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Building Your Future on a Name

Marcus Maddox
Global Alliance Manager

December 03, 2020


How would you feel about bringing in a pod? Or adding a block? Or perhaps opting for a stack?

All credit to those imaginative people in marketing, but when you’re looking at data management to fit these unpredictable times, we think it pays to be more literal with your labels.

What Would You Stake Your Future On?

pod? The dictionary defines a pod as a compartment or part of a fruit. It has beauty, it has aesthetics, it even has aroma. But is it strong? Is it supportive?

block? Better perhaps? A solid structural element. You can build structures with blocks – in time.

A stack? When you think about stacks, you think about stacks of things. Things that pile high. Books, paper, chairs. Items you put away, not necessarily use.

Let’s Stick To the Logic

Descriptors like these all have their benefits, but you really shouldn’t settle for anything less than a solution that screams out how all-encompassing it is. And although it might make our marketing department heave and sigh, we’re happy to stick with Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure.

Not the shortest and snappiest of names, but that’s what we provide: a full set of solutions that adapt to your infrastructure and business needs.

Adaptive To Make Migration Easier For You

You could be looking at your data center, thinking about legacy storage, and baulking at the prospect of all that heavy lifting. This is where the adaptive nature of our storage platform comes into its own.

You can easily virtualize your existing data footprint, meaning you don’t have to physically go in and sweep the floor of all your storage. It’s easier to take control and manage, with a painless migration.

Adaptive To Help You Stay Relevant

Let’s take the example of running a bank as COVID-19 changed our lives. All of a sudden nobody’s going into branches; everyone’s online. The demand on your electronic banking infrastructure has gone up one-thousand-fold.

That was a trend you were planning for, but didn’t expect so quickly. You need to act fast, asking yourself some practical questions along the way:

Can I quickly scale and change our operations?
Can I scale my compute independent of my storage?
Am I networking to make that work as-is, or do I have to throw it all out and do something else?

If you’ve got a block, if you’ve got a pod or if you’ve got a stack, you might have to clear the deck and start over. But if you’ve got something that’s an adaptive solution, you’re in a much better place.

This approach covers the entire range of our storage, from VSP 350 all the way up to a VSP 5500. No heavy lifting. No new ergonomics, management, software or other learning curve to hurriedly tackle.

Right Now, Agility Isn’t Enough

Being able to be agile and change and grow and scale due to external factors, on a dime, is a requirement now for business. And that requirement goes down to your IT infrastructure.

We Feel Your Pain

We’re more prone to labeling our solutions with descriptive, practical titles because our company actually does the things our customers do. Hitachi runs everything from banks to healthcare facilities. We’re in energy. We’re in manufacturing. Just like our customers.

So our approach is born from experience. We know what problems (or ‘pain points’ as they say in marketing) need to be solved. That’s how we understand the need for outcomes and how to get there.

In fact, let’s go even further. Let’s really give our marketing people heart attacks and go with Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure with 100% availability. Okay, perhaps there isn’t enough room for that one on any label, but it brings in a very important differentiator for you.

100% Availability — Why Risk Anything Less?

What would application downtime cost you? 14 hours cost Facebook $80 million in March last year. A high-end example, but it illustrates why it pays to choose the only solution that has been offering this guarantee for years now – 100% availability.

The beauty is you’re also gaining a new level of nimbleness, quickness and agility at the same time.

The Best Way Forward With Cisco

Deciding on Cisco networking technology is clearly a smart move. In terms of connecting people, places and things, they do more than anybody else in the world. Moving data in a secure, safe fashion to support businesses in an adaptable way is exactly what Hitachi Vantara is about, too.

That’s why we think it’s better to think beyond pods, blocks, and stacks — and choose the complete solution.

Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure


Marcus Maddox

Marcus Maddox is Global Alliance Manager, Hitachi Vantara.