Hitachi Expands Relationship with SAP by Forming Global Technology Partnership

Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) today announced that it has become an SAP® global technology partner, expanding its global partnership with SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) to include deeper technology integrations, technical support, a new interoperability competency center, and joint sales and marketing activities worldwide. The strengthened partnership spotlights further integration between offerings from SAP and Hitachi in the areas of cloud computing, storage virtualization, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and information lifecycle management (ILM). Today’s announcement was made at the SAPPHIRE® NOW conference being held in Orlando through May 18.

Through dedicated resources and investments, the new partnership framework with Hitachi companies and SAP will provide global customers with the necessary information to achieve maximum value from solutions from SAP and Hitachi, including lower implementation and operational costs based on the optimization of infrastructure and software solutions. The global collaboration is designed to bring customers faster conflict resolution across Hitachi companies, and to advance strategic business development agreements to meet the needs of joint customers.

"Hitachi and SAP have a long history of collaboration and we are pleased to take our partnership to a new level as an SAP global technology partner,” said Toshiaki Kawamura, division vice president, Enterprise Server Division, Hitachi, Ltd. "At Hitachi we have developed our business globally; not only our information and telecommunication infrastructure business but also in areas such as electronics, electricity, transit and urban infrastructure. We have leading implementation expertise in support of SAP applications and now look forward to creating a framework for deeper integration and collaboration across Hitachi companies worldwide.”

"This expanded global technology partnership with Hitachi demonstrates the value of SAP’s customer-focused ecosystem: teaming with partners to deliver value and innovation to customers,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, senior vice president, Business Development and Strategic Alliances, SAP. "Together, we will cooperate to enhance value and accelerate growth and profit for our customers. This will help reduce implementation costs while providing strong solutions to transform business processes.”

Hitachi and its subsidiaries, including Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), have had a strategic relationship with SAP since 1994, including the sale, integration and implementation of SAP solutions. Together, Hitachi and SAP certify integrated offerings that provide mutual customers with industry-leading availability, scalability and performance for their critical corporate information.

About HDS Solutions Integrated With SAP Applications

HDS solutions provide improved performance, application storage management and efficiency for customers who need to lower their enterprise application TCO. Solutions integrated with SAP applications, including SAP-certified components, add value to investments throughout their lifecycle by making IT virtualized, automated, cloud-ready and sustainable. HDS enables customers to deploy a fully virtualized storage infrastructure to act as a logical fourth tier of their SAP implementations, enhancing the health and performance of vital data, application and presentation layers. Integrated solutions include the following:

• Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) and Hitachi Command Suite (HCS) – for high performance, availability and security for enterprise information through a unique 3D storage platform. The increased availability and business resilience, improved application deployment and data migration of Hitachi VSP and HCS improves customers’ implementations of SAP solutions.
• Hitachi Content Platform (HCP) in support of the SAP NetWeaver® Information Lifecycle Management component – to support multiple storage tiers of active and archived unstructured content, all on a single integrated platform. This enables end-to-end enforcement of retention policies to better meet compliance requirements and reduce management effort. Through a starter package – part of an SAP best practice offering for implementing SAP NetWeaver Information Lifecycle Management with a fixed scope – customers can use the SAP solution in a designated environment at SAP’s data center with HCP, helping to deploy solutions more quickly while lowering TCO.

"Applications from SAP complement Hitachi Data Systems solutions and services to help customers successfully and efficiently transform their IT environments into more dynamic and virtualized information centers,” said Mike Walkey, senior vice president, Global Partners and Alliances, Hitachi Data Systems. "With our expanded partnership as an SAP global technology partner, customers will better leverage HDS proven technologies and services to reduce costs, mitigate risk and enable growth in advanced SAP solution-based environments.”

HDS Solutions at SAPPHIRE NOW

Attendees of SAPPHIRE NOW can see the full portfolio of HDS solutions integrated with SAP applications in action, including Hitachi VSP, HCS, HCP and SAP NetWeaver Information Lifecycle Management, in Hitachi Data Systems booth 2339 this week at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. For more information on SAPPHIRE NOW, visit: www.sapandasug.com.

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About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems provides best-in-class information technologies, services and solutions that deliver compelling customer ROI, unmatched return on assets (ROA) and demonstrable business impact. With a vision that IT must be virtualized, automated, cloud-ready and sustainable, Hitachi Data Systems offers solutions that improve IT costs and agility. With more than 4,700 employees worldwide, Hitachi Data Systems does business in more than 100 countries and regions. Hitachi Data Systems products, services and solutions are trusted by the world’s leading enterprises, including more than 70 percent of the Fortune 100 and more than 80 percent of the Fortune Global 100. Hitachi Data Systems believes that data drives our world – and information is the new currency. To learn more, visit: http://www.hds.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 360,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2010 (ended March 31, 2011) consolidated revenues totaled 9,315 billion yen ($112.2 billion). Hitachi will focus more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes information and telecommunication systems, power systems, environmental, industrial and transportation systems, and social and urban systems, as well as the sophisticated materials and key devices that support them. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

© Hitachi Data Systems Corporation 2011. All Rights Reserved. Hitachi is a registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries. Hitachi Data Systems is a registered trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd. in the United States and other countries. SAP, SAP NetWeaver, SAPPHIRE and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

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