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HITACHI, CISCO TEAM TO DELIVER NETWORKING SOLUTIONS

Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd, announced that Cisco MDS 9500 series Multilayer directors and the Cisco MDS 9216 Multilayer fabric switch are available now from Hitachi Data Systems with full service and support through a worldwide reseller agreement with Cisco Systems.

"Within a trading environment, having constant and reliable access to realtime data is not just important -- it's business-critical. Downtime is not an option," said Mark Hemsley, managing director of Euronext.liffe market solutions. "We turned to Hitachi Data Systems, BT and Cisco to deliver this business-continuity solution because the companies have the experience and the product portfolios that meet the needs of high-end enterprise computing environments like ours."

Taking advantage of the power and unique connectivity of Hitachi Freedom Storage systems and the networking capabilities of the Cisco MDS products, customers can build highly-scalable, networked storage solutions while simplifying their infrastructure and centralizing storage management and security. This combination of technologies leads to lower management costs and a higher return on investment.

"As part of our TrueNorth vision of providing best-of-breed solutions to our customers, we were the first vendor to complete hardware interoperability qualification testing between the Hitachi Freedom systems and the Cisco MDS 9000 Family in SAN environments," said Scott Genereux, vice president of Global Marketing and Business Development at Hitachi Data Systems. "With the addition of this new line from Cisco we further solidify the common goal of simplifying storage networks with highly available and scalable fabrics."

"Working closely with industry leader Hitachi Data Systems, we have gained another respected ally in the storage market, and have achieved a significant milestone in our go-to-market strategy for the Cisco MDS 9000," said Soni Jiandani, vice president of marketing for the Storage Technology Group at Cisco. "Cisco SAN technology, combined with Hitachi Data Systems' technically advanced storage systems, allows our mutual customers to simplify their fabric architecture and centralize storage management while still building the highly scalable, high-performance storage networks they need to grow with them into the future."

Cisco MDS 9000 Family

Consisting of the Cisco MDS 9500 series of Multilayer directors, the Cisco MDS 9216 and the Cisco MDS 9100 Mulitlayer fabric switches, the Cisco MDS 9000 Family provides a full line of products to meet requirements across storage networks of all sizes and architectures. With intelligent networking features such as multi-protocol/multi-transport integration, Virtual SANs (VSANs), advanced security, sophisticated debug/analysis tools and unified SAN management, as well as intelligent storage services such as network-based virtualisation, the Cisco MDS 9000 Family ushers in a new era of storage networking.

Availability

The Cisco MDS 9509 and Cisco MDS 9506 Multilayer directors and the Cisco MDS 9216 Multilayer fabric switch are available worldwide immediately through Hitachi Data Systems.

About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems is committed to enabling organizations worldwide to exploit the full potential of information. By following and deploying our TrueNorth strategy, we provide customers with a broad range of storage solutions to simplify, protect and optimise their information infrastructures. Our offerings include centralized and distributed storage systems and software, professional services, complemented by best-of-breed products through channel partners and industry alliances.

With 2,700 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts business through direct and indirect channels in the public, government and private sectors in over 170 countries. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.hds.com/.

About Hitachi Ltd

Hitachi Ltd, headquartered in Tokyo, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 340,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2002 (ended March 31) consolidated sales totalled 8,191.7 billion yen ($68.3 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors, including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's Web site at www.hitachi.com/.