Company: Hitachi Data Systems (HDS)
Company Description: Hitachi Data Systems is a leading supplier of storage hardware, software, services and solutions. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), Japan's largest electronics company, Hitachi Data Systems is committed to providing the technological infrastructure for the world's most information-intensive enterprises.
Nomination Category: Company, Office & Product Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Most Innovative Company

Nomination Title: The convergence of capacity, compliance and accountability

Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

People have long felt the need to preserve their work: documents, paintings,
music, etc.  The need to identify, preserve and share those works has led to the
creation of libraries and archives, which have evolved to help people categorize and
locate these works once they’ve been stored.

Today, the legacy of what we’ve learned about storing information is being applied
to organizing data in digital form — a difficult problem since data is growing at an
exponential rate.  This has especially been true in recent years, as a series of
headline-making events have become the catalyst for governmental legislation and
industry regulations to protect data from accidental or malicious destruction.  For
example, United States regulations on data protection, retention, and privacy now
apply to health care (HIPAA), financial services (SEC 17a4), corporate
accountability (Sarbanes-Oxley Act), life sciences (21 CFR Part 11), and national
security (DoD 5015.2-STD).

Beyond government regulators, investors and even insurers are insisting that
businesses establish effective disaster recovery/business continuity plans to
protect critical information. Ignoring these regulations can lead to heavy fines or
even jail time for executives. 

HDS is helping organizations around the world address this challenge, and
understands that storage systems and related management software play a
critical role in protecting data and helping companies meet compliance
regulations.

Recognizing the role of storage in this equation, HDS has introduced several
products and services over the last year.  These new products, coupled with the
company’s industry-leading Lightning 9900V Series centralized storage and
Thunder 9500V Series distributed storage systems, enable companies to manage
their data throughout its life cycle.  Because different storage systems often have
a hard time “talking” to each other, or exchanging data, HDS unveiled HiCopy
replication software to replicate data bi-directionally between its Lightning and
Thunder systems.  This allows users to consolidate backups and move data
between tiers of storage either locally or remotely.  As new compliance regulations
force companies of all sizes to build out their storage hierarchies with unified
solutions, HiCopy is a significant milestone for the storage industry.

In meeting regulatory requirements, the ability to comply with the terms of
resumption of service agreements is also critical.  Rapid resumption of service
(SLAs) is increasingly mandated by industry/government organizations.  As a
result, HDS introduced Three Data Center Copy, which provides secure, rapid
resumption of service, regardless of the scope of disaster or incident.  By
concurrently utilizing proven Hitachi TrueCopy synchronous and asynchronous
replication technologies across data centers in multiple geographic regions,
delivery of SLAs are assured.

From enhancing backup through local mirroring, to eliminating the backup window
and lessening the impact on server performance, to transmitting backup data to an
off-site tape-vaulting facility,  HDS provides the hardware, software and services  to keep data safe and ensure compliance – helping companies traverse the maze
that is government compliance.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://hds.com/company/news/press_room/press_releases/gl031027c.html
http://hds.com/company/news/press_room/press_releases/gl031008a.html
http://hds.com/company/news/press_room/press_releases/gl031008b.html
http://www.crn.com/sections/BreakingNews/dailyarchives.asp?ArticleID=44102
http://www.asiacomputerweekly.com/acw_ViewArt.cfm?Artid=21041&catid=2&subcat=14
http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/storage/story/0,10801,85847,00.html
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/10/07/39NNhds_1.html
http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/management/news/article.php/3100301
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/10/28/HNhds_1.html

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:

Dave Roberson, President and Chief Operating Officer of Hitachi Data Systems,
has spent the last 20 years at HDS.  He is in charge of Hitachi Data Systems'
transformation from a Japanese manufacturing company, with traditional
management values, to a more entrepreneurial global solutions company.  The
change, initiated by Roberson, and the Hitachi Data Systems' leadership team, is
spurring impressive market-leadership gains.

Well-seasoned in business leadership, Roberson has headed up virtually every
function at the company since joining in 1981 - including IT Services, Finance,
Human Resources, Training, Organizational Development and others.