It wasn’t just a major announcement around data that Hitachi Vantara brought to Las Vegas last week. So too was one around that perennial topic, cloud, as the company unveiled enhanced capabilities for Hitachi Vantara cloud services.

What quickly became clear is that as seriously as the company takes data, so too does it consider cloud services an imperative. Indeed, the new announcement falls under its newly announced cloud services portfolio, which includes a number of offerings.

These include cloud migration services, application modernization services, operations managed services, consulting services and Hitachi Enterprise Cloud (HEC).

The company explained that its cloud services “can accelerate the deployment and productive use of hybrid cloud and multicloud environments.” Furthermore, it asserted that its cloud services can speed the implementation of VMware cloud solutions, migrate and modernize apps and data for Microsoft Azure faster, and provide a comprehensive set of managed services to optimize the management of public and private cloud resources.

“Enterprises are struggling to balance cost and complexity with performance and compliance requirements as they transform their IT operations. Growth in mission-critical applications and demand for data will only accelerate the need for more bandwidth and lower latency,” explained Bobby Soni, chief solutions and services officer at Hitachi Vantara.

“At Hitachi Vantara, we are creating people-centric services that empower enterprises to innovate and deliver business outcomes. Our newest capabilities can help our customers achieve fully managed, secure hybrid cloud and multicloud environments faster, and can deliver actionable insights for data-driven decision making,” he continued.

The company’s new found strength in its cloud offerings have in part been driven by its acquisition of REAN Cloud in 2018, which has significantly enhanced its cloud portfolio and managed services capabilities. Furthermore, it has also expanded its expertise in cloud migration and application modernization, two areas which remain critical for organisations.

As we have learnt time and again, great offerings are one thing, whether they are affordable or not is an entirely different story. Indeed, you can have the best products and services out there, but if businesses simply cannot afford them, then they generally fall  flat or miss the mark.

This this in mind, Hitachi Vantara’s announcement of Hitachi Flex Consumption should come as a welcome relief to budget-strapped companies.

Flex Consumption is essentially a consumption-based model that marks a shift in how customers can consume IT solutions and services. The company elaborated that the new model is “designed for customers to commercially align technology expenses with enterprise usage while helping them meet defined business outcomes.”

The flexible consumption model is further intended to simplify the use of resources and provides customers with more choice to simply pay only for the services they use, when they need them. The new model will support a broad set of Hitachi Vantara offerings including remote monitoring and fully managed services.

“At the center of any company’s digital transformation is a data and workload shift that changes how they connect with customers, develop new revenue sources and improve operational efficiencies. These transformations are driving the need for more all-encompassing application modernization strategies, more timely application and data migration initiatives, and more effective adoption and ongoing use of new cloud infrastructure options,” explained Rick Villars, vice president, Datacenter & Cloud, IDC. 

 “A solution portfolio like Hitachi Vantara’s that spans across all three – modernization, migration and sustained innovation in cloud infrastructure – will be essential for companies that want to achieve their digital transformation goals,” he concluded.