In past posts I have chronicled the closer integration of Hitachi Data Systems with our parent company Hitachi, Ltd. In April, we announced the appointment of our CEO Jack Domme as a corporate officer of Hitachi, reporting directly to our Hitachi President Hiroaki Nakanishi. Jack was given an expanded leadership role in advancing the globalization efforts of Hitachi to help expand Hitachi’s strategic Social Innovation initiative through the Information & Telecommunications Systems Company’s (ITSC) platform business.
Today, Hitachi Data Systems announces another step forward with the formation of the Global Office of Technology and Planning (Global OTP) with Hitachi to foster the creation and delivery of Social Innovation technologies. This office will tap the global R&D talents of the combined organizations to “lend expertise and deliver technology solutions to internal Hitachi programs and customer programs to extract meaningful insights that lead to innovation and inspire global action,” according to Michael Hay, who will lead this new office with the IT Platform Division Group (ITPD) of Hitachi.
Hitachi Data Systems platform portfolio has been rapidly expanding. No longer just an enterprise storage systems company, we provide integrated information solutions for servers, file and content, unified and converged solutions platforms, cloud, and big data. Hitachi Data Systems is actively working on initiatives that span more than 10 industries, including call center operations, distribution, energy, finance, healthcare, public safety, retail, security, telecommunications and transportation in collaboration with Hitachi. In addition, the groups have launched an industry forum to facilitate peer-to-peer interactions among customers, partners and other organizations and individual participants who wish to help co-create technology solutions for the global good.
This forum is the Hitachi Data Systems Community, where you can get answers, discover insights, and make connections with Hitachi Data Systems experts as well as partners and customers. The Global OTP is already engaged in discussions about open innovation and programming models that are needed for the future of advance analytics. You are welcome to go to the community website and be a part of that discussion and work with the members of Global OTP and other Hitachi Data Systems communities.
Through the Global OTP, Hitachi Data Systems and Hitachi will also share our breadth of R&D capabilities in software, compute, storage, and networking with broader industry initiatives. In addition to our long-standing collaboration with SNIA on initiatives like Storage Management Initiative (SMI-S), this group collaborates with PARC, a Xerox company, which is leading the Emerging Networks Consortium (ENC) to advance next generation internet based on Content-Centric Networking (CNCN). Hitachi Data Systems has also long been involved with the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Science and Technology Law (SciTech), helping them to forge new relationships with organizations like SNIA and the Cloud Alliance and standards development activities like the ISO/IEC 27050 Information Technology – Security techniques – Electronic discovery.
The Global OTP is a global organization with members representing Hitachi and Hitachi Data Systems organizations from Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The leader of Global OTP is uniquely qualified for this position. Michael Hay is vice president and chief engineer, global product planning for Hitachi Data Systems. Michael lived in Japan for 4 years where he was the chief engineer in the Storage Division of Hitachi in Odawara. Michael has a strong track record of leadership and technical innovation in Hitachi as well as Hitachi Data Systems. Michael and I have worked together for some time and we will continue to work closely together in his expanded role and my role as CTO for Hitachi Data Systems. The Chief Technology Office will be more externally focused to evangelize and research field and industry directions for the Global OTP as well as the marketing and sales organizations of Hitachi and Hitachi Data Systems. As our portfolio and regional coverage has expanded in the past few years we have created Chief Technology positions in the different geos as well as in some platform areas to facilitate communications. All of us will work together to drive innovation across Hitachi and Hitachi Data Systems—all for the benefit of our customers.
As in any global organizations there will be cultural differences among the members, especially between East and West. The unifying bond in our organization is the commitment we share in the Hitachi core principles of WA (harmony), Makoto (sincerity), and Kaitakushu-seishin (pioneering spirit or innovation). This is an important step forward for Hitachi and shows the company’s commitment to Social Innovation by opening up core competencies around technology to the global community. For our customers, this means new resources focused on new and innovative technologies that will help their businesses move forward to the future.