Hitachi Vantara aims to solve the world’s toughest business and societal challenges in the IoT decade
Leveraging its storied history of experience, innovation, and development, Hitachi has announced the launch of Hitachi Vantara, a new business entity aiming to provide an array of data-driven opportunities for both industrial and commercial enterprise users.
The move marks a “monumental change” as the company aims to drive social and business innovation, according to Hitachi group President and CEO Toshiaki Higashihara (pictured above).
Hitachi has been helping customers harness the power of their data to support meaningful business action for years. Now as the world is being transformed by digital tools and processes, we are unifying our strongest digital solutions companies together as a new Hitachi company that delivers exponential business impact for our customers and the betterment of society. The formation of Hitachi Vantara underscores Hitachi’s commitment to collaborative creation with customers and partners, and being a true innovation partner for the era of IoT.
This new entity is a combination of former Hitachi Group operations: Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Insight Group, and their 2015 big data acquisition Pentaho. Hitachi Vantara’s aim is to combine the power of Hitachi’s operational technology (OT) with its information technology (IT) under one trusted brand.
We were lucky enough to be at the launch and spoke to many of their senior leadership team. Here’s what their CMO Asim Zaheer had to say about the new entity and their vision for dominance in IoT.
#HitachiNEXT: @AsimHitachi spoke to us about the launch of @HitachiVantara & how it aims to solve the world’s “toughest business challenges” pic.twitter.com/pqugQOGB6V
— TechNative (@TechNative) September 19, 2017
Addressing The Big Challenges in IoT Enablement
By combining all of their expertise into one brand, Hitachi Vantara possesses “the two things to make IoT successful” believes their VP of Global IoT Marketing Ravi Chalaka. Last week at Hitachi Next, Hitachi Vantara unveiled Hitachi IoT Appliance, run on their exisiting IoT platform, Lumada. Combining the power of both hyperconvergence and microservices, the new platform offers a turnkey solution appropriate for today’s more sophisticated IoT networks.
#HitachiNEXT: @ravichalaka explains why @HitachiVantara is uniquely positioned to make #IoT, #SmartCities & #SmartManufacturing a reality. pic.twitter.com/Z7EE09DAlg
— TechNative (@TechNative) September 20, 2017
Plug & Play IoT? No Sweat
The plug-and-play philosophy makes for easy setup, letting companies get their systems up and running in under an hour in certain scenarios. Fast operations help companies experiment with new ways of using their IoT installations by enabling fast testing, and the integrated design offers excellent tuning capabilities. Their aim is to create business outcomes and “fast track IoT readiness” according to Paula Phipps, Director of Solutions Marketing at Hitachi Vantara.
#HitachiNEXT: Readying #IT for #IoT can be complex. @paulaaphipps from @HitachiVantara explains how they’re aiming to simplify deployment pic.twitter.com/03qlNjHrad
— TechNative (@TechNative) September 20, 2017
Compute Upgrades
To enable customers to power their IoT journey, Hitachi Vantara also unveiled upgrades to their converged infrastructure, the Hitachi Unified Compute Platform, or UCP. These enhancements follow the news a few weeks earlier that this suite of infrastructure solutions would integrate with VMware Cloud Foundation, allowing customers to “transform their IT environments and accelerate hybrid cloud deployments,” according to Bob Madaio, Vice President of Integrated Solution Marketing at Hitachi Vantara.
This family of infrastructure includes next-generation automation capabilities through Hitachi UCP Advisor 2.0, letting companies perform management and orchestration tasks instantly and without human intervention. Design for high performance and flexibility, UCP will also provide best-in-class compute, networking, and storage capabilities, providing a versatile and future-proof computing infrastructure solution.
#HitachiNEXT: @bmadaio, @HitachiVantara on why their #converged & #hyperconverged infrastructure is a foundation for modern #data strategies pic.twitter.com/coaGFmYBur
— TechNative (@TechNative) September 20, 2017
Ever since cloud computing began taking off, companies have come to realize that data is their most valuable asset. Although Hitachi has long offered solutions for emerging trends, Vantara promises to provide an even more unified platform, making it a tempting option for companies looking to invest more heavily in the data-driven practices experts expect will continue revolutionizing the computing industry.
An 100 Year Legacy
Hitachi has a long and storied history in OT, with more than 100 years of experience. With experience in technology used by some of the world’s largest companies, industrial operations, and major cities, Hitachi Vantara is uniquely experienced with finely tuned collection of tools. Their aim, according to Senior Vice President and CIO Renée McKaskle, is to bring together “the best and the brightest” in talent and technology expertise to address the biggest challenges in IoT. She explains below, how Hitachi Vantara is already helping other companies within the Hitachi Group make the most out of their OT expertise.
#HitachiNEXT: Renée McKaskle explains how @HitachiVantara is bringing together “the best and the brightest” in #analytics, #IT & #IoT pic.twitter.com/zOrBob6Cv4
— TechNative (@TechNative) September 20, 2017
The Hitachi brand is a household name that has been trusted by millions of customers worldwide for many years. It is one of a handful of the old guard, original technology companies that still continues to thrive and innovate today. We’re as excited as they are to watch this latest brand come to life.
Keep an eye out for more interviews with the Hitachi Vantara leadership team around women in technology, FinTech and RegTech, coming your way in the next few weeks.
