At the heart of of Hitachi Data Systems cloud storage strategy is the HCP - formerly known as HCAP - an object-based storage system that offers transparent scalability, n-way clustering, integrated search for metadata and content, scales up to 40 PB of capacity, object-level replication, single instancing and its easy to manage of its life-cycle. It is already being used - as a private cloud within customer data centers. Evolving the HCP into a public storage cloud platform is a logical and natural step.
Hitachi is also taking a position that its SAN and NAS storage solutions are also part of a cloud storage strategy as well. Some of their existing customers are using it for private clouds for years (although we didn’t call it that) and there are even some service providers that are using the USP V as a semi-private cloud (see some stuff on Exacent - here and here).
Where everything begins and ends on Cloud Storage is implementation. Over the next year it will be important to understand how all of these initiatives and solutions have been used in the cloud by real customers - and not just with HDS but all of the storage vendors. So far, we have heard very little of about customers in this whole big buzz-fest from any vendor in regards to users of public clouds.
In my last blog - one reader said if I didn’t believe Cloud Storage was important than why blog about it. I actually do believe that Cloud Storage is important but I think we need to cut through the hyperbole and rhetoric and understand the practical realities. Amazon has over a billion objects stored on S2 - so yes - people are using storage in the public clouds. But it has not been embraced by the mainstream - certainly not as a replacement for on-premise core storage. And it is only just being considered as tertiary, DR and backup by the mainstream. At least based on the 80 or so customers that I have spoken to in the last six months on this topic. And I also think there is confusion between private and public clouds. I agree that many customers are considering private cloud implementations but public clouds as a complement to their internal IT infrastructure is still not being embraced.
Hitachi Data Systems is taking a pragmatic and reasoned approach to Cloud Storage - adding features, applications and capabilities for cloud enablement. They are extremely focused on being a storage company offering infrastructure and software for a number of use cases - with Cloud Storage being a potentially important one for the future.
My former employer - the Enterprise Strategy Group said this about Hitachi Cloud Storage that I think is a good encapsulation of the HDS Cloud Storage strategy (see the full ESG report by analyst Terri McClure):
“HDS has a well rounded vision for the future of cloud storage. Its vision is to build on its foundation of providing the industry‟s most integrated storage capabilities at the infrastructure layer, which provides the backbone to create cloud infrastructures for its customers’ unique requirements. Leveraging its expertise in block, file, and content storage, HDS is bringing the same type of data center integration, reliability, automation, security, storage efficiency, and performance to cost effectively scale cloud storage environments from terabytes to exabytes.”
I would like to see Hitachi talk more about services, partnerships and education around cloud storage. I want to hear about best practices and enablement programs for customers to develop private clouds. And they should have Cloud Storage programs working closely with services providers on developing these services for public and semi-public Clouds.
My observation is that the way that markets often work is that it isn’t enough to build technology that addresses a new use case. When something like Cloud Storage comes along and there is a bunch of hype and buzz - often this creates a ton of confusion. Therefore it is important not just to react but to create the answer and then educate others.
Comments (0)
