LAS VEGAS, NV -- Hitachi Data Systems, the world's fastest growing enterprise storage provider, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), today announced Hitachi Freedom Storage(TM) Lightning 9900(TM) V Series, its second generation of intelligent storage systems based on the Hi-Star(TM) switched architecture. With built-in virtualization-assist features, extensible support for connectivity options, and triple the bandwidth of its predecessor, the Lightning 9900 V Series provides enterprise storage customers with new levels of consolidation possibilities, complete protection of mission-critical data, and better optimization of resources to achieve reduced total cost of ownership, and a more rapid return on investment. "The introduction of the new Lightning 9900 V Series, as part of our TrueNorth strategy, signals the beginning of a new era for enterprise storage data management," said Dave Roberson, president and COO, Hitachi Data Systems. "By exploiting the power of intelligent storage to simplify information management, the Lightning 9900 V Series offers our enterprise storage customers what they require to be successful in today's global economy -- a truly scalable storage architecture that is simple to use and manage, that complements our new HiCommand Management Framework." The Lightning 9900 V Series provides breakthrough simplicity through intelligent pooling of heterogeneous server platform data. Offering true scalability with up to 75TB of raw capacity, the Lightning 9900 V Series features the second-generation Hi-Star switched architecture, which delivers unparalleled bottleneck-free performance with nearly three times the aggregate bandwidth and twice the cache of the first generation Lightning 9900 Series. By simplifying and consolidating storage management, the Lightning 9900 V Series allows Hitachi's enterprise customers to build the storage network that best suits their needs while reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) and delivering a more rapid ROI. "Hitachi Data Systems has eclipsed its own best-in-class Lightning 9900 performance with the V series," said Steve Duplessie, founder and senior analyst, Enterprise Storage Group. "As storage performance once again becomes the bottleneck of the future, it's nice to know that HDS has already solved the problem. Being part of one of the world's largest R&D organizations (Hitachi) clearly has its benefits." The Lightning 9900 V Series offers broad capabilities that allow for massive consolidation, extreme bandwidth, and native connectivity/protocol options. Two models are available in the series: Lightning 9970V. The single-cabinet Lightning 9970V features all the architectural advantages, speed, reliability, and advanced software functions of the Lightning 9900 V Series. This highly cost-effective system is ideal for strategic deployment in a smaller footprint that scales up to 9TB of raw capacity. The Lightning 9970V is designed to support specific mission-critical applications and smaller-scale consolidation. Lightning 9980V. The performance and scalability of the multi-cabinet Lightning 9980V enables customers to consolidate vast amounts of storage across open systems and mainframe servers. Multiple storage systems from multiple vendors can be consolidated into just one Lightning 9980V to pool storage resources and enable information sharing across disparate platforms, dramatically lowering IT costs and extending capital investment. "We chose to install Hitachi Data Systems' Lightning 9900 V Series because we were seeking a comprehensive storage platform, complete with powerful management software and an intelligent hardware infrastructure," said Randy Overbey, Senior Vice President, Northern Trust. "The broad capabilities of this storage system have allowed us to consolidate and simplify our diverse infrastructure -- leading to better performance and a lower total cost of ownership." "With this new product, Sun is delivering reduced total cost of ownership and extreme data consolidation solutions to enterprise customers," said Bill Cook, vice president of sales, Sun Microsystems. "We're seeing enormous excitement and opportunities and delivering some serious heartburn to the folks in Hopkinton." Virtualization-Enabled to Reduce Management Complexity The new Lightning 9900V Series systems feature a virtualization assist layer to ease storage management complexity and better utilize resources. This virtualization layer offers the ability to mix heterogeneous servers on a single port and provide security to the Logical Unit (LUN) level. The Hitachi virtualization assist layer is comprised of three key elements that strategically clear the way for simplified management and massive consolidation: Virtual storage ports can be used by multiple, heterogeneous, server platforms concurrently to increase connectivity, reduce network infrastructure, and simplify configuration management. Host Storage Domains create multiple, virtual pools of LUNs that can be isolated to a specified host or hosts. Each pool or domain acts like a separate array within the Lightning 9900 V system, each with its own LUN 0 and LUN security, quality of service, measurement, monitoring, and management. Host Storage Domains provide optimal, secure multi-tenant use of the resources of Lightning 9900 V Series storage systems. Performance Maximizer works in conjunction with Hitachi CruiseControl(TM) to monitor performance and non-disruptively tune by migrating off of hotspots. Performance Manager also provides information to enable billing for performance. Priority Access ensures that your most critical applications get the highest level of service. Hitachi SANtinel(TM) assures authorized access. For customers, the virtualization assist layer turns into significant savings in terms of smaller configurations, fewer switches, fibre channel cables and host bus adapters, thus reducing the overall cost and management of the Lightning 9900 V Series systems in SAN environments. "Hitachi Data Systems' new Lightning 9900 V Series combines high performance with intelligent storage technology," said John Kelley, president and chief operating officer for McDATA. "Its built-in virtualization-assist functions complement McDATA's virtualization strategy as it enables enterprise customers to not only manage rapidly increasing amounts of data, but also to make optimal use of their stored data." Extensible Storage Blade Architecture The Lightning 9900 V Series supports multiple storage port blades that support a variety of protocols today, including 1 and 2 gigabit per second Fibre Channel, ESCON, and FICON. The switch architecture and separation of control store from data store activity enables non-disruptive migration to different storage port protocol blades. This blade architecture is flexible, and will support future protocols, such as iSCSI, as market demand dictates. "Companies are looking for solutions to handle existing storage needs seamlessly, while simultaneously preparing for future growth," said Mike Kahn, Chairman of technology acquisition consulting firm, The Clipper Group, Inc. in Wellesley, Massachusetts. "Hitachi Data Systems new Lightning 9900 V series is designed for the future, where high growth, massive consolidation, and extreme performance will be needed. Hitachi's unique switched bus architecture delivers superior performance for the very large capacities being consolidated in high-demand storage environments looking to simplify SAN management." For more information visit www.hds.com