based SAN management, storage resource management, and heterogeneous provisioning solutions to Hitachi Data Systems' software portfolio, and dramatically expand AppIQ's worldwide sales and support network. Also, as part of the agreement, Hitachi Data Systems has licensed AppIQ's CIMIQ-X management platform to develop new software modules, and has the option to take an equity stake in AppIQ.

"The partnership between HDS and AppIQ exemplifies an innovative approach to building a world-class software business. There is a relatively small industry talent pool of key specialists to draw upon, and by forming partnerships that complement its existing strengths in software R&D, Hitachi will be able to accelerate delivery of its solutions," said Bill North, Research Director, IDC. "Customers will be able to benefit almost immediately from the combined expertise and new capabilities represented by these storage network management products."

In line with the Hitachi TrueNorth(TM) vision, Hitachi Data Systems will deliver long-term solutions for customers by integrating AppIQ's best-in-class software platform with the proven HiCommand(R) suite of products to help customers dramatically reduce the costs of managing heterogeneous storage resources. Hitachi Data Systems and AppIQ have both demonstrated a commitment to open standards and a Web services-based approach to storage management, while others have tried -- and failed -- to promote proprietary storage management software offerings.

"Hitachi has always recognized that no single company can meet all customer requirements, and has always promoted an ecosystem of strong storage partners," said Scott Genereux, Vice President, Global Marketing & Business Development, Hitachi Data Systems. "This new, open platform based on AppIQ's technology already supports products from Hitachi partners HP, McDATA, Sun Microsystems, NetApp, Brocade -- as well as EMC -- and provides a foundation that supports the continued evolution of the Hitachi storage ecosystem."

"Storage area management is such an integral part of an enterprise's IT infrastructure. Therefore, we have invested the time to build a strong foundation for our software strategy over the last year as opposed to a 'first to market at any cost' approach," said Dave Roberson, President and COO, Hitachi Data Systems. "After extensive evaluation of the key storage management software players, we determined that AppIQ's comprehensive, integrated, standards-based solutions were the best fit for our customers' needs."

"We were impressed with Hitachi Data Systems' thorough evaluation in choosing a long term software partner," said Dave Lemont, President and CEO, AppIQ. "It was also important for us to find a partner as committed to the CIM and SMI-S industry standards as we are. This global partnership will further advance AppIQ's enterprise software as a leading business solution for building an application-focused storage utility."

"Our excellent partnership with Hitachi Data Systems is key to meeting our customers' needs for flexible storage solutions," said Mark Canepa, Executive Vice President, Sun Microsystems, Network Storage. "Today's announcement further enables standards-based management and interoperability -- the key to flexibility in the customer environment. Sun is a leader in the adoption of SMI-S standards and continues to support AppIQ's CIMIQ-X efforts to make storage software SMI-S compliant. In the end, the customers win."

The co-branded AppIQ products will integrate seamlessly with existing Hitachi HiCommand software modules -- including Device Manager and Tuning Manager -- to further the Hitachi TrueNorth vision of providing best-of-breed standards-based products to simplify, optimize, and protect customers' information infrastructures.

The new products include:

-- HiCommand Storage Services Manager

-- HiCommand Business Modules
-- HiCommand Path Provisioning
-- HiCommand Chargeback

-- HiCommand Application Modules
-- HiCommand QoS for Oracle
-- HiCommand QoS for Exchange
-- HiCommand QoS for File Servers

"All of the solutions announced today are agent-lite, and built atop a common SMI-S and CIM-based architecture and data model," said Claus Mikkelsen, Senior Director, Storage Applications, Hitachi Data Systems. "To deliver equivalent functionality, competitors are gluing together different products from acquired companies, and papering over the fact that each requires separate installations, heavy agents, user's guides, databases and learning curves."

See separate press release for additional product details.

About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems leverages global R&D resources to develop storage solutions built on industry-leading technology with the performance, availability and scalability to maximize customers' ROI and minimize their risk. By focusing on the customer's perspective as we apply the best hardware, software, and services from Hitachi and our partners, we uniquely satisfy our customers' business needs.

With 2,700 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts business through direct and indirect channels in the public, government and private sectors in over 170 countries. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.hds.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 340,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2002 (ended March 31, 2003) consolidated sales totaled 8,191.7 billion yen ($68.3 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors, including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's Web site at global.hitachi.com.

About AppIQ

AppIQ, Inc. provides comprehensive software solutions that enable enterprise IT organizations to efficiently manage data storage as an application-focused utility. AppIQ's storage area management solutions seamlessly integrate physical and logical storage resource discovery, provisioning, monitoring, reporting, and policy-based automation, and correlate the availability of business-critical applications such as Oracle and Microsoft Exchange with storage network capacity and performance. Customers that rely on AppIQ solutions to reduce operational costs, improve IT efficiency and ensure application availability include Boston Stock Exchange, Nielsen Media Research and The Weather Channel. AppIQ, based in Burlington, Mass, is a privately held firm funded by Matrix Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, and other investors. For more information, visit http://www.appiq.com.

TrueNorth is a trademark and HiCommand is a registered trademark of Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. All other trade names, trademarks, and service marks are the rightful property of their respective owners.

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