HDS Content Archive Certified for SAP NetWeaver

Hitachi Data Systems Corporation announced that the Hitachi Content Archive Platform has achieved SAP certified integration designation. Through testing in the SAP Integration and Certification Center (SAP ICC), the Hitachi Content Archive Platform has attained Certified for SAP NetWeaver designation for the information lifecycle management (ILM) solution from SAP. Customers can now easily employ the Hitachi Content Archive Platform for use with the information lifecycle management (ILM) solution from SAP to ensure end-to-end enforcement of data retention policies to better meet compliance requirements, while lowering operating costs.

In close alignment with its services oriented approach to storage, Hitachi Data Systems is providing the only multi-tier storage solution which allows customers to store and manage their active and archived data using a common and integrated platform that enables existing storage infrastructure and investments to be leveraged, and greatly reduces management and operational costs.

"We’re excited about our certification for the Hitachi Content Archive Platform," said Brian Householder, senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing and Business Development at Hitachi Data Systems. "The use of open standards in this certification helps ensure that customers can store and protect their data, obtain access to data following requests more quickly, and support corporate content preservation initiatives."

The WebDAV integration certification for the ILM solution from SAP, known as ILM – WebDAV storage interface 2.0 (BC-ILM 2.0), relies on a new capability of the SAP NetWeaver platform Release 7.0 to define archive and retention policies, apply legal hold, conduct e-discovery requests, and decommission legacy systems. This functionality enables data to be passed to an intelligent, ‘ILM-aware’ tier of archive storage via the open-standard WebDAV for SAP Data Archiving interface.

By achieving SAP NetWeaver designation, Hitachi Data Systems brings several benefits to Hitachi Content Archive Platform customers, including the ability to:

• Store SAP application data in the Hitachi Content Archive Platform directly via WebDAV, without the cost and complexity of a third-party connector
• Allow archive and retention policies set in the SAP application for objects and unstructured content to be applied to archived data
• Protect SAP application data through the Hitachi Content Archive Platform’s pro-active data protection, and replication policies
• Secure SAP application data through encryption of data at rest
• Share archive with additional archive applications such as e-mail and file archiving
• Utilize an open, highly scalable active-archive platform for both structured and unstructured SAP application data (with support from vendors that have achieved certified integration with the SAP ArchiveLink(R) software for unstructured content)
• Leverage Hitachi Data Systems’ services-oriented approach to storage, which provides the industry’s only multi-tier storage solution to store and manage data utilizing a common, integrated platform, greatly reducing management and operational costs

Today’s announcement builds on Hitachi Data System’s existing partnership with Open Text, which enables archiving of unstructured SAP application data via its LiveLink Enterprise Archive (LEA) solution, to provide an open, highly scalable active archive platform for both structured and unstructured SAP application data. Unlike other solutions which have a proprietary interface and require a third-party connector, the Hitachi Content Archive Platform integrates support for open standard protocols including WebDAV, HTTP, NFS, and CIFS, which makes integration for partners such as SAP simple, contributes to lower upfront costs, and also eases support burdens.