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i2 Technologies Consolidates Storage With Hitachi

Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd, announced that i2 Technologies Inc, a leading provider of end-to-end supply chain management solutions, has consolidated and centralized its storage infrastructure with the Hitachi Freedom Storage Lightning 9980V system, easing management tasks, reducing total storage costs, and significantly improving data availability and performance.

"With offices worldwide and thousands of users across the enterprise, i2 needs an extremely reliable platform to store and rapidly retrieve high volumes of data," said i2 Chief Information Officer Surku Sinnadurai. "The Lightning 9980V allowed us to simplify our storage infrastructure, centralize management and improve the performance of our network. We can now achieve lower total cost of ownership and the highest return on our investment."

i2 consolidated over 24TB of data stored on 26 Hitachi Freedom Storage Thunder 9200 systems, spanning 38 open systems servers, onto a single Lightning 9980V storage system. This extensive consolidation was completed in just two weeks with the help of Hitachi Data Systems Global Solution Services. The Hitachi Data Systems team configured all the storage for each server from one location by using the Storage Navigator for the Lightning 9980V and i2's global WAN.

In addition to consolidating on Lightning 9980V, IT managers and systems administrators at i2 will use the Hitachi HiCommand Management Framework suite of products to optimize existing storage, meet capacity planning needs and deploy additional storage as needed.

"The Lightning 9900 V Series is the undisputed leader in high-end storage systems," said Curt Wittich, vice president of U.S. Sales for Hitachi Data Systems. "Many of our customers need to consolidate massive amounts of data already stored on disparate systems. i2 Technologies is a perfect example of how enterprises can consolidate with the Lightning 9980V to simplify management and lower total cost of ownership."

About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems is committed to enabling organizations worldwide to exploit the full potential of information. By following and deploying our TrueNorth strategy, we provide customers with a broad range of storage solutions to simplify, protect and optimize their information infrastructures. Our offerings include enterprise and modular storage systems and software, professional services, fully complemented by best-of-breed products through industry alliances.

With 2,700 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts business through direct sales and resellers in the public, government and private sectors in over 170 countries. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.hds.com.

About Hitachi Ltd

Hitachi Ltd, headquartered in Tokyo, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 320,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2001 (ended March 31, 2002) consolidated sales totaled 7,994 billion yen ($60.1 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors, including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's Web site at global.hitachi.com .