The server and storage markets are going through a major transition through virtualization, which increases the efficiency of existing infrastructure while reducing the need for new footprint. IDC and other industry trackers are noting the decline in revenues for infrastructure vendors, where the vendors who sell both servers and storage seem to be the hardest hit.
Hitachi Data Systems grew by +5% in the quarter ending in March. This continued our string of 14 consecutive record quarters of year on year growth due to our early commitment to virtualization and the expansion of our portfolio into file, content and converged solutions. While other companies may be pulling back during this transition in the marketplace, Hitachi Data Systems is investing in growth.
Over the last year we have expanded our presence all over the world. Hitachi Data Systems now does business in 150 countries and regions globally, including Africa since our acquisition of Shoden Data Systems. In 2012, we expanded our local assembly capabilities in Brazil to support the needs of a more mature Latin America region given its current growth rates. We also opened new offices in countries such as India, China, and Colombia.
Hitachi Data Systems Englewood Facilities Opening Event
Last week I attended the opening of our new Englewood facilities near Denver, Colorado. This is a 53,000+ sq. ft. facility where we will house a sub office of our corporate headquarters, an operations center, global help desk, development lab, and district sales office. Our CEO Jack Domme, EVP of Global Solutions Strategy & Development John Mansfield, and SVP of Global Accounts Kevin Eggleston all live in Denver. Since Denver is a major airline hub, it has direct flights to all our major offices including a new 787 service to Tokyo.
Our operations center and global help desk are integral to the new facility. The operations center provides a single global support process for all of our IT operations to improve service and fix issues before they impact our IT users. We use our own tools like Hitachi Command Director to understand how they can be leveraged to improve IT operations worldwide for our customers. We also insource our global help desk for first call resolution to increase customer contact.
Global Operations Center
Global Help Desk
This facility also houses our newest Global Solutions Strategy & Development Lab that hosts new development projects across our teams, including QA efforts for software, file and content, and other new solutions. Our advanced technical consultants will also use this lab for Americas sales support. The lab has a slab floor with overhead cabling and cooling for easy configuration changes. It has outside air cooling and high-speed connections back to the Santa Clara office and our other development labs around the world.
The Rocky Mountain sales and support offices are also located at this facility and an upcoming Executive Briefing Center as well. The new facility currently houses about 250 people with plans to double in size.
Some key customers and partners attended the opening event and tour of our facility. Shunsuke Ono, Consulate –General of Japan, celebrated closer ties between Japan and the Denver area. Kristin Russell, Secretary of Technology and CIO for the State of Colorado, was instrumental in helping us locate to this new facility. In addition, Sherri Hammons, CTO for the State of Colorado, and Eric Mitisek, president of the Colorado Technology Association, were in attendance. The reception by the Colorado technical community was outstanding and very much appreciated.
Many thanks to our customers and partners who supported us in our success and the opening of our new facility. We look forward to the innovation that the new Denver facility will bring to HDS, our customers and our partners
