HDS Details New Services For The Channel

The company also provided further evidence of the convergence of storage and content management with a global development and distribution relationship with Ixos Software, one of the largest remaining independent enterprise content management (ECM) vendors.

The 11 prepackaged services bundles aimed at channel partners will be offered in conjunction with HDS' Global Solution Services unit, said Ken Beaudry, senior vice president and general manager of the unit.

The services are divided into product-based services tied to hardware products; storage solution services, including consulting-led services related to SANs and disaster recovery; and industry solutions that focus on unstructured data content management in such verticals as financial services, rich media, health care, government and life sciences, Beaudry said.

Global Solution Services is looking to work with solution providers in one of three ways, including those looking only to resell the organization's services, those looking to become fully certified to sell and deliver those services, and those who would be able to sell and co-deliver those services in conjunction with Global Solution Services, Beaudry said.

The services include enablement and implementation services for Hitachi ShadowImage data replication and mirroring software; implementation service for Hitachi TrueCopy local data replication and mirroring software; enablement and implementation for Hitachi HiCommand Tuning Manager and Device Manager; open systems and mainframe services implementation for Hitachi Data Migration Services; services for Hitachi SplitSecond rapid recovery for Microsoft Exchange; and Hitachi Data Consolidation Service, company executives said.

Rollout to members of HDS' TrueNorth channel program will have access to the services starting in December, a company spokesperson said.

John Murphy, executive vice president of Advanced Systems Group, a Denver-based Hitachi solution provider, said that if HDS wants the channel to grow its business and its expertise, it has to offer such services.

"I'm not looking for full integration services like those from IBM Global Services," Murphy said. "But if you want me to work closer with HDS, you better get those services out there, and not compete with me. I want to make sure the people we have here who work with Hitachi get rewarded."

Murphy said he has yet to see details of compensation plans related to the services. But those details are key to the success of the related channel program. "Talk to me like a 2-year-old," he said. "Tell me Bobby sells to Billy; if John helps, then John gets this. Explain it to me in excruciating detail."

One new service not yet available to the channel, but which some day will make it there, is data life-cycle management solutions for unstructured content, which are becoming available thanks to the new global relationship with Ixos.

The first solution, Message Archive for Compliance, allows companies to retain an archive of e-mail and instant messages that cannot be altered for a fixed period of time specified by SEC 17a4, Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel II and other regulations. E-mails and messages stored are indexed and searchable for audit purposes, said Erek Gascon, senior director of industry solutions at HDS.

The second, Message Archive for E-Mail, removes the size limits from user e-mail boxes, making it easier to establish archival rules for migrating messages to secondary storage while preserving the client interface, HDS executives said.

Hitachi is also working with AppIQ to deliver a new, co-branded storage management software application based on that company's StorageAuthority Suite to its channels worldwide. The suite gives HDS' software portfolio improved SAN management, storage resource management and heterogeneous provisioning solutions, HDS executives said.