Hitachi Vantara launched a major rework to its Virtual Storage Platform primary storage system in 2019, beginning at the high end of the VSP family. The rework was major, and now the company is extending it to the midrange of the VSP lineup, beginning with a new system called the VSP E990. The E990 has impressive claimed performance and scalability, but for datacenter storage systems, the management of the systems is as important as their speeds, feeds and data services. The E990 is bundled with the same suite of AI-enhanced management software that Hitachi launched with the VSP rework. It offers cloud-based management and analytics functions that are similar to the management tools offered by rival storage systems, but Hitachi highlights its ‘end-to-end abilities,’ in terms of both diagnostics and the automation of administrative tasks. The continuing message from Hitachi is that, although AI is highly useful in infrastructure management, its value is heavily boosted by automating the complex manual tasks that are needed to implement its recommendations. Hitachi has also launched EverFlex, a program that it says rationalizes its existing range of payment schemes and other pricing models and services.
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