Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501) announced that it will, as a result of a collaboration with VMware, Inc., offer a “Highly Reliable Platform Solution” for social infrastructure requirements of financial, public and transportation services, beginning September 5. The solution is designed to enable the stable operation of mission critical systems on a long-term basis and in an open and modern system environment.
Hitachi highly reliable server RV3000 providing rock-solid foundation for the new solution
The solution involves using Hitachi’s original function to enhance the reliability of the industry-leading VMware vSphere, and offering it in combination with RV3000, Hitachi’s server. Based on the strong collaboration between the two companies, the long-term support for vSphere is planned to last for up to 10 years, so customers will be able to apply the support required to quickly solve problems to their mission-critical systems.
These will allow the mission critical systems to continue to reliably operate and be easily connected with other open systems, which will make it possible to streamline system operation and optimize investments in IT. Meanwhile, the availability of data coordination with other open systems, for example, will support the expansion of digital businesses.
In recent years, IT teams have faced a need to enhance mission-critical systems, while also streamlining their operations and proactively introducing global standard technologies that are easily connectable to open systems – in an effort to adapt to rapid changes resulting from progress in digitalization. Under these new dynamics, Hitachi and VMware expanded their collaboration in October 2017(1) and have worked together on new solution developments to provide an open, modern and highly reliable virtualization platform for mission-critical systems.
The Highly Reliable Platform Solution is planned to be launched as a result of the collaboration. Incorporating Hitachi’s original reliability enhancement technology with vSphere is designed to facilitate connections with open systems. Moreover, both companies’ vSphere special support system will be able to swiftly solve problems and provide long-term support.
Hitachi provides this solution to platforms for open and accounting solutions for financial institutions and to mission-critical systems for social infrastructure fields, including public and transportation services in Japan. Going forward, Hitachi will make mission-critical systems more open and highly reliable with a view to expanding them worldwide, and will help customers optimize their IT system investment and expand their digital businesses.
Features of the Highly Reliable Platform Solution for social infrastructure fields include
1. Provides advanced functions to enhance reliability in an open system environment
Hitachi obtained the certification of VMware vSphere DirectPath I/O, which allows for dedicated assignment of a PCI card(2) to a virtual machine that plays important functions. This would enable a highly reliable system which makes it possible to, in the event of a problem in the PCI card, detach the problem PCI card by means of Hitachi’s unique function and switch to a stand-by PCI card to prevent system failure. Also, by reducing overhead of I/O virtualization(3), Hitachi’s Highly Reliable Platform Solution achieves the system stabilization that is required in a mission critical system in an open and modern system environment.
2. The special support system for vSphere quickly solves problems and provides long-term support
In cooperation with VMware, Hitachi has developed a special system for providing vSphere users with support. Specifically, VMware provides special technical support for Hitachi, and Hitachi engineers will work alongside VMware engineers at VMware, so Hitachi is able to investigate the cause of any problem more deeply, enabling them to resolve a customer’s problem quickly. In cooperation with VMware, Hitachi can also provide customers with long-term support(4). Even after the vSphere standard lifecycle is over, Hitachi can cooperate with VMware in providing debugged vSphere to customers whenever a problem occurs. The support will be provided as Hitachi Support 360.
3. A reliable server RV3000 functions as the foundation of solutions and assists the stable operation of IT systems
Hitachi RV3000 can be loaded with up to four units of the latest Intel Xeon processor scalable family and up to 3 TiB of high-speed memory, and is compatible with large databases and real-time analysis, which typically require high performance and high-speed processing. Also, hardware maintenance service may be provided for up to ten years, supporting stable operation of mission-critical systems. In addition, a system failure may be addressed with fast switching of the shared disc and with fast switching to a standby system(5). Also, in a vSphere-based environment, system downtime can be minimized by supporting fast switching for each virtual machine
