HITACHI EUROPE

Released 20/01/2009

Partners with Shoden Data Systems UK

Hitachi Europe Ltd and Shoden Data Systems UK, a provider of data storage solutions for organisations facing backup and data recovery challenges, announced last week that they would be joining forces. According to the agreement, the integrator will be reselling Hitachi's BladeSymphony BS1000 and BS320 blade servers.

Shoden Data Systems UK's parent company, Johannesburg-based Shoden Data Systems (PTY) Ltd has been a supplier of data centre technologies since 2000. Using Hitachi storage technology and now more recently Hitachi BladeSymphony Blade Servers, Shoden has established a leading position in South Africa, based firmly on its world-class support structure.

Following the opening of Shoden Data Systems UK in November, this proven expertise is now available to the EMEA market through technologies in the areas of blade servers, data storage and deduplication.

Ravi Ahluwalia head of business development at Hitachi Europe Ltd said: "After several years of working with Shoden South Africa, we are delighted to now extend our cooperation to include Shoden Data Systems UK through this strategic partnership. Both companies share the same core values, making it their business to ensure customers receive the best and most reliable technology and service to achieve their business goals.

"Our blade server products are designed to achieve the best possible cost/performance and reliability at low cost and with minimal footprint. Hitachi and Shoden together can bring a fresh, innovative approach to blade computing to achieve the exacting demands of the data centre in the 21st Century.

"Through this strategic partnership, our customers can benefit hugely from the combined experience and expertise of Shoden and Hitachi and we can provide them with true added value.

"We at Hitachi are looking forward to working with such a proven and highly skilled team to further the success of Shoden Data Systems UK and Hitachi BladeSymphony in EMEA."

John Taffinder, CEO at Shoden Data Systems UK, said: "This agreement builds on the already close relationship between Hitachi and Shoden Data Systems that has developed over several years. We have a high level of confidence that, with the combination of our systems expertise and Hitachi's advanced server products; we will be successful in EMEA. In today's uncertain market conditions there is still room to develop and grow a successful business because the fundamental issues surrounding application growth and server management have not disappeared. We have simply seen a shift in priorities and we are confident that we can enable organisations to meet their performance targets while remaining within budget. The solutions that Shoden can offer to the market, based on Hitachi technology, make a powerful combination to meet the next generation of data centre requirements, and will enable rapid growth of our joint businesses. For example, by deploying Hitachi servers inside our QuickRecover appliance we are already offering end users a proven technology they can trust."

Return to news

Discuss this in our forum