Storage vendor, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), has hit back at an interview given to iTWire two weeks ago by EMC ANZ marketing director, Jordan Reizes.

HDS marketing manager, Timothy Smith, has asked for the right of reply and we are happy to comply with his request. His response follows:

"It is always interesting when a competitor assumes to know us and believes that we are “not cottoning on” to their strategy of going ‘beyond the box’, when the fact is that Hitachi Data Systems has been here for well over a year and reaping the benefits in the Australian market.

"Over the past three years, Hitachi has certainly looked beyond the box by partnering with Microsoft, AGFA Healthcare, Accenture, Archivas and Oracle to deliver innovative and compatible storage solutions to our customers. Recently, Hitachi was recognised as the only SAN vendor to be certified under the Microsoft SimpleSAN initiative.

"Hitachi Data Systems has a diametrically opposed strategy to certain storage vendors. We are focused on delivering application-centric storage solutions, taking a top down value approach vs a bottom up cost approach. We believe that aggressive acquisition is unnecessary if you have the ability to innovate and the temperament to partner. This is the Hitachi difference.

"With respect to the shift towards software and services in the storage industry, this is not rocket science but simply market dynamics. Our clients need our assistance to simplify their storage management and improve the resiliency of their business applications, and this requires more software and increased consulting services, not to mention, project management.

"Finally, when it comes to the SMB market in Australia, Hitachi Data Systems does not discriminate against this sector because they are not just a bank or a telco. We provide our SMB clients with solutions that deliver the same functionality and capabilities as our enterprise clients. It is also important to recognise the SMB market in Australia is serviced by the channel, which Hitachi Data Systems has been globally recognised for in the past two years, as being the most channel friendly storage vendor. This is why we have seen a 900 per cent increase in the number of SMB clients across A/NZ region in the past three years."