Hitachi Vantara & Broadcom unveil cloud solution for AI era

Hitachi Vantara and Broadcom have announced a new private and hybrid cloud solution, integrating Hitachi Vantara's Unified Compute Platform (UCP) RS with VMware Cloud Foundation.

The co-engineered platform is aimed at helping organisations deal with substantial data proliferation and the rising demands of artificial intelligence (AI).

Characterised by its scalable enterprise infrastructure and advanced software-defined automation, the platform seeks to modernise infrastructure, improve performance, and enhance scalability. It also promises to reduce total cost of ownership, energy consumption, and carbon footprint, thus promoting environmental sustainability while boosting data infrastructure efficiency.

The backdrop for this announcement is a growing need among organisations to manage the complexities and costs associated with hybrid and multi-cloud environments. A report by IDC notes a 36.9% year-over-year increase in spending on compute and storage infrastructure products for cloud deployments in early 2024. A surge in generative AI (GenAI) usage is also transforming the technological landscape, making it vital for organisations to scale their data infrastructure environments efficiently.

According to a recent survey, 63% of organisations have considerable room for improvement in their enterprise infrastructure and data ecosystem readiness to support GenAI initiatives. To tackle these issues, Hitachi Vantara and Broadcom have expanded their partnership to introduce this comprehensive solution, which is expected to simplify operational complexity and support sustainability goals.

"As more businesses face the realities of the AI age, they are actively seeking solutions that help them scale and improve data reliability without sacrificing on cost or environmental commitments," said Octavian Tanase, Chief Product Officer at Hitachi Vantara. "At Hitachi Vantara, we are committed to driving innovation and sustainability in the data infrastructure space. Our enduring collaboration with Broadcom exemplifies our dedication to providing cutting-edge solutions that not only meet the evolving needs of our customers but also contribute to a greener planet," he added.

Paul Turner, Vice President of Products at VMware Cloud Foundation Division, Broadcom, stated: "The longstanding partnership between Hitachi Vantara and Broadcom now delivers a comprehensive and future-ready private and hybrid cloud solution. This not only addresses the current challenges of data management and infrastructure modernisation, but also aligns with organisations' sustainability goals, making it an essential tool for businesses looking to thrive in the era of generative AI and beyond."

The platform has several key benefits. It offers faster time to value with enhanced performance and resilience, allowing for efficient management of more workloads within streamlined infrastructure. It supports flexible deployment, catering to traditional VMs, modern cloud-native containers, and emerging private AI workloads. It also simplifies management by providing turnkey integrated infrastructure and advanced automation capabilities for cloud operations and life cycle management. The solution's pay-per-use consumption model further enhances its cost efficiency.

On the sustainability front, the platform features modern designs that can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs. Virtual Storage Platform One arrays, for instance, can decrease CO2 emissions by up to 96% and reduce the data centre storage footprint by up to 35%. Such features not only contribute to a greener environment but also present cost-saving opportunities for organisations.

The new solution stands out with its high-performance, efficient, and scalable capabilities. It is among the first Broadcom-approved OEM solutions with the new VMware Cloud Foundation. Featuring integrated software, infrastructure, and hardware firmware life cycle automation through UCP Advisor and SDDC Manager, the platform offers seamless operation.

It provides flexibility for deploying business and mission-critical workloads with highly available blended server-based virtualised storage and external storage. Unified management of private cloud infrastructure is simplified with UCP Advisor and SDDC Manager, while automated storage management for VMs and containers ensure multiple SLAs and cost efficiency.

By offering a single source for systems, solutions, and services, the platform aims to streamline operations and reduce multi-vendor friction. It also guarantees 100% data availability, supported by Hitachi's Global Support and Services Team.