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Hitachi Data Systems Sweeps Storage Magazine's 2013 Quality Awards

March 20, 2013


Customers Choose HDS as #1 in Technical Support, Sales Competence, Product Features, Product Quality and Product Reliability

SANTA CLARA, Calif.— March 20, 2013 — Hitachi Data Systems Corporation (HDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), today announced it has been recognized as the top enterprise vendor by the readers of Storage magazine/SearchStorage.com in the 2013 Quality Awards. The company swept all 5 main categories for enterprise arrays – Sales-force Competence, Product Features, Product Initial Quality, Product Reliability and Technical Support. This marked the second time a company has ranked #1 in all categories. The first time this was accomplished 8 years ago was also HDS. The overall score by Hitachi Data Systems is the highest ever recorded, and it set new highs in Sales-force Competence, Product Reliability and Technical Support. In fact, the score for Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) in the Product Reliability category is the highest a vendor and product have ever scored in any category.

“We’re proud that our customers have given HDS products, services and support top honors and in such commanding fashion,”said John Mansfield, executive vice president, Global Solutions Strategy and Development, Hitachi Data Systems.“As a world-class engineering and development company, we create products like Hitachi VSP with the highest standards of quality and reliability to help our customers achieve greater efficiencies throughout the data center. It’s great to see Hitachi VSP continue to be the dominant enterprise platform for virtualized environments, and this recognition from our customers shows that Hitachi VSP continues to outpace the competition and capture market share.”

“At HDS, we know that information integrity and availability are mission-critical to our customers’ businesses, and we are committed to providing the best support experience in the industry,” said Hicham Abdessamad, senior vice president, Global Services, Hitachi Data Systems. “Thanks so much to our customers for recognizing our dedication, loyalty, knowledge and accountability to help them in their continued success.”

Highlights of Hitachi Data Systems rankings from Storage magazine (scores on a scale from 1.00 to 8.00 with 8.00 being highest):
-Overall Rating – 6.78: “Hitachi Data Systems recouped the crown it ceded five years ago with a clean sweep of the five ratings categories to prevail over some tough competition.”
-Sales-force Competence – 6.84: “Hitachi outran all competitors with top marks for all six statements in this category…with remarkably consistent ratings. Hitachi had the highest statement rating for ‘my sales rep understands my business.’" The company was recognized for “knowledgeable sales support teams” and “reps who are well-versed regarding their customers’ industries.”
-Initial Product Quality – 6.57: “Hitachi’s score for “this product was installed without any defects” was the highest mark among all vendors in this category.”
-Product Features – 6.70
: “Hitachi just missed 7.00 scores for capacity scaling and interoperability with other vendors’ products, which might not be so surprising as its gear is also a virtualization platform.”
-Product Reliability – 7.00: “Once again, Hitachi was at the forefront, but in a big way this time by racking up a category score of 7.00; this isn’t only the highest reliability mark we’ve ever seen, but it’s also the first time an enterprise array earned a 7.00 in any category.” HDS swept all five statements and scored even higher than 7.00 in “limiting downtime” and “meeting service-level requirements.”
-Technical Support – 6.76: “Hitachi went on to lead the field on seven of the eight statements in this critical category,” including delivering support as promised, taking ownership of problems and for having knowledgeable support personnel. In fact, Hitachi’s category average of 6.76…ranked as the best mark ever in this category for enterprise arrays.”


About Storage Magazine’s Quality Awards

The Storagemagazine/SearchStorage.com Quality Awards are designed to identify and recognize products that have proven their quality and reliability in actual use. The results are derived from a survey of qualified readers who assess products in five main categories: sales-force competence, initial product quality, product features, product reliability and technical support. Its methodology incorporates statistically valid polling that eliminates market share as a factor. The objective is to identify the most reliable products on the market regardless of vendor name, reputation or size. Products were rated on a scale of 1.00 to 8.00, where 8.00 is the best score. A total of 252 respondents provided 411 system evaluations.

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About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems provides information technologies, services and solutions that help companies improve IT costs and agility, and innovate with information to make a difference in the world. Our customers gain compelling return on investment (ROI), unmatched return on assets (ROA), and demonstrable business impact. With approximately 5,900 employees worldwide, Hitachi Data Systems does business in more than 100 countries and regions. Our products, services and solutions are trusted by the world's leading enterprises, including more than 70% of the Fortune 100 and more than 80% of the Fortune Global 100. Visit us at www.HDS.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 320,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2011 (ended March 31, 2012) consolidated revenues totaled 9,665 billion yen ($117.8 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes information and telecommunication systems, power systems, industrial, transportation and urban development systems, as well as the sophisticated materials and key devices that support them. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

Press Contacts:

Hitachi Data Systems
Melissa Rossiter
(408) 970-4849
melissa.rossiter@hds.com


Lois Paul & Partners

Brandi Ellerbee
(512) 638-5327
brandi_ellerbee@lpp.com