HDS Announces Customer Incentives

Hitachi Data Systems Corporation
announced a joint initiative with Microsoft and select channel and systems
integrator partners to transform the data center and accelerate hybrid and
private cloud adoption by offering incentives for customers who deploy
new Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP) Select for Microsoft Private Cloud.

This new program runs from July 1, 2013 to July 1, 2014, and aligns with
Microsoft’s Cloud OS Accelerate program, which provides funds to help customers
offset the services cost of deploying Microsoft private and hybrid cloud
solutions, accelerates deals, and helps drive competitive wins.

As announced earlier this year at MMS 2013, Hitachi UCP Select for Microsoft
Private Cloud solutions have been validated for Microsoft’s Private Cloud Fast
Track architecture, version 3. The Hitachi converged infrastructure for Microsoft
Private Cloud Fast Track, version 3, ships pre-configured from Hitachi
distribution centers and is architected for Windows Server 2012, System Center
2012 SP1 and the associated monitoring packs – PowerShell cmdlets (pronounced ‘command-lets’) and orchestration integrations. The Hitachi converged
infrastructure combines Hitachi compute and Hitachi storage with virtualization capabilities and networking.

HDS designed Hitachi UCP Select for Microsoft Private Cloud to deliver
scalable, preconfigured, and validated infrastructure platforms for
on-premises, private cloud implementations. Designed for on-premises
traditional IT, telcos and service providers, the solution lets
customers deploy, allocate, secure, and manage resources for
agile infrastructure-as-a-service or platform-as-a-service.
Customers can deploy line-of-business applications
using self-provisioning and decommissioning automated data center services in a
virtualized environment.

"Customers can be up and running in
days instead of months and realize a significant increase in time to value with
our solutions for Microsoft private cloud," said Asim Zaheer, SVP WW
marketing, HDS. "HDS is proud to
deliver innovative solutions that are optimized for Windows Server Hyper-V, and
tightly integrated with System Center management and orchestration. Together,
we – Hitachi, Microsoft, and our channel and systems integrator partners –
provide incentives to help customers migrate, deploy and manage enterprise
applications and workloads on their very own Microsoft private cloud."

Hitachi UCP Select for Microsoft Private Cloud solutions are based on
Microsoft-validated reference architectures that provide integration with
System Center 2012 VM Manager and transparent live migration of VMs on
same-site and multi-site deployments up to distances of 200 kilometers, or 125
miles. It supports
provisioning of compute and storage resources, allowing customers to
provision VMs with support for System Center 2012 Orchestrator. With
the heterogeneous virtualization capabilities of Hitachi Virtual Storage
Platform and Hitachi Unified Storage VM, companies can extend their investments
in supported 3rd-party storage.

"Microsoft’s cloud OS vision pulls
together what have traditionally been separate technologies, including server
virtualization, storage and networking, into one consistent platform that spans
our customers’ datacenters, service provider datacenters and Windows Azure,"
said Takeshi Numoto, corporate VP, server and tools marketing, Microsoft.
"We are excited to work with HDS to help our joint customers deploy robust Microsoft private cloud
solutions and realize the benefits of Microsoft’s cloud OS vision."

HDS and Microsoft have a long-standing relationship that has delivered
mission-critical solutions to customers around the world. Hitachi solutions
that support Microsoft applications and workloads include Hitachi Compute
Blade, Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform – the storage virtualization platform
for enterprise data centers, Hitachi Unified Storage systems, and Hitachi
Storage Cluster for Windows Server Hyper-V, an end-to-end server-to-storage
virtualization solution.

HDS has a global presence with Microsoft and our Microsoft
channel partner and systems integrator partner community.

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