Driving Innovation: Hitachi’s Private Cloud Transformation

Overview

Challenge

• At Hitachi, certain services within the internally operated private cloud are scheduled to be discontinued, which is expected to result in surplus server assets. At the same time, with data volumes continuing to grow year by year, it became necessary to regularly add storage systems.

Solution

• Implementation of VSP One SDS: To optimize overall private cloud costs and minimize new investments while managing the upgrade of storage capacity needed year by year, VSP One SDS Block was implemented, enabling the repurposing of x86 server assets into storage systems.

Outcome

• Cost optimization: Costs were effectively controlled by avoiding an increase in the number of hardware units.
• Scalability: Hardware costs were minimized since upgrades could be done on a per-server or per-drive basis.
• Balancing reliability and performance: Hitachi's patented Hitachi Polyphase Erasure Coding (HPEC) technology enabled the coexistence of high availability and excellent performance.

Challenge

Problem: Repurposing the surplus hardware assets

Hitachi drives Social Innovation Business, creating a sustainable society through the use of data and technology. Hitachi solves customers' and society's challenges with solutions leveraging IT, OT (Operational Technology) and products. Hitachi operates under the three business sectors of "Digital Systems & Services," "Green Energy & Mobility," and "Connective Industries." Revenues in these sectors for FY2023 (ended March 31, 2024) totaled 8,564.3B yen, with 573 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 270,000 employees worldwide.

Hitachi provides IT systems in the form of private cloud services for internal use by various Hitachi Group companies to support its wide-ranging business operations. As the company’s Lumada solution businesses continue to expand, the storage capacity required has grown steadily. To address this, plans were made to further expand the PB-class Hitachi VSP E-Series by hundreds of TBs at a time. At the same time, to optimize IT investments, there were plans to migrate certain services to the public cloud, which was expected to leave several hundred x86 server assets unused.

Tomoaki Kojima, the Director responsible for the infrastructure operations of the private cloud, was exploring ways to effectively utilize the surplus x86 server assets. If the servers were discontinued as is, the remaining lease costs would need to be paid in full to the supplier. Given this situation, Mr. Kojima was considering ways to repurpose these server assets for other systems, thereby reducing new investments and optimizing costs across the private cloud.

Solution

Repurposing Surplus x86 Servers as Storage with VSP One SDS Block

To effectively utilize the surplus x86 servers, Hitachi Vantara Japan (hereafter HV Japan) planned to implement VSP One SDS Block, which allows repurposing server assets as storage. At that time, Hitachi specified that having performance and availability equivalent to the previously used VSP E-Series was a condition for purchase. Therefore, HV Japan decided to build an evaluation system before proceeding with the full-scale implementation. To ensure performance equivalent to the VSP E-Series while maintaining a configuration capable of withstanding dual failures akin to RAID6, HV Japan provided consulting support. As a result, it was decided to build a cluster using eight x86 servers and purchasing a 200TB license. By utilizing the servers already owned and through HV Japan providing consistent information to Hitachi’s operational team via regular meetings, the implementation process went smoothly. As a result, the evaluation system was successfully built within just two months.

Hitachi’s system operations team conducted load testing from the host, as well as tests such as cluster failover and drive failures using the evaluation system. Initially, some test results did not meet expectations, but with the support of HV Japan, the causes were clearly identified and resolved. As a result, it was confirmed that the solution delivers the expected access performance and availability. This led to the decision to implement it into the private cloud, and it is currently being introduced sequentially.

VSP One SDS Block enables the creation of a virtual storage pool from multiple x86 servers, allowing them to be used as SAN storage. The storage system configured with these x86 servers has the following features:

• Repurposing Resources: Surplus x86 server assets can be converted into active storage devices, enabling the optimization of infrastructure costs.
• Start from Small System: A storage cluster can be configured with a minimum of three servers.
• Applicable to Enterprise Environments: Ensures high performance while maintaining availability capable of handling dual failures.

Engineer Yuki Ogawa summarized the advantages of the new configuration as follows. “We were able to repurpose x86 servers, which became unnecessary after the termination of certain services, as part of the storage infrastructure. By limiting investments to only the necessary resources, we were able to build a cost-effective storage solution.”

Outcome

SDS with Small Start and Flexible Expansion

By implementing VSP One SDS Block and repurposing surplus x86 servers as storage, the need for additional storage systems was reduced, enabling cost optimization across the entire system. Additionally, VSP One SDS Block deploys Hitachi's proprietary Hitachi Polyphase Erasure Coding (HPEC) technology, which generates dual parity, ensuring high availability that allows operations to continue even in the event of hardware dual failures. SDS solutions utilizing x86 servers may sometimes raise concerns regarding availability and performance compared to dedicated storage devices like the VSP E-Series. However, VSP One SDS Block is designed for enterprise systems that demand business continuity and stability, ensuring reliable usage even in such critical environments. Furthermore, after implementation, the cluster servers can be upgraded starting from a single unit, and disks can also be upgraded one by one to meet performance or capacity demands. This flexibility allows for the construction of a cost-efficient and adaptable IT infrastructure.

The data stored in VSP One SDS Block is backed up using Rubrik, which was also utilized with the VSP E-Series. By aligning backup operations with the existing VSP E-Series, Hitachi has achieved additional cost reductions.

Yuki Ogawa summarized the advantages of the new configuration as follows: “Since servers can be upgraded on a per-unit basis, flexible scaling was achieved according to resource needs. This approach enables upgrades based on the required resource amount, minimizing hardware and operational costs while ensuring efficient operations.”

He said specific advantages of VSP One SDS Block include:

• Flexible Scale Up: Servers can be added one at a time, and drives can also be expanded individually.
• Elimination of Storage Bottlenecks: VSP One SDS Block’s scale-out architecture allows performance bottlenecks to be resolved by adding nodes if they occur in the future.