Hitachi Vantara Enhances Multi-Cloud, Hybrid Cloud Capabilities With Improved Hitachi Content Platform

Hitachi Vantara is expanding its multi-cloud governance and data protection capabilities with the introduction of new capabilities around its Hitachi Content Platform.

Several new multi-cloud optimizations around the Hitachi Content Platform, including enhanced cloud connectivity and file services, were introduced to partners and business customers at the Hitachi Next 2018 conference, being held this week in San Diego.

The Hitachi Content Platform is Hitachi Vantara's offering for managing growing amounts of object storage. The company adds value to the platform via analytics capabilities from Hitachi Vantara's Pentaho business intelligence technology, said John Magee, vice president of portfolio marketing for the company.

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The Hitachi Content Platform is at the center of Hitachi Vantara's multiple-cloud management capabilities for customers looking for data protection, disaster recovery and sharing of data, Magee told CRN.

"Customers want data in public clouds, branch office, and so on," he said. "The Hitachi Content Platform allows them to manage data across multiple infrastructures, including more than one cloud, remote and branch offices, and the edge."

Hitachi Vantara, Santa Clara, Calif., last year was formed by combining the Hitachi Data Systems storage and data center infrastructure business, its Hitachi Insight Group IoT business, and its Pentaho big data business into a new combined company aimed at delivering new collaborative data offerings for commercial and industrial enterprises.

New to the Hitachi Content Platform are Amazon S3 extensions that provide customers with enhanced data retention capabilities as well as improved replication before data is tiered to make it easier to back that data up to Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure without losing the content to improve global data protection, Magee said.

"It can be a real challenge to keep track of data," he said.

While the Hitachi Content Platform has been available as a software-based appliance and as a physical appliance, going forward it will also be available to run on VMware vSAN-based hyper-converged platforms including Hitachi's own Unified Compute Platform, Magee said.

In addition, Hitachi Vantara's HPC Anywhere platform, which replaces traditional file servers with cloud file storage and cloud-based directories, is now available in a new version, HPC Anywhere Edge.

HPC Anywhere Edge brings core file sharing data services such as file synchronization to remote and branch offices and end-user devices, making it easier for customers to keep active data on local storage while permitting users to easily access data on public or private clouds, Magee said.

HPC Anywhere Edge also simplifies data protection and data management for multiple user and edge devices, he said.

The hybrid capabilities offered by the Hitachi Content Platform are absolutely critical for hybrid on-premises and cloud infrastructures, said Kent Kellough, an 18-year veteran of Advanced Systems Group, a Denver-based solution provider and Hitachi Vantara partner.

The Hitachi Content Platform, in combination with Hitachi Vantara's Unified Compute Platform hyper-converged infrastructure offering, lets Advanced Systems Group create solutions such as the ability to search clinical systems and create dashboards combining clinical, operational and health data, Kellough told CRN.

Such a system helps improve patient outcomes and reduce hospital costs, he said..

"Many times radiology, oncology, and the other 'ologies' have data isolated in different systems," he said. "HCP and HCI facilitate accessing all of the data directly from the EMR [electronic medical record] so the doctor has the latest and most complete information about all of your health issues. This system can also be used to research questions about population health, clinical research and how to improve hospital processes to reduce re-admissions."