Hitachi Data Systems Customers Honoured for IT Innovation

IDG Computerworld Honors Awards Recognise Virtualisation Projects that Influence Business, Society and the World

SYDNEY— June 11, 2013 - Hitachi Data Systems Corporation (HDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., (TSE: 6501), today announced that its customers HBF and Institute of Information Science (IZUM) have been named Laureate award winners by the 2013 IDG Computerworld Honors Program. This award recognises individuals and organisations that create and use information technology to promote positive social, economic and educational change. HBF received the award in the category of Emerging Technology, while IZUM was honored in the category of Philanthropy. Both customers were recognised during the Annual Laureate Medal Ceremony & Gala Awards Evening on June 3, 2013, at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C.

"Hitachi Data Systems would like to congratulate HBF and IZUM for being named 2013 Computerworld Honors Laureates. Both companies are great examples of what it means to innovate with information," said Asim Zaheer, senior vice president, Worldwide Marketing, Hitachi Data Systems. "We are privileged to work with our customers to deliver innovative information solutions and services that help move businesses forward and improve society."

"Technology continues to play a pivotal role in transforming how business and society functions. For the past 25 years the Computerworld Honors Program has had the privilege of celebrating innovative IT achievements," said John Amato, vice president and publisher, Computerworld. "Computerworld is honored to recognise the outstanding accomplishments of the 2013 class of Laureates and to share their work. These projects demonstrate how IT can advance organisations' ability to compete, innovate, communicate and prosper."

HBF
HBF is the largest private health insurer in Western Australia, supporting the health and well-being of 900,000 Western Australians. The organisation also sells general insurance offerings, including travel, car, life, and home and contents insurance. HBF has a distributed workforce comprising nearly 650 staff members spread across 19 service centres and its central office in Perth; all requiring access to the data and internal business applications located at the head office.
By deploying Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP), HBF was able to effectively consolidate its existing infrastructure assets into an environment that is now more than 50 per cent virtualised. Moreover, combined with Hitachi Command Suite management software, HBF is set for optimal infrastructure growth and has the flexibility and scalability it needs to efficiently store, access and move all of its current and growing data. The new solution also allowed the organisation to successfully complete its VDI project without experiencing any downtime, ensuring an optimal experience for users.

Institute of Information Science (IZUM)
The Institute of Information Science (IZUM) is a public, not-for-profit organisation founded by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. IZUM provides library information services to more than 600 Slovenian libraries, allowing the entire country’s population to have anytime access to the national bibliographic system, as well as resources for research, education and culture.

Due to IZUM’s database being available at all times to its nearly 3,000 librarians and more than 300,000 public users who access millions of book titles, libraries began facing challenges with the existing system’s performance, availability and reliability. To ensure its systems didn't have issues with storage space, IZUM upgraded its existing infrastructure with Hitachi Data Systems virtualisation technologies Hitachi Universal Storage Platform® VM, the industry’s first unified storage product that provides enterprise-class virtualisation for all data types (block, file and object), and Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning, thin provisioning software that provides virtual storage capacity. IZUM has seen impressive results, including 100 per cent availability reliability and flexibility of its book database system. Additionally, by implementing HDS virtualisation technologies, IZUM has significantly simplified data management and migration tasks.

About the Computerworld Honors Program
Founded by International Data Group (IDG) in 1988, The Computerworld Honors Program is governed by the not-for-profit Computerworld Information Technology Awards Foundation. Computerworld Honors is the longest running global program to honour individuals and organizations that use information technology to promote positive social, economic and educational change. The 2013 Computerworld Honors Program feature will appear in the June 3rd issue of Computerworld as well as online.

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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 6,000 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 http://www.hds.com/anz/.

About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 326,000 employees worldwide. The company’s consolidated revenues for fiscal 2012 (ended March 31, 2013) totaled 9,041 billion yen ($96.1 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, power systems, construction machinery, high functional material & components, automotive systems and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

Press Contacts:
Hitachi Data Systems
Isabel Wagner
+61 2 9325 3365
isabel.wagner@hds.com

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