HP Expands Business Continuity of HP StorageWorks Disk Array XP Platform with Multi-site Disaster Tolerant Solution


Dubai, UAE, august 18, 2003. HP (NYSE:HPQ) HP (NYSE:HPQ) and Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT) announced that they have extended their joint technology agreement and original equipment manufacturer relationship for the foundation hardware used by HP to develop the HP StorageWorks Disk Array XP family. The agreement now extends through 2008.
 
The HP StorageWorks XP family designed for enterprise class data centres combines Hitachi’s high-end disk array technology with exclusive HP-developed software, solutions and services.

Since signing the original contract with Hitachi in May 1999, HP has continued to extend the XP technology and develop solutions around the XP family.  This includes a Pay-per-Use solution announced in June and the new HP StorageWorks Multi-Site Disaster Tolerant Solution described below.  The systems represent a key infrastructure component of the HP Adaptive Enterprise strategy to deliver greater business agility and improve the return on information technology investment for customers.

“The unabated growth of corporate data means sustained, significant demand for true high-end arrays,” said Charles Ashman, Manager ESG Product Business Unit, HP UAE, Gulf and Levant.  “The continuance of the relationship between HP and Hitachi shows that each company is dedicated to delivering high end arrays for enterprise customers who need absolute data availability and the ability to easily add and manage many terabytes of data.”
 
“Customers are demanding more from their infrastructure, and the HP StorageWorks XP family answers their critical business needs  whether it’s superior scalability, utility pricing or bullet-proof business continuance,” said Bob Schultz, senior vice president and general manager, HP Network Storage Solutions. “With the extension of our successful relationship with Hitachi, Ltd., we will continue innovating and supporting industry-leading solutions based on the XP family.”
 
“Customers can expect high levels of collaboration and innovation in future XP product development as HP and Hitachi enter the fifth year of our successful relationship,” said Naoya Takahashi, chief operating officer, information and telecommunication systems, Hitachi, Ltd. “Our partnership is reinforced by a mutual commitment to adding value to the enterprise with solutions based on the HP StorageWorks XP disk array platform. The latest proof is the HP Multi-Site Disaster Tolerant Solution, which asserts the power of HP and Hitachi to deliver the tools customers need to keep their businesses running smoothly.”
 
New Disaster Recovery Solution
 
The HP StorageWorks Multi-Site Disaster Tolerant Solution combines HP’s expertise in software, networking, hardware and services to help customers recover application processing quickly and effectively typically in less than one hour should a local or regional disaster occur.
 
The solution includes a local metropolitan recovery site to optimise resource utilisation and ensure high resilience for normal operations.  Leveraging the versatility of the HP StorageWorks Disk Array XP platform, HP also establishes a remote, ‘out of region’ site for automated data cycling and complete recovery capabilities.
 
Two nearby sites less than 100 km apart protect each other in case of a local disaster. Critical applications are mirrored synchronously to the second XP system, and in the case of localised failure, one site can take over application processing to virtually the exact point where it was interrupted.  A third site located well outside the region offers protection should the two most preferred sites be lost.
 
HP software uses the underlying remote copy capabilities of the XP arrays for local, synchronous mirroring and long distance, asynchronous mirroring to create redundancy and failover capabilities. The software allows administrators to coordinate and automate synchronizing data transfers across the three sites. HP Consulting and Integration specialists can tailor HP’s management tools to a company’s specific environment.
 
More information about the HP StorageWorks Disk Array XP family and HP’s family of disaster-tolerant and other business continuity solutions is available at http://www.hp.com/go/storage.
 
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About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 340,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2002 (ended March 31, 2003) consolidated sales totaled 8,191.7 billion yen ($68.3 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 Web site at http://global.hitachi.com.

About HP
HP delivers vital technology for business and life. The company’s solutions span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing for consumers, enterprises and small and medium business. For the last four quarters, HP revenue totaled $70.4 billion. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.
 
About HP Middle East
HP is the largest IT company in the Middle East employing about 500 people in the region. HP has been present in the Middle East since 1968, and opened its first regional office in 1994 and has offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah and Khobar, Cairo and Ramallah servicing the GCC, the Levant and Egypt. For more information about HP in the Middle East, please visit www.hp.com/me 
 
(1) IDC, Quarterly Server tracker Q1, CY 2003, published May 30, 2003.

(2) All published SPECjAppServer2002 scores can been seen at http://www.spec.org/jAppServer2002/results/jAppServer2002.html.

(3) These results were achieved on the SAP Standard Application SD Benchmark running SAP R/3 Release 4.70, processing 49,330 order line items per hour for 491 SD Benchmark users at an average dialog response time of 1.97 seconds with an average CPU utilization of 85 percent, using Oracle 9i database and SuSe Linux Enterprise Server 8 operating system; run by HP performance lab in Houston, Texas. The ProLiant DL560 server was configured with four 2.8-GHz Intel Xeon MP processors, 2-MB L3 cache, and 12-GB main memory. This benchmark was certified by SAP AG on June 23, 2002, No. 2003036. This benchmark fully complies with the SAP Benchmark Council’s issued benchmark regulations and has been audited and certified by SAP. More information is available on the SAP Web site at http://www.sap.com/benchmark.
 
Oracle is a registered U.S. trademark of Oracle Corp., Redwood City, Calif. Intel and Itanium are registered trademarks of Intel Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Java is a U.S. trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. SPEC is a registered trademark of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. SAP, R/3 and all other SAP product and service names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and several other countries.
 
This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that the market for the sale of certain products and services may not develop as expected; that development and performance of these products and services may not proceed as planned; and other risks that are described from time to time in HP’s Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to HP’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended January 31, 2003, and subsequently filed reports. If any of these risks or uncertainties materializes or any of these assumptions proves incorrect, HP’s results could differ materially from HP’s expectations in these statements. HP assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

© Press Release 2003