Released on = December 11, 2006, 10:27 pm

Press Release Author = Sonali

Industry = Software

Press Release Summary = Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary
of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), today announced major moves that will enable its rapid
expansion into the global high-performance computing (HPC) storage market. These
moves, backed by an investment in BlueArc® Corporation, the leader in network
storage innovation, include a five-year worldwide OEM agreement and the immediate
availability of the Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform-which shatters through the
barriers of existing file-based network storage offerings on the market today.


Press Release Body = Hitachi Heats Up the High-Performance Computing Market Forging
Worldwide OEM Agreement with BlueArc

Hitachi Makes Private Equity Investment in BlueArc Corp; BlueArc to Also Resell
Hitachi's Industry-Leading Storage Solutions Portfolio on a Global Basis

Bangalore, December 12th, 2006 - Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned
subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), today announced major moves that will
enable its rapid expansion into the global high-performance computing (HPC) storage
market. These moves, backed by an investment in BlueArc® Corporation, the leader in
network storage innovation, include a five-year worldwide OEM agreement and the
immediate availability of the Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform-which shatters
through the barriers of existing file-based network storage offerings on the market
today.

\"Today\'s announcement signifies a strategic expansion of our addressable market,
enabling us, together with our channel partners across the globe, to bring powerful,
reliable, and proven file-intensive storage technology to customers in the high-
performance computing market and beyond," said Dave Roberson, president and CEO,
Hitachi Data Systems. \"Channel partners can use our new HPC storage offerings as the
foundation to which they can add vertical market expertise, to provide custom
solutions for their clients. Today's announcement is another impressive result of
Hitachi Data Systems' increased investment and focus on emerging markets."

Commenting on today's announcement, Tony Asaro, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy
Group, said, "This is another step in what I refer to as the \'new\' Hitachi Data
Systems. Less than two years ago, I used to say they were a great SAN storage
company. But now it is clear that they are focused on being a great storage
networking company with a more comprehensive portfolio of products that range from
SAN, storage management software, digital archiving, VTL and NAS. It is really
important for customers to have other leading vendors provide NAS solutions so that
they have more options open to them.\"

\"BlueArc's leading file-based virtualization technology is a perfect complement to
Hitachi's industry-leading block-based virtualization solutions,\" said Mike
Gustafson, president and CEO, BlueArc. \"This partnership will help expand BlueArc\'s
presence on a global basis and will extend Titan\'s reach beyond the key vertical
markets we serve today to major enterprises and horizontal applications across the
world, giving customers the better alternative for high performance network storage
they have been seeking.\"

The Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform, Powered by BlueArc

Most network attached storage solutions today are designed to store and archive data
that is rarely or never accessed. For Internet services applications, electronic
discovery applications, life sciences, oil and gas exploration, and entertainment
applications, conventional NAS storage systems simply do not have the performance
and scalability needed to manage the intensive file processing requirements that are
critical to these vertical industries. With today's announcement, Hitachi is
targeting the high-performance computing market -a burgeoning market requiring
intensive file processing, not merely simple file storage.

Headquartered in Columbus, Indiana, (USA), Cummins Inc. designs, manufactures,
distributes and services engines and related technologies, including fuel systems,
controls, air handling, filtration, emission solutions and electrical power
generation systems.

\"As a design and manufacturing company, it is critical to have high-performance
solutions that can scale as our business grows,\" said Curt Brown, Storage Technology
Director, Cummins Inc. \"We were reaching our limit with our current NAS solution.
The Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform provides the necessary scalability and
performance we require. The Hitachi platform exceeds our requirements today and
offers capacity and connectivity to scale as we grow.\"

"With this announcement, we are introducing the most advanced file and block
virtualization system today," said John Mansfield, vice president, Product
Management, Hitachi Data Systems. "There is tremendous opportunity for the Hitachi
High-performance NAS Platform with our installed base. Our customers have been
anxious for us do for their file storage systems what we have successfully done for
their block storage systems with our Universal Storage Platform. We can now help
them consolidate and virtualize a tiered storage block AND file-based environment."

The Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform leads the industry in performance and
scalability and delivers the most advanced file-based virtualization framework.
Further demonstrating Hitachi's continued focus on storage technology leadership;
the new High-performance NAS Platform offers more performance, capacity, file system
size, and snapshot replicas than any comparative file-based storage offering.
Delivering up to 6 times the real-world performance (600K IOPS), over 4 times the
capacity (512TB), 16 times the file system size (256TB), 4 times more snapshots per
file system (1,024)-and unique features such as the ability to perform data
classification and hierarchical storage management and offer Transparent Data
Migration-the Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform effectively eclipses EMC's
Celerra/NSX and NetApp's FAS and V series products.

"There is increasing demand from a growing number of industry-leading, business
application users for the delivery of information to decision makers in real or
near-real time," said John Webster, Principal IT Advisor of Illuminata, Inc.
"Through its partnership with BlueArc, Hitachi is further expanding its leadership
in storage virtualization and further establishing a growth position in both
traditional and emerging high-performance computing opportunities."

The Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform's massive capacity allows for fewer nodes
and lower maintenance costs. The platform's single logical storage pool of up to
512 terabytes eliminates the need to break up large data sets and its advanced file
virtualization capabilities enable automatic growth of file systems. When research
projects require collaboration, the platform helps avoid costly duplicate efforts by
promoting information sharing among researchers via fast, secure access to a central
pool of files and databases that can scale up to a massive 4 million files per
directory. The Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform also delivers a cluster name
space, which provides a single unified name space to users for both CIFS and NFS,
concurrently, giving administrators a single mount point for users no matter where
they physically reside.

"We believe advanced file virtualization capabilities that permit automatic growth
of file systems will gain the most traction," states Carl Greiner, senior vice
president and analyst, Ovum. "However, the vendor that can deliver a single unified
cluster name space for both CIFS and NFS will provide the most robust and
functionally rich implementation. Successful IT organisations will begin to put
unified storage infrastructure virtualisation on their short list of things required
to insure flexibility and agility to meet today's ever challenging business
requirements."

\"Certain applications within high-performance computing, entertainment, and

life sciences, have unique characteristics requiring uniquely-optimized solutions,\"
said John McArthur, group vice president and general manager, Information
Infrastructure and Enabling Technologies at IDC. \"BlueArc has been addressing those
requirements with the Titan product line. The partnership with BlueArc expands HDS\'
portfolio of storage solutions and gives the company improved access to these
higher-growth market opportunities.\"

The Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform supports Hitachi Data Systems' powerful
portfolio of storage systems including its intelligent virtual storage controllers,
the Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller; and its advanced
midrange storage systems, Adaptable Modular Storage models WMS100, AMS200, AMS500
and AMS1000. The Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform will be fully integrated with
Hitachi's storage management software, the HiCommand® suite, and will also be fully
integrated into Hitachi's data protection and replication suite, including TrueCopy,
ensuring complete integration-not just interoperability-into Hitachi's entire
product line of SAN and NAS solutions.

For additional information about Hitachi Data Systems' HPC storage solutions, visit
www.hds.com.

About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems leverages global R&D resources to develop storage solutions
built on industry-leading technology with the performance, availability and
scalability to maximize customers\' ROI and minimize their risk. By focusing on the
customer\'s perspective as we apply the best hardware, software, and services from
Hitachi and our partners, we uniquely satisfy our customers\' business needs. With
approximately 3,200 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts business through direct
and indirect channels in the public, government and private sectors in over 170
countries and regions. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100
companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at http://www.hds.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading
global electronics company with approximately 356,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal
2005 (ended March 31, 2006) consolidated sales totaled 9,464 billion yen ($80.9
billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in
market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and
industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more
information on Hitachi, please visit the company\'s website at
http://www.hitachi.com.

About BlueArc Corporation

BlueArc is the world leader in network storage innovation. BlueArc\'s Titan storage
system family delivers unparalleled performance, scalability and simplicity,
enabling customers to accelerate their digital world. Utilizing a unique patented
architecture, Titan customers can achieve tasks impossible with alternative systems,
implementing tomorrow\'s solutions today. The company\'s headquarters are in San Jose,
California with European operations based in Bracknell, England. More information on
BlueArc is available on the Internet at http://www.bluearc.com.

# # #


© 2006, Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. Hitachi Data Systems is registered with
the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark of Hitachi,
Ltd. Application Optimized Storage is a trademark of Hitachi Data Systems
Corporation. All other trade names, trademarks, and service marks used herein are
the rightful property of their respective owners.


For more information please contact :
Sonali P.S.
9844489854


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Contact Details = Haudin house, Bangalore