Comments on: Does Hitachi+SimpleTech = EMC+Iomega?

By: sfoskett

sfoskett — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:05:16 +0000

Perhaps my insight is a bit dated, but I know that HDS and HP had to do quite a bit of software and firmware development back in the day. I remember back in the day (before Compaq) that an HP insider moaned to me that they did a ton of work to make the XP compatible with all sorts of UNIX systems (Sun, IBM) and were forced to feed that work back through Hitachi to HDS and Sun.

Plus, the storage teams there both work with all sorts of other systems than the marquee arrays.

Anyone from HP or HDS (or Sun) want to chime in here?

By: sfoskett

sfoskett — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:05:16 +0000

By: the storage anarchist

the storage anarchist — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:19:24 +0000

Sorry, it wasn't meant to marginalize weither HDS nor HP, but I'm not aware of any significant amount of storage development being done by HDS outside of some external management tools. And HP has admitted that their development for the XP24000 is limited to documentation and storage management-related integration with the rest of their product line – my understanding is that the USP-V and its microcode is virtually untouched by HP hands.

And I may be wrong here too, but my understanding is that neither the USP-V nor the AMS are built by HDS either.

By: sfoskett

sfoskett — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:31:44 +0000

I'm not sure it's fair to marginalize HDS (or HP, for that matter) as a mere OEM customer or marketing subsidiary. HDS and HP both exercise quite a bit of independence from Hitachi the hardware supplier, and both have quite a bit of development muscle focused on storage. Everyone (including NetApp and EMC) has OEM suppliers for certain elements of their systems, and EMC is certainly involved in more areas of hardware design than most storage makers, but HDS is much more than a marketing organization.

By: the storage anarchist

the storage anarchist — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:36:03 +0000

Actually, to be accurate, HDS is nothing like an EMC or a NetApp. The latter two design, build and manufacture the products that they sell, while HDS sells and markets hardware that is created by Japan-based Hitachi Ltd. In a sense, HDS is more like an wholly-owned marketing subsidiary, or maybe even an OEM customer of Hitachi – you might say HDS's relationship with Hitachi is more like HP's.

THus, you are absolutely right – if there are any synergies to be had with these new acquisitions, they won't be created by HDS. HGST might collaborate with the mother ship Hitachi, although given that HGST is mostly still the old IBM disk drive division, the ties might still not be strong enough to attempt that. HGST is probably no more likely to work with HDS than it is with Hitachi's home entertainment or construction equipment subsidiaries.