Storage:

Hitachi Data Systems/INRANGE Help Raiffeisen

Austrian IT services provider Raiffeisen Informatik Zentrum has turned to Hitachi Data Systems and INRANGE Technologies to consolidate its complex storage environments into a simple, easy to manage and scalable information infrastructure. The Hitachi Data Systems/INRANGE networked storage solution will help Raiffeisen cope with future data explosion and organizational growth.

As the IT support arm for some of Austria's largest financial institutions, Raiffeisen Informatik Zentrum helps approximately 40,000 people throughout Austria to maintain their organization's IT infrastructures. Its clients, including Raiffeisen Bank and Uniqua, one of Austria's largest insurance companies, are 100% reliant on their data assets. The company has implemented a storage-on-demand solution to allow flexible growth and more rapid customer service.

Martin Hell, senior vice president, Raiffeisen Informatik Zentrum said, "We chose the Hitachi Data Systems/INRANGE solution because it will support our data growth without disrupting the performance of our operations." He added, "Our clients rely upon us to deliver IT support services around the clock. We require a high-availability, scalable information infrastructure that can accommodate future growth, new technologies, applications and customers."

Hitachi Data Systems and INRANGE Global Partnership

The storage networking implementation for Raiffeisen is the result of the Hitachi Data Systems and INRANGE partnership, which provides enterprises with an easy to manage platform for future growth while maintaining 24/365 data availability. The partnership combines Hitachi Data Systems' Freedom Data Networks and INRANGE's IN-VSN FC/9000 Fibre Channel edge switches and directors into a scalable, fibre networked storage solution that can be integrated into any single management platform.

Exponential increases in data growth can now be managed within a single environment that accommodates existing SAN, direct attached and NAS technologies and any future topologies in an open storage network solution. The solution is a market first, capable of supporting an industry leading 128 ports to ensure disruption free, long-term scalability.

As Trevor Williams, Network Solutions Manager, Hitachi Data Systems Europe explains, "The improvements now available to Raiffeisen perfectly illustrate the flexible, scalable and reliable features the Hitachi Data Systems/INRANGE solution can bring to a constantly evolving business environment. The business benefits of this partnership are now proven -- it can deliver an easy to manage, end-to-end solution that enables our customers to face future growth with the confidence that business efficiency and service to customers will be maintained."

Nick Smyth, Sales Development Manager, INRANGE said, "Through this partnership Hitachi Data Systems can leverage INRANGE's IN-VSN family of storage networking systems. This combination of switches and other storage networking technologies allow SANs to grow very easily, and enable data copying over long distances, up to 100km, ensuring minimized risk and business continuance for enterprises."

About INRANGE

Inrange Technologies Corporation, www.inrange.com, a subsidiary of SPX Corporation, provides large-scale, mission critical storage networking products, software and services -- the IN-VSN offering -- which provides "end-to-end, any distance -- anywhere" solutions. These solutions include a unique family of switches, HBAs, directors, storage over WAN and optical networking products that allow storage networks to extend beyond traditional geographic boundaries. The combination of IN-VSN, and INRANGE Global Consulting offerings of consulting and professional services, provide solutions to customers' complex business problems and storage networking applications. INRANGE has a 33-year history of providing mission-critical networking technologies, servicing over 2200 customers in 90 countries.

About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems is a leading supplier of storage hardware, software, solutions and services. As a wholly ownef the major Storage Service Providers (SSPs). For more information, please visit the company's Web site at www.hds.com.

About Hitachi Ltd

Hitachi Ltd, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 2000 (ended March 31, 2001) consolidated sales of 8,417 billion yen ($67.9 billion). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi Ltd, please visit Hitachi's Web site at global.hitachi.com.

About Raiffeisen Informatik Zentrum

The Raiffeisen Informatik Zentrum (RIZ) is the largest private supplier of Datacentre Outsourcing Services in Austria. They have been delivering IT Services to Austria's B2B customers for more than 30 years.

The RIZ in conjunction with its subsidiaries comprises an Information Group, that as an IT Full Service Provider can offer the following services:

• Development and marketing of Software for Host, Server, and Client environments
• Computing Services for large transaction-based systems
• Network Services for WAN and LAN, as well as LAN cabling infrastructure
• Server Services and Web hosting in both centralized and decentralized Server Farms
• Services, Hardware Maintenance, and Software Support for client systems, Printers, ABM's, Network Components, Telephone Installations, Interconnect Switches, etc. The RIZ IT Group is expected to achieve a turnaround of 4 Billion Schillings (= EUR 290 Million) and currently has 1100 employees.

Contact Bob Neudecker of Hitachi Data Systems, 408-970-4450, bob.neudecker@hds.com.