Empowering Sustainable Data Solutions

In an era where data reigns supreme as the lifeblood of modern enterprises, navigating its complexities while ensuring sustainability has become paramount. Sheila Rohra, Chief Executive Officer of Hitachi Vantara, sits at the helm of one of the industry's leading forces in driving transformative data solutions. In an exclusive interview with Dataquest, Rohra shares invaluable insights into the evolving landscape of data challenges and how Hitachi Vantara is not only addressing these hurdles but also spearheading initiatives to minimize the ecological footprint of data infrastructure. 

From the omnipresent issue of data silos to the burgeoning demand for sustainable practices in data management, the spectrum of challenges is vast and varied. However, amidst these challenges lies a beacon of hope in the form of innovative solutions engineered by Hitachi Vantara. Excerpts:

What are the data challenges you are hearing about from your customers?

From our interactions with customers, we’re consistently hearing about a range of data challenges. These include difficulties in accessing and effectively utilizing their data, as well as concerns about managing data silos and complexity within their organizations. There’s a clear desire for solutions that not only streamline operations but also drive innovation and provide a competitive edge. Additionally, sustainability has become a significant focus, with customers expressing interest in reducing their environmental footprint through energy-efficient data solutions.

At Hitachi Vantara, we’re committed to addressing these challenges by offering unified data solutions that empower our customers to make better decisions, enhance efficiency, and achieve their sustainability goals. What sets us apart is our forward-looking mindset with the incorporation of cutting-edge technologies like AI, along with our dedication to sustainability through green IT practices. With our end-to-end expertise, capabilities, and services, we not only help our customers meet their sustainability targets but also simplify operations, cut down on complexity across the organization, and encourage innovation for a competitive advantage. Together, we are powering good for people and the planet.

How is Hitachi Vantara solving for the demands created as more organizations seek to support generative AI?

Hitachi Vantara has actively empowered companies in harnessing the potential of generative AI through strategic investments in data infrastructure for AI training and in the integration of operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT). By prioritizing innovation and technological progress, we have been able to empower data scientists and address the evolving needs of customers. This has been achieved through the continuous enhancement of our business structure with advancements in AI.

Furthermore, Hitachi Vantara’s and parent company Hitachi’s initiatives related to generative AI, such as the establishment of the new ‘Generative AI Center’ and the introduction of the new Virtual Storage Platform One platform for AI-led data management, have been pivotal in advocating for the safe and effective utilisation of AI technology. These initiatives have contributed to driving enhancements in product quality, accelerating development cycles, and ensuring more consistent product delivery. As a result, Hitachi Vantara has emerged as a significant facilitator in support of companies’ efforts to successfully integrate and leverage generative AI and harness the capabilities of advanced AI technologies.

Data infrastructure can be energy-intensive. What can solution providers do to help companies reduce our ecological footprint?

Due to explosive data growth today, data centres across the globe increasingly consume large amounts of electricity, contributing to an estimated 4% of total greenhouse emissions worldwide. Recognizing the urgency of this issue, sustainability and social responsibility have become top priorities for our customers. Hitachi Vantara is committed to integrating sustainability into every aspect of our business and empowering our customers to achieve their sustainability goals.

Collaboration is key in addressing social and environmental challenges, and it is important to work closely with our customers to leverage data as a strategic asset for driving positive change.

Hitachi Vantara is dedicated to meeting our targets to be carbon neutral in our operations by 2030. Since 2017, we have adhered to stringent internal protocols to design and develop products that consume less energy and emit less carbon with each new version. Our efforts have resulted in reductions in carbon emissions across various stages, including procurement, production, transportation, usage, and recycling, with improvements of 30% to 40% compared to previous models. 

At the same time, we are also empowering our customers to achieve their own sustainability and environmental goals through data-driven initiatives. Through application modernization of workloads, we help our customers reduce operating system overheads and infrastructure footprint. In some cases, this can provide up to up to 50% savings of server capacity. Our enhanced data-reduction technology allows users to store more data on their purchased capacity, and we’ve seen use cases where a 65% reduction in electricity consumption also reduces CO2 emissions by 65%. With storage virtualization, we can apply these technologies to organisations’ existing storage systems with the same reduction rate. Through non-disruptive upgrades and comprehensive support, we ensure a smooth transition to next-generation systems without the need for data migration, further facilitating sustainability efforts for our customers.

How do you collaborate with the partner ecosystem to address diverse data challenges?

At Hitachi Vantara, partnerships are core to our DNA. Our partnership ecosystem plays a crucial role in tackling diverse data challenges across various industries. Through specific technology partnerships like our agreements with Cisco and participation in their Solution Technology Integrator (STI) partner program, we seamlessly integrate such technologies with our storage products. Similarly, our alliance with Oracle ensures robust solutions for mission-critical databases, particularly emphasising recent efforts in cloud migration and hybrid cloud management. Our global partnership with VMware enables us to deploy and manage application workloads across hybrid cloud environments effortlessly. Moreover, our collaborations with various data protection partners ensure data security and availability, both on-premises and in the cloud.

Hitachi Vantara is actively forging emerging partnerships in AI and blockchain realms to strengthen data security, governance, compliance, and vertical solutions tailored to specific industries. Diversification in technology partnerships is crucial for delivering state-of-the-art data and hybrid cloud solutions, services, and expertise necessary for our customers to accelerate their data-driven innovations.

Our partner program caters to our partners’ needs by providing innovative technology and solution offerings, incentives, and support in generating market awareness and demand. It's about achieving goals together with our partners and collaborating to help customers refresh, upgrade, and create new data infrastructure solutions.

Looking ahead, our long-term vision for our partnership strategy involves harnessing diverse expertise, technologies, and perspectives to co-create innovative solutions that address environmental challenges. Through these partnerships, we empower forward-thinking enterprises to develop sustainable solutions, optimise resource utilization, minimise waste, and reduce carbon emissions. This not only benefits our partners’ customers but also helps them deliver a strong return on investment (ROI) for their business. Our partnership models, based on three pillars – trust, profitability and sustainability – are essential for driving business growth.

What is your portfolio strategy and the vision you have for the future of hybrid data management?

Hitachi Vantara recognises the dynamic nature of the hybrid cloud landscape, particularly in the realms of digital infrastructure and data management software.

We are aware of the increasing adoption of multi-cloud environments and are investing in solutions that seamlessly integrate with both on-premises infrastructure and various cloud providers. We prioritize open APIs and flexible architectures to ensure data portability and freedom of choice for customers, preventing vendor lock-in to specific cloud platforms.

Harnessing the power of AI and machine learning capabilities in our data management software enables automated data insights, anomaly detection, and predictive maintenance. Our solutions automate routine data management tasks, freeing up IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives. Additionally, we offer orchestration tools to streamline data workflows across platforms and applications. Our strong emphasis on robust security features and governance tools within our data management software was designed with compliance and data protection in mind, particularly as data privacy regulations become increasingly stringent.

We actively collaborate with leading technology providers in the hybrid cloud and data management spaces to leverage partner expertise and stay at the forefront of innovative technologies. In addition, we cultivate an open ecosystem where developers and third-party vendors can create innovative solutions atop our platforms, expanding our capabilities and reach. This empowers organizations to navigate hybrid cloud and data management landscapes confidently.