Last week I was in Colorado Springs (CO) for the Hitachi Data System influencer summit. A well organized event of just thirty people or so and HDS executives discussing about the company and its future: no mention of products, but a lot of information about vision and future strategy.
Last year I had good words for the company and this year I can’t do much more than reconfirm my thoughts.
Evolution and revolution
It’s clear that HDS is evolving, and even if they are still seen has an infrastructure company, things are slightly different now. Approximately 50% of its business comes from services and software… hard to believe for a company that is known primarily for its high end storage (indeed, it was surprising for me too.).
At the same time, the visible change in HDS, is reflected on its parent company: Hitachi. In fact, the HDS model has been chosen by the Japanese company to revolutionize change how they do business globally.
A lot to be expected
Looking back on last year and at what was said last week, the strategy looks consistent and refined in many aspects (I might say evolutionary). There is a strong belief on the importance of next generation Big Data analytics and the internet of things, but there is also a solid awareness that there is the need for a modern software-defined approach to compete at best in traditional market segments (sorry about the buzzword).
Once again, the expertise acquired in the field through joint projects with its mother company, could make a difference in the development of products and services (especially when it comes to Big Data).
Most of future HDS products will reflect these changes and ideas too. In the next 6 to 12 months we will see some very interesting things coming from this vendor, especially on Big Data and the Private Cloud fields.
Why it matters
If I sound excited, that’s because I am… and hopefully I won’t be disappointed. The ideas are really interesting and, theoretically speaking, they should be reflected in the products. We will soon see if execution will be able to keep the pace with vision!
Speaking in tech
During the event I also had the honor to be a guest of Greg Knieriemen for his podcast next to Nigel Poulton, Chris Evans and Micheal Hay (VP and chief of engineering at HDS). It was an interesting chat, although we didn’t talk a lot about HDS, you can listen about the evolution of the enterprise IT and the SDDC. Enjoy the podcast!
Disclaimer: I was invited to this meeting by HDS and they paid for travel and accommodation, I have not been compensated for my time and am not obliged to blog. Furthermore, the content is not reviewed, approved or published by any other person than the Juku team.
