November 21, 2001
Information Services International Dentsu
and Hitachi Establish a Structure for Co-operation on Storage Solutions
Information Services International Dentsu Ltd (head office location: Nakano-ku, Tokyo; Chairman and Representative Director Jutaro Takinami; known as ISID for short) and Hitachi, Ltd. (head office location: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and Director Etsuhiko Shoyama; referred to hereafter as Hitachi) have reached an agreement on the establishment of a structure for co-operation in the development of joint business in SAN (Storage Area Network) product solutions based on the Hitachi SANRISE series of storage products, and will start co-operative activities in full scale from November 26.
[Background to the Agreement]
While expectations of what can be achieved through a SAN are rising, in fact, realizing a SAN environment is quite difficult. To derive the maximum benefit from SAN requires a group of high-level technological products and the capability of building a solution for achieving the goal by combining them. The forthcoming co-operative venture by the two companies aims at combining their respective strengths -- ISID's track record in the creation of large-scale mission-critical systems and of systems that apply advanced internet technology, and Hitachi's storage product range (the SANRISE series) and assembling of SAN solutions -- so as to offer storage solutions in a comprehensive way.
Focusing on the field of storage, which is expected to grow even more in the future, the two companies have decided to establish a more co-operative structure for expanding sales of SAN products, and to pursue joint deployment.
The scope and content of this co-operative agreement are as follows.
[Purpose]
To provide the market with optimum storage solutions by combining ISID's strengths in consultancy and system development with Hitachi's storage products as well as their related technology.
[Scope and Content of the Agreement]
Technical Co-operation : Joint Development and Verification
- establishment within ISID of a Competence Center and construction of an environment for the SANRISE 2000 series and related products.
- construction by both companies together of an environment for the demonstration
and verificaiton of SAN-related technology; conduct of thorough pre-testing
in order to make proposals for systems that better meet customer needs.
(Preliminary study of clients' performance requirements, construction of back-up environment, monitoring for faults, and fine-tuning of performance, etc. Operating system accompanies all of the above.)
Marketing and Sales Co-operation - Joint Promotion
- Joint proposals and sales of a range of SAN products that will realize a high level of availability.
- Activities to supply and disseminate information about the SAN product range through such means as joint seminars, etc.
- Monitoring for faults storage environments that have been sold to clients, providing a preventive maintenance structure that runs 24-hours a day/365 days a year.
[Organization]
ISID will put together a project team to work on the implementation of this agreement, comprising 5 sales staff and 10 engineers, creating a staffing capacity for sales and technical support.
[Sales Goals]
ISID expects to achieve sales worth ¥500,000,000 by the end of March 2002 through implementation consultancy, installation work and sales of hardware.
[Contact Details for Business Enquiries]
Information Services International Dentsu Ltd, Industrial Solutions Division: phone 03-3228-8137
Hitachi, Ltd, RAID Systems Division, Sales Planning Department: phone 03-5471-2615
[REFERENCE: About SAN]
In an era in which many speak of internet business, of an IT revolution, of ERP, data warehousing, of TCO reduction and so on, the unavoidable necessity has arisen for the information systems that give back-end-support to the quest for convenience and efficiency to change into gigantic information systems that transcend boundaries of time and space. Defining the needs for such transformed information systems is seen as including the following two major problems:
[rapid growth in the volume of data traffic that makes advance estimation very difficult]
[an increased operation and management load through having to deal separately with distributed platforms]
A technology known as SAN (Storage Area Network) has been used to solved these problems.
A SAN (Storage Area Network) is an arrangement whereby a dedicated network is created linking data storage disk or tape or other devices to a server, thereby increasing operational efficiency in a system's speed of access to stored data, centralized administration, shared use of data, data copying and backup etc, as well as making it more scalable and more trouble-proof. It offers the followin benefits:
For the User
Improved system efficiency
•fiber channel: drastic improvements in storage input/output performance
•reduction in LAN load: data copying and backup etc are not effected via LAN
•shared use of data: data can be shared between multiple servers (including different types of machine)
For the System Administrator
System flexibility
•fiber channel: relaxation of distance restrictions between data storage devices and servers makes for greater flexibility in conditions of equipments.
•centralization of storage administration: multiple storage data can be administered centrally.
•independent storage: storage devices are independent from the server environment, making for flexibility in applying settings, and also making it possible to expand storage environment.
For Management
Reduction in TCO
•fiber channel: task processing time reduced due to drastic improvement in performance.
•centralized backup: reduction in storage administration personnel and in equipment costs.
•centralization of performance/troubles/expansion or reduction: reduced storage costs with more effective use of storage
Company Profile of Hitachi
Company Name: Hitachi, Ltd.
Represented by: President and Director Etsuhiko Shoyama
Location of HQ: 4-6 Surugadai, Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Company established: February 1, 1920
Capital as of March 31, 2001: ¥281,754 million
No. of employees: 340,939 (as of end March 2001; consolidated basis)
Consolidated sales: ¥8,416,982 million
Nature of business:
Manufacture and distribution of a wide range of products such as computers, semiconductors, home electrical appliances, power plant/industrial equipments
