Hitachi Unified Storage 100 Family

FAQ
Table of Contents
Announcement Overview.. 1
Sales Engagement........ 4
Service, Support and Training.. 6
More Information and Help Questions. 6

Announcement Overview
1. What is Unified Storage?
A unified storage system merges network attached storage (NAS) with storage area network (SAN)
technologies; or in practice, the integration of multiple storage protocols onto one platform. Optimized for
performance and interoperability, the system simultaneously stores both file data and blocks of application
data in any operating environment. According to the Evaluator Group, Unified Storage is a storage system
that provides both file and block access simultaneously. The block access is accomplished through use of
an interface such as Fibre Channel, SAS, or iSCSI over Ethernet. The filebased access is to a file system
on the storage system using either CIFS or NFS over Ethernet.
Hitachi Data Systems is the first to add the support of a third data type, object data, to the market. Also
important is the capability to manage the storage for these protocols (block and file) from the same
software interface or management console.
2. Why is unified storage important?
Unified storage systems are quickly becoming the de facto standard for delivering storage solutions,
especially in the enterprise midrange. There are several reasons why the unification of historically
disparate systems benefit customers:
a)
b)
c)
d)

Easier to order since multiple protocols are now supported on a single platform;
Easier to manage since a single console can view all storage resources;
Lower footprint to save power, cooling and space costs;
Lower maintenance, software licensing and service costs.

3. How should HUS be positioned within the HDS storage portfolio?

The HUS Family was designed to replace the AMS2000 midrange series. The HUS Block Module provides
higher performance, more storage scalability, enhanced memory management features, and a lower
starting price. Hitachi has have added file and object data support to make it a competitive unified storage
offering more flexibility, versatility and simplification to customers.

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4. How is Hitachi Unified Storage different or better than the competition?

Unlike other competitive offerings that may be strong at block, but weak at file; or strong on file, but cheats
on block, the HUS does not compromise on either. HUS provides the best-in-class block and file storage
platform in the midrange. In addition, Hitachi offers object data support that is unique and compelling in
the industry.
5. What is the Hitachi Unified Storage 100 Family?
The Hitachi Unified Storage (HUS) family is a new product line which combines the best of what HDS has
to offer in terms of block and file solutions. There are three models: HUS 110, HUS 130 and HUS 150.
Each HUS model consists of a Block Module and File Module, with new Hitachi Command Suite software
that ties them both together.
The new Block Modules refresh the Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 architecture and provides up to 3x
the sequential I/O performance, and doubles the maximum capacity. The File Module technology is based
on the award winning Hitachi NAS Platform, powered by BlueArc technology.
6. What are some of the key features and benefits in this product line?
Below is a table of the key features in Hitachi Unified Storage family.

Features

Advantages

Benefits

Unified architecture

Consolidate file, block, and object data

natively on a single system

Increase productivity, decrease time to

backup, and save on power, cooling and
space costs.

Unified Storage
Management with HCS
for both block and file
resources

Single pane-of-glass user interface for

all data types, across entire HDS
portfolio

Improved configuration simplification with incontext link and launch; as well as improved
performance and health monitoring via
HCmD

Dynamic provisioning for

capacity utilization

Easily provision block LUNs and file

volumes from the same pool

Simplify management and improve utilization

by dynamically growing and shrinking
volumes to support growth of file systems

Dynamic provisioning for

performance

Expand capacity of existing pools

without reducing performance

Data is striped over new disks when added

to pool for performance gain rather than
concatenated (VNX)

Automated tiering and

migration

Provide native automated tiering and

migration for both file, block and object
data

Tiering of storage for all data types provides

simplification and cost efficiencies to
administrators; HUS supports tiering and
migration to HCP

Object-based file system

Only vendor able to store block, file

and object-based data natively on one
platform for performance and flexibility

HUS file module has a separate metadata

table with additional attributes for each file
stored to help organize and speed up
searches

128TB volume and

256TB file system sizes

Large volumes support file systems

and files that are 2.5x larger than the
competition

Decrease time to manage growth with large

volumes that support large file systems and
millions of files

Scalability up to 3PB

Best-in-class usable storage capacity.

Higher scalable capacity in a smaller

footprint saves on power, cooling and space
costs

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1024 snapshots

Takes 4x more snapshots than Netpp

FAS 3000 for more granular protection

Point-in-time snapshots provide a fast, easy

and space-efficient data protection
alternative
Save storage capacity and decrease time to
make copies of data for test and
development environments
Simplifies path management and reduces
potential risks from configuration errors;
enables system maintenance to occur
without host I/O interruption

Writable snapshots

One of only a few vendors to offer this

space-saving capability

Dynamic virtual
controllers

LUNs are created independent of the

controller and without defining primary
and failover paths

Dynamic virtual
controllers

Automatically moves workload

between controllers to resolve
bottlenecks

HUS automatically responds to changing

workloads without administrative intervention
or additional software

Virtual NAS

Uniquely provides file- storage

virtualization to simplify data migration
from other file sharing systems

Simplify consolidation of file servers without

having to reconfigure IP addresses, and
decrease data migration times

Server virtualization
integration

VMware integration flexibility requiring

either SAN or NFS performance and
scalability

Integration through management plug-ins

and file cloning simplifies data protection
from a virtualization administrators point of
view

High-density disk
expansion trays

High-density shelves meet capacity

(3.5-inch) and performance (2.5-inch)
needs

Flexibility to install high-capacity and highperformance HDDs and still meet space
reduction requirements

7. What do you mean by object data support?

Hitachi Unified Storage File Module supports object data through a unique object-based file system that
intelligently adds metadata for each file and enables automated tiering and migration, fast file snapshots
and clones, faster replication over WAN and fast data searches. Additionally, Hitachi Unified Storage
supports Hitachi Content Platform (HCP) for a true object store of data with regulatory compliance and the
ability to add custom metadata. Unlike other competitive offerings, HCP can share HUS capacity with file
and block applications from the same storage pool. Combined, these are far more space efficient and cost
effective approaches for customers than separate and silod object store approaches.
8. How do I use replication on this new system?
The Hitachi Unified Storage family offers several forms of replication natively on the system. The Block
Module supports Copy-on-write (COW) read-only snapshots and ShadowImage writable snapshots of
block data. The File Module provides read-only file snapshots and JetClone file cloning, also known as
writable snapshots, which provides the ability to duplicate large files or production data without making a
physical copy of the original data. Instead, an object-based snapshot is made and all changes to the copy
are kept track of. This saves copy time of the original production data, and storage capacity. This can be
used in test/dev environments; as well as, VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) environments to help
virtualization administrators save on space for VMDK images.
For replication over WAN to remote locations, the Block Module supports TrueCopy and TrueCopy
Extended for block operations; and the File Module supports JetMirror object-based replication software
that is faster and more efficient than file or block based replication.
9. How is this similar or different from converged platforms?
Converged platforms, as defined by Hitachi Data Systems, also include server and networking elements.
Unified storage should be considered a complimentary component and provides an enhanced storage
element to the overall converged platform solution. Unified Compute Platform (UCP) is a converged
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solution which is able to leverage the unification of multiple storage protocols on the Hitachi Unified
Storage platform.
10. Does this new HUS Family replace the AMS2000 Family?
Yes, the HUS Block Modules replace the AMS2000 Family. The HUS 110 replaces the AMS2100, the
HUS 130 replaces the AMS2300 and the HUS 150 replaces the AMS2500. The ordering of the model
numbers was intentional.
11. Does this new HUS Family replace the Hitachi HNAS Family?
No, it is complimentary with HNAS. HNAS will continue to exist to provide file services into the VSP and
existing AMS2000 customer base. More importantly, the HNAS family will offer software bundles that
should be considered supersets of what will be offered with the HUS File Module.
12. Which versions of HNAS software will work with HUS Block Module?
HNAS Software Revision
7.0.2055.04
8.1.2353.07
10.1.3070.x

Available Date
March 30, 2012
April 27, 2012
June 1, 2012

HNAS 7.0 and 8.1 will run on any installed HNAS 3000 server at customer sites. HNAS 10.1 only supports
HNAS 3080/3090 and HUS File Module servers.
13. When will it become available?
The HUS Block Module for all three models GAd on March 6, 2012. The worldwide public and partner
announcement for HUS will be on April 24, 2012. The HUS File Module, along with HCS 7.3, will GA on
July 2, 2012. By April 24th, all marketing collateral and sales tools will become available.
14. How can customers and partners order it?
Insight and PQM currently support configurability and orderability of the Hitachi Unified Storage Block
Modules for models 110, 130 and 150. In addition, all BOS E/M software bundles are orderable and
available. Only the File Module configurations and software are not available until July 2012.

Sales Engagement
15. What are the 5 top problems addressed by Hitachi Unified Storage Family?

Separate block storage and file storage sprawl leads to administration difficulties and capacity
utilization inefficiencies HUS provides easy-to-deploy and efficient data consolidation to simplify
management and provisioning of a common storage pool for block and file data. Additionally, HUS can
support object data using the same storage pool.
Tight budgets limiting ability to support explosive unstructured data growth Flexible pay-as-yougrow model fulfills short-term need with long-term scalability
Lack of Intelligent Life-cycle Management (ILM) fosters poor use of storage tiers -- intelligent tiering
and automated migration improves data management efficiency, productivity and decreases TCO
Poor data storage and backup/restore performance -- Best-in-class performance and scalability over
competitors decreases deployment time and increases productivity
Lack of a single namespace to simplify data management HUS solves this problem and improves
productivity with a single namespace that spans the total available capacity in the system

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16. How do I identify opportunities? Who do I sell too?

The HUS 100 Family is designed to be a midrange enterprise storage solution ideal for organizations
who have a storage IT team with tighter budgets and dont need the virtualization, performance and
scalability capabilities of the VSP family.
The HUS 110 is priced to be very attractive and competitive, but it is not recommended selling into the
SMB market since service and support levels are vastly different. Instead, seek out large deals
requiring many remote office/branch office (ROBO) or mobile enterprise environments.
Seek out organizations who need simpler data protection and backup/recovery solutions as they may
not be meeting their service level objectives (SLO), or not have enough time to complete their
backups.
Organizations with many Windows, Unix/Linux or small NAS file servers will benefit from a higher
performing file server solution which helps to consolidate the many disparate servers and help to
simplify management while increasing capacity utilization.
Look for organizations with many old files which can benefit from archiving to help reduce the overall
primary data set needing backup. Using HUS with HCP will help reduce the amount of data needing
backup and decrease backup time and capacity needs.
Start with your existing AMS customers who are looking to expand their storage capacity, but may
have further need to support unstructured data. The new HUS File Module can help fill this need with a
more tightly integrated management interface and software bundles.

17. How do I position against other competitive offerings?

Start with best-in-class performance and scalability strengths. EMC is strong in block, but weak in file.
NetApp is strong in file, but weak in block. Hitachi has strong capabilities without compromise in both.
Plus Hitachi has the advantage of supporting object data.
Hitachi surpasses other competitive offerings in performance and match them on total capacity. But on
the file side, they also can provide more usable capacity than the competition as Hitachi doesnt preallocate as much.
Hitachi beats them on large 128TB volumes and 256TB file systems. Neither EMC and NetApp can
match this. In addition, they support a single namespace which helps simplify management of all files
on each clustered node.
Hitachi surpasses them on maximum number of snapshots as it can support up 1024 read-only or
writable snapshots on both block and file data types. This provides more flexibility than other
competitive offerings
Hitachi has more ways to intelligently tier and automatically migrate data to help manage data more
efficiently and with higher capacity utilization.
18. What are the Top Reasons Channel Partners should sell the Hitachi Unified Storage 100 Family?

A tightly integrated package which is easier to order and provides better pricing;

Solid Margins and competitive discounts versus competing brands;

Total Rewards partner programs and sales incentives;

Higher performance and capacity than the previous modular family at a lower price;

A NAS alternative with better price/performance and scalability;

Single namespace, native intelligent tiering, automated migration, large 256TB file systems and more
usable capacity;

Single pane of glass management for block, file and content using Hitachi Command Suite;

ISV solutions available give greater means to innovatively solve customer issues;

Earn high profit with Hitachi Certified for Channel Partner-delivered services

Penetrate verticals like Financial Services, Healthcare, Internet Services, Life Sciences and
Entertainment & Media.

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19. How will Hitachi Unified Storage help organizations save money?
Customers will be able to scale out with more data, for less cost;
Intelligent storage tiering will allow for a lower TCO and quicker ROI;
Simplify data management and increase administrative productivity.
20. How can you quantify improved ROI or TCO?
Based on HUS performance and scalability strengths, ROI and TCO can be quantified by using TCO
comparison and sizing tools; and to show how customers can consolidate existing file servers and NAS
devices and increase productivity while saving on power, cooling and space costs.

Service, Support and Training

21. What types of sales tools are available?
Be sure to visit the Hitachi Unified Storage 100 Family product pages on HDS.com and PartnerXchange
for more information and links to training resources.
22. How can I get additional sales training on the product?
Both pre-sales and technical training courses are available from the Hitachi Data Systems Academy.
Please visit the Learning Center under Training Resources on PartnerXchange for more details and
course schedules.

More Information and Help Questions

23. Who can I contact if I have more questions?
Partners can contact their Channel Managers, Authorized Distributor, and Channel Support/Deal Operation
Center for additional information

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Notice: This document is for informational purposes only, and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or implied, concerni ng any
equipment or service offered or to be offered by Hitachi Data Systems. This document describes some capabilities that are conditio ned on
a maintenance contract with Hitachi Data Systems being in effect and that may be configuration dependent, and features that may not be
currently available. Contact your local Hitachi Data Systems sales office for information on feature and product availability .
2012, Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. All Rights Reserved. April 2012.

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