Hitachi and NetApp Team Up

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) and Network Appliance (NetApp) have officially announced plans to collaborate. The announcement follows a report from Merrill Lynch that predicted an alliance was imminent as was reported in last week's Storage UPDATE. The companies have agreed to market and sell enterprise Network Attached Storage (NAS) solutions. Under the agreement, HDS will offer NetApp enterprise NAS gateway solutions for Hitachi Freedom Storage environments. The environments will be manageable by Hitachi's HiCommand Management Framework tools.

The product, which is expected to be available in first quarter 2003, will help HDS provide solutions to customers looking to purchase and implement NAS devices and will help NetApp expand its market. The deal will let customers easily use Storage Area Network (SAN) and NAS devices together in a storage environment. The NAS gateway will be available for both Hitachi Freedom Storage high-end and modular products.
http://www.hds.com
http://www.netapp.com