Hitachi Vantara Doubles Down on Partner Business

Hitachi Vantara Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. highlighted the investments and progress the company has made in its partner business that have netted the company and its partners significant growth over the last year.

As it continues its transformation to help customers maximize the value of their data, the company has invested in its partner business as a critical component for growth.

Most recently, the Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure demonstrate the steps Hitachi Vantara is taking to address market demand through collaboration with and investment in its relationships.

In September 2018, Hitachi Vantara delivered VSP PRO solutions, which are simplified, partner-optimized configurations of Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP). The revamped Hitachi Vantara Partner Program, launched in April 2018, includes new competencies, delivery models, enablement and incentives. These initiatives demonstrate the increased focus the firm is placing on its partner ecosystem to deliver solutions that help customers address their transformation challenges.

Cisco and Hitachi Accelerate Data Center Modernization and Cloud
Cisco and Hitachi are capitalizing on their aligned priorities for data center modernization and cloud to deliver a converged solution that helps enterprises worldwide meet the challenges and position themselves for the future. Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure is a Cisco Validated Design (CVD) that combines the companies’ technologies including Hitachi storage and Cisco compute and networking. Engineered, tested and validated by both Cisco and Hitachi, the new meet-in-the-market solution is designed for partners to address demand for a validated Hitachi and Cisco converged infrastructure that supports high-end, enterprise-grade, multi-use application workloads and delivers an agile solution for continuous data availability and SLA management. It will be supported by both Cisco and Hitachi.

Over the last year, Hitachi Vantara has seen high single-digit growth in its converged business through partners. Sold and delivered by partners, the Cisco and Hitachi solution is expected to increase opportunity for both companies’ partner ecosystems in this space.

Hitachi VSP PRO Configurations
Introduced in September 2018, the pre-configured, cost-optimized Hitachi VSP PRO semi-customizable configurations are an example of how the company is delivering on its promises to simplify and accelerate sales cycles for partners. Created for the partner community, Hitachi VSP PRO solutions allow partners to quote small, medium, large and extra-large systems with an automated, self-service sales model that reduces the process from several hours to a matter of minutes. VSP PRO solutions have also helped partners initiate conversations with customers about VSP solutions more broadly, contributing to year-over-year growth in partner sales of VSP storage arrays.

Hitachi Vantara Reimagines Partner Program to Drive Ecosystem Success
When the company launched its partner program in April 2018, the company introduced new competencies, delivery models and flexibility for partners to choose how they engage with the company. In addition, the company reiterated its commitment to maximize profitability and improve self-service and automation for its partners. Since the program launched, the company has continued to deliver against these promises, resulting in improved overall partner engagement and satisfaction, growth of partner business revenues including double-digit growth among solution providers, and expansion of the company’s ecosystem in strategic focus areas such as big data analytics and IoT. The latter has resulted in additional collaboration with several strategic partners, including Tech Data Corp. and Computacenter plc, to improve the recruitment, onboarding, and sales and presales enablement of a growing ecosystem of partners focused on big data analytics and IoT – an ecosystem that has grown nearly 300% year over year.

“Cisco and Hitachi Vantara have collaborated to provide customers on a path to digital transformation with an enterprise data center modernization solution,” said Kaustubh Das, VP, product development and strategy, computing systems product group, Cisco. “The new Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure will accelerate deployment and simplify operations for our mutual customers.“

“Since 2004, we have partnered with Hitachi Vantara to help customers get the most from their data. For 15 years, our partnership has been successful for several reasons: the commitment Hitachi Vantara has demonstrated to our business, an aligned strategic focus, and the breadth of innovative offerings we have available to tackle customer challenges. In the last year, we’ve seen positive developments in these areas – from the new Hitachi Vantara partner program to new strategic solutions that address market demands and accelerate customers transformation – all contributing to Computacenter’s successes,” said Axel Hesales director datacenter, Computacenter Germany. “Today, with the new Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure offering, we believe we can do even more, helping more customers adopt a best-in-class modern infrastructure environment that meets their needs for today and tomorrow.“

“For nearly 20 years, the Tech Data-Hitachi Vantara partnership has driven success for thousands of customers. Over this period, our partnership has continued to expand, we’ve added exciting new offerings to our portfolio, and we’ve identified new opportunities available we can address together,” said Cheryl Neal, VP, data and networking solutions, Tech Data. “From data center modernization to advanced analytics for business intelligence, our partnership with Hitachi Vantara is enabling us to guide our partners to further transform for the future.  We’re excited to bring what’s next.“

“The new Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure build on our global Cisco partnership, paving the way for expanding our collaboration into new areas,” said Toshio Nakano, president of IT platform products management division, Hitachi. “Together, we will continue innovating to create customer value through data across solutions that address a broad range of customer needs.“

“Hitachi’s partners – from solution providers to strategic alliances such as Cisco – have been a cornerstone of our success for many years and continue to become a larger part of Hitachi Vantara’s overall business results. Together, we have successfully helped customers realize the power of their data,” said Scott Kelly, COO and chief transformation officer, Hitachi Vantara. “As Hitachi Vantara continues transforming to deliver innovation, we will continue to invest in an exciting future with our partners.“