Hitachi Data Systems has partnered with Ixos Software
and AppIQ with the aim of improving its content and storage
management software offerings.
The company will build two e-mail archive management products
using Ixos's eConserver software: Message Archive for E-Mail, which
can be used to eliminate e-mail in-box size limits, and Message
Archive for Compliance, which uses Hitachi's LDEV Guard software to
store information in a write once, read many fashion that cannot be
overwritten for a fixed period of time.
As Hitachi continues to develop products based on the Ixos
software, its customers eventually will be able to use its
HiCommand management software to manage a wide variety of content
types, especially those that may be subject to government
regulation, such as cheque images, account statements and trade
receipts, said Ken Beaudry, senior vice president and general
manager of Hitachi's Global Solutions Services business.
The Ixos partnership comes two weeks after EMC announced its
intention to acquire content management software company
Documentum.
Ixos itself is the subject of a $250m acquisition bid from
knowledge management company Open Text.
Both Documentum and Ixos sell content management software which
manages the kind of unstructured data found in e-mail files or word
processor documents, and EMC and Hitachi's move into this space
both reflect the growing importance of this market, said Brian
Babineau, an analyst with the Enterprise Storage Group.
"Content management is a terrific opportunity to grow their
businesses, so they were all in negotiations with these larger
players. EMC happened to make an acquisition. Hitachi chose the
marketing route," he added.
Message Archive for E-Mail will be available in December, and
Message Archive for Compliance will ship in the first quarter of
2004.
Hitachi also struck a deal with storage management
software company AppIQ, aimed at strengthening its heterogeneous
storage management offerings.
Hitachi will gradually integrate AppIQ's StorageAuthority
management software into its HiCommand policy manager over the next
two years, which will give Hitachi customers the ability to manage
devices using the SMI (Storage Management Initiative) standard.
The company will also build new HiCommand software modules using
AppIQ's CIMIQ-X management platform, Hitachi said.
Robert McMillan writes for IDG News Service