Hitachi Vantara Integrated Solution With Microsoft Azure Transforming Hybrid Cloud Management

Hitachi Vantara LLC, subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., announced the next evolution of its collaboration with Microsoft Corp. to launch Unified Compute Platform (UCP) for Azure Stack HCI.

This hybrid cloud solution increases business agility and delivers enhanced cloud management across multiple environments including data centers, branch offices and edge computing, providing businesses with visibility and control over how their data is stored, managed and utilized.

A 2022 report found that more than 4 in 5 organizations were deploying a hybrid cloud model, an increase over the previous year, due to the flexibility provided by balancing data between public cloud, private cloud and on-premises. However, as the volume of data continues to grow exponentially, the complexity of managing multiple environments can lead to a lack of integration across data sources that limits a company’s ability to extract business value, and it can drive up management costs.

This joint solution combines the power of Azure cloud services with the scalability and flexibility benefits provided by the UCP cloud infrastructure. As a result, customers can run workloads consistently and seamlessly within on-premises data centers, cloud environments, or edge locations while leveraging the flexibility to scale capacity up or down based on business needs. Additionally, the solution utilizes intelligent automation and advanced analytics, and provides ‘single pane of glass’ viewing to increase data visibility and make management of hybrid cloud infrastructure easier.

“Our customers have enormous volumes of distributed data at the edge, core and cloud requiring easy and resilient access to analyze in real-time to make informed decisions, custom tailored to meet dynamic business demands,” said Dan McConnell, SVP, product management-storage, Hitachi Vantara. “Through our collaboration with Microsoft and our end-to-end engineered systems approach, we help optimize our customers’ cloud architecture to better harness their data, lower operating costs and improve application and user experiences.”

The company’s hybrid cloud solution is generally available and supports organizations utilizing a mix of traditional and newer, container-based applications.

Key customer benefits include:

• Flexibility and choice: UCP for Azure Stack HCI supports multiple validated configurations, a feature which enhances the hybrid cloud portfolio and extends modern application infrastructure possibilities, including architecture powered by the firm’s Virtual Storage Platform (VSP). Customers also have the option to purchase the Azure solution with the EverFlex infrastructure-as-a-service subscription model for greater scalability and pay-per-use pricing to align IT costs with business needs.
• Scalability: Customers can deploy the UCP hybrid cloud solution starting with one Hitachi server and scale up to 16 nodes, allowing them to leverage a range of configurations and optimized data management for specific analytics and requirements.
• Vertical solutions, global reach: Customers in vertical industries such as manufacturing, financial, retail, telecommunications, health care, media, and entertainment benefit from the company’s deep domain experience to meet these industry-specific business needs and compliance requirements. Additionally, Hitachi has a leading supply chain and installation services WW to deliver a robust and comprehensive Azure hybrid cloud experience across the globe.

In addition to UCP for Azure Stack HCI, the company also has validated 2 Azure Arc-enabled data services providing modern application solutions for Microsoft customers. This enhancement allows customers to modernize important applications and deliver cloud services across IT locations with centralized Azure Arc management.