March 29, 2018 at 10:32Hitachi: how the Japanese got from a chainsaw to modern storage
When I hear Hitachi, I immediately think about something like this:
Or about the refrigerator. Or about an electric locomotive. But not about storage. But no, the Japanese are making big serious data storage systems:
We recently opened the Hitachi Vantara training center , where we are just talking about what these storage systems are and how to do it. We have only completed the first month of classes so far, so now I will not talk about the training center - I will share the info later. I’ll just add that it works on the basis of CROC OK, where we do online IT courses and not only. I was much more interested in why the Japanese generally went into this area.
You need to start from 1910. It was then that a guy named Odair appeared at a mine in the city of Hitati. In about 10 years, he became a young engineer from the head of the technical department of the mine.
Then somehow it happened that he needed to assemble an electric motor for the mine. In 1910, he still assembled and launched it. The sound of a working engine made it clear that this is the first such device in Japan. It immediately became clear that at the mine it would be very useful - and not only at the mine. He will be needed throughout the country. Despite its 5 horsepower. Therefore, Namihei Odaira founded what would become Hitachi's trade and industrial association in the future.
At the start, no one bought from him, because the Japanese believed that the Japanese equipment was something like our “sharash-montage”, that is, it was assembled in a garage on a knee and would not work. There was no history of Mitsubishi, Panasonic, there was nothing for which the Japanese resident would be proud of the technical progress of his country. So Odair would have died in obscurity, if not for the First World War. Japan did not receive supplies from the "mainland", and as a result, had to buy local. Odaira accelerated very much and worked at the Stakhanov pace to assemble new models. When it became clear that his devices did not work and fail as often as expected intuitively, there was a great demand from the industry.
Next up is the Tokyo office and trademark registration. Before World War II, Odair really wanted to remain a peaceful company (but then somehow did not grow together).
Another 6 years - they assembled the first AC electric locomotive. The 40th is a large telephone exchange. Then the war, but the company becomes the flagship of recovery. Odair, by the way, the Americans removed from the management of the company for 3 years, closed 19 factories and almost brought the group to bankruptcy. Then he returned and began to burn again, but not for very long - he was already an old grandfather. The new, younger, director immediately realized that he needed to dig towards electronics, and sent many people to adopt RCA and General Electric technologies. Until the 73rd year, the topics of economic development in Japan after the war were very high, and Hitachi caught the wave perfectly.
1952 - the first air conditioning. 70th - the first industrial control system, a system for the railway, almost a full-fledged computer. 74th year - why not release computers? Here is the first one. From this moment they clearly stand on the rails of the country's technological leader and do not leave them to this day. 84th - look, we can make RAM modules. Hitachi turned out to be an excellent competitor to IBM, which did not allow the latter to raise prices, so the global IT community was interested in the well-being of both companies.
In the 80s, they rediscovered PR and marketing. 85th - A total of 30 million power tools were produced. 2001 - also software, a document management system for the state. 2011 - sold the Western Digital HDD production unit. 2012 - stopped making TVs. 2017 - sold the power tools division.
Throughout history, they managed to pick up aircraft and engines for them, car flight systems, batteries, LCD screens, excavators, cranes and a bunch of everything for mines, military transporters, satellite subsystems, equip intelligence centers, cut down equipment for infantry fighters, do washing machines, air conditioners and refrigerators, finance and insurance, develop a bunch of new materials for application in their civilian and military products, collect ATMs, servers, server clusters, telecom equipment and write to many Goa from this software as a firmware level, and applied. They participate in Japan’s nuclear energy and green energy too. Their elevators carry as many people per day as the subways in Japan.
Now the company employs a little more than 300 thousand people. About 17 thousand of them are scientists who work in dozens of laboratories around the world. A couple of years ago, the budget for science was about 1/20 of the budget of the corporation. In Japan, there are almost no medium-sized companies - several concerns control entire segments of the economy and absorb medium-sized companies on time. Therefore, around Hitachi there is still a whole “asteroid belt” of small companies and startups, where they run around the craziest ideas.
In general, a company with Japanese determination is moving forward in new technologies and is trying to get rid of everything that slows it down. Over the years, the share of turnover in the server park (more precisely, everything that is used in data centers) is growing in the company, and it is clear that interests are concentrated somewhere in this area.
Hitachi Vantara is a corporation company, relatively new. It deals only with data solutions (read - data center equipment and software), in fact - a storage vendor. They interact very actively with other companies within Hitachi Corporation and just as quickly open representative offices around the world. In Russia, this is our training center, in particular. As an integrator, we have been cooperating with them for a long time, so the decision to open a platform for training in Moscow is quite logical.
Here is the storage itself:
Hitachi Content Platform
Two VSP G 600 Unified Platform with NAS blades
Virtual Storage Platform G1500
Training - a couple of days courses on Hitachi Content Platform (HCP), Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G (VSP) G Mid-range and Enterprise, Hitachi NAS Platform (HNAS). More courses on working with equipment management and configuration software include Hitachi Command Suite, practical development of Global Active Device technology, which allows you to create a distributed active-active cluster on storage systems of the VSP G line, as well as courses for storage architects aimed at the correct design and optimizing the performance of VSP storage systems. The trainers are Hitachi certified, each one is a practicing engineer, behind whom are many completed projects and experience in the service support of delivered systems.
Or about the refrigerator. Or about an electric locomotive. But not about storage. But no, the Japanese are making big serious data storage systems:
We recently opened the Hitachi Vantara training center , where we are just talking about what these storage systems are and how to do it. We have only completed the first month of classes so far, so now I will not talk about the training center - I will share the info later. I’ll just add that it works on the basis of CROC OK, where we do online IT courses and not only. I was much more interested in why the Japanese generally went into this area.
You need to start from 1910. It was then that a guy named Odair appeared at a mine in the city of Hitati. In about 10 years, he became a young engineer from the head of the technical department of the mine.
From miner to IT specialist
Then somehow it happened that he needed to assemble an electric motor for the mine. In 1910, he still assembled and launched it. The sound of a working engine made it clear that this is the first such device in Japan. It immediately became clear that at the mine it would be very useful - and not only at the mine. He will be needed throughout the country. Despite its 5 horsepower. Therefore, Namihei Odaira founded what would become Hitachi's trade and industrial association in the future.
At the start, no one bought from him, because the Japanese believed that the Japanese equipment was something like our “sharash-montage”, that is, it was assembled in a garage on a knee and would not work. There was no history of Mitsubishi, Panasonic, there was nothing for which the Japanese resident would be proud of the technical progress of his country. So Odair would have died in obscurity, if not for the First World War. Japan did not receive supplies from the "mainland", and as a result, had to buy local. Odaira accelerated very much and worked at the Stakhanov pace to assemble new models. When it became clear that his devices did not work and fail as often as expected intuitively, there was a great demand from the industry.
Next up is the Tokyo office and trademark registration. Before World War II, Odair really wanted to remain a peaceful company (but then somehow did not grow together).
Another 6 years - they assembled the first AC electric locomotive. The 40th is a large telephone exchange. Then the war, but the company becomes the flagship of recovery. Odair, by the way, the Americans removed from the management of the company for 3 years, closed 19 factories and almost brought the group to bankruptcy. Then he returned and began to burn again, but not for very long - he was already an old grandfather. The new, younger, director immediately realized that he needed to dig towards electronics, and sent many people to adopt RCA and General Electric technologies. Until the 73rd year, the topics of economic development in Japan after the war were very high, and Hitachi caught the wave perfectly.
1952 - the first air conditioning. 70th - the first industrial control system, a system for the railway, almost a full-fledged computer. 74th year - why not release computers? Here is the first one. From this moment they clearly stand on the rails of the country's technological leader and do not leave them to this day. 84th - look, we can make RAM modules. Hitachi turned out to be an excellent competitor to IBM, which did not allow the latter to raise prices, so the global IT community was interested in the well-being of both companies.
In the 80s, they rediscovered PR and marketing. 85th - A total of 30 million power tools were produced. 2001 - also software, a document management system for the state. 2011 - sold the Western Digital HDD production unit. 2012 - stopped making TVs. 2017 - sold the power tools division.
Throughout history, they managed to pick up aircraft and engines for them, car flight systems, batteries, LCD screens, excavators, cranes and a bunch of everything for mines, military transporters, satellite subsystems, equip intelligence centers, cut down equipment for infantry fighters, do washing machines, air conditioners and refrigerators, finance and insurance, develop a bunch of new materials for application in their civilian and military products, collect ATMs, servers, server clusters, telecom equipment and write to many Goa from this software as a firmware level, and applied. They participate in Japan’s nuclear energy and green energy too. Their elevators carry as many people per day as the subways in Japan.
Now the company employs a little more than 300 thousand people. About 17 thousand of them are scientists who work in dozens of laboratories around the world. A couple of years ago, the budget for science was about 1/20 of the budget of the corporation. In Japan, there are almost no medium-sized companies - several concerns control entire segments of the economy and absorb medium-sized companies on time. Therefore, around Hitachi there is still a whole “asteroid belt” of small companies and startups, where they run around the craziest ideas.
In general, a company with Japanese determination is moving forward in new technologies and is trying to get rid of everything that slows it down. Over the years, the share of turnover in the server park (more precisely, everything that is used in data centers) is growing in the company, and it is clear that interests are concentrated somewhere in this area.
What is the story of storage?
Hitachi Vantara is a corporation company, relatively new. It deals only with data solutions (read - data center equipment and software), in fact - a storage vendor. They interact very actively with other companies within Hitachi Corporation and just as quickly open representative offices around the world. In Russia, this is our training center, in particular. As an integrator, we have been cooperating with them for a long time, so the decision to open a platform for training in Moscow is quite logical.
Here is the storage itself:
Hitachi Content Platform
Two VSP G 600 Unified Platform with NAS blades
Virtual Storage Platform G1500
Training - a couple of days courses on Hitachi Content Platform (HCP), Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G (VSP) G Mid-range and Enterprise, Hitachi NAS Platform (HNAS). More courses on working with equipment management and configuration software include Hitachi Command Suite, practical development of Global Active Device technology, which allows you to create a distributed active-active cluster on storage systems of the VSP G line, as well as courses for storage architects aimed at the correct design and optimizing the performance of VSP storage systems. The trainers are Hitachi certified, each one is a practicing engineer, behind whom are many completed projects and experience in the service support of delivered systems.