Hitachi’s service oriented strategy behind VTL solution

Simon Elisha, chief technologist for Hitachi Data Systems told CRN that SOSS – a term coined by Hitachi – is driving the vendor’s research and development. Recently launching a range of VTL solutions, Elisha claimed SOSS provides a greater value proposition to resellers.

“Our overall strategy is a services oriented services strategy and this means we provide a platform that can deliver services to businesses based on their technical requirements,” he said.

According to Elisha, data de-duplication is currently a talking point in the channel. He refers specifically to business opportunities the technology offers resellers.

“There are very few overall solution presentations I’m doing at the moment to Australian customers that don’t include the de-duplication discussion,” he said. “It is cool technology from a purely technical perspective, but the business value it translates into is easily digested by business sponsors.”

A recent IDC study revealed the worldwide VTL market will continue to experience growth in both revenue and terabytes – revenue predicted to reach $1.334 billion and terabytes to reach 1,143,905TB by 2011.

“It’s a real growth area and there’s a huge amount of interest from customers both in terms of purchasing and evaluating the technology. It’s certainly part of the strategic plans moving forward from a storage platform,” said Elisha.

The technical complexity of data de-duplication has created a need to educate channel partners not only in product specifications, but also go-to-market strategy, said Elisha. He added that opportunity for resellers lies in uncovering the specific needs of a business and adding value via the SOSS model.

“Where we add a lot of value is in taking the time to understand each organisation’s unique requirements. VTL and data-duplication technology is not a magic pudding, there’s a lot of science behind it and it’s important to work with people who understand it,” he said.