Hitachi Partner News 12-2019

HITACHI VANTARA PARTNER NEWS

Newsletter Dec 2019

Message from Todd Palmer

As 2019 comes to a close, we have much to be proud of.

  • Our business together has grown, particularly around strategic areas like data center modernization, content, analytics, cloud and IoT.
  • We’ve seen our partners embrace our flexible partner program to add new types of engagements as they grow their capabilities and transform their businesses.
  • We saw tremendous momentum and excitement coming out of NEXT 2019 in Vegas. Many thanks to those who sponsored and those who attended onsite or virtually. Missed it? Watch the replays of our mainstage presentations and more on HitachiNEXT.com.
  • Just two months after launch, the market has embraced our new Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) 5000 Series, creating a massive pipeline for you and for Hitachi Vantara.
  • We’ve seen increased partner self-service following the rollout of new and enhanced tools and resources like our Partner Marketing Hub and our Hitachi Automated Labs Online (HALO) .
  • We’ve recently rolled out substantial list price reductions across our Hitachi VSP midrange solutions, making it even easier for us to compete aggressively in the market.
  • We’ve also recently introduced a new promotion that offers eligible Resell partners with a Data-Driven Solutions competency the opportunity to accelerate margin for qualifying new business sales of Pentaho software and support.

In 2020, we are positioned for even more exciting developments and results

  • In January, Hitachi Vantara and Hitachi Consulting will integrate to become a new Hitachi Vantara with a differentiated portfolio of products, solutions and services.
  • In early 2020, we will host valuable partner events, including several half-day Partner Focus 2020 events in cities around the globe. On January 21-22, we will also host a DataOps for Digital Solutions Partner Exec Summit in Santa Clara, Calif. for Pentaho-focused partners to discuss our vision, strategy and opportunity to win together.
  • To accelerate time to value, we will soon formally roll out our velocity pricing program that will automate the generation of best-in-class purchase prices and we will introduce an online tool to accelerate the creation of compelling customer proposals.

Wishing you the happiest of holidays! I look forward to our continued collaboration and partnership in 2020.

Todd Palmer

NEW Price Reductions for Hitachi VSP Midrange Solutions
To compete more effectively with our Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) midrange solutions, we are announcing substantial list price reductions across our Hitachi VSP F350, VSP F370, VSP F700, VSP F900, and VSP G350, VSP G370, VSP G700, VSP G900, as well as the related geo-specific packages and VSP PRO (Partner Resell Optimized) offerings.

Combined with our 100% data availability guarantee and new functionality offered by Hitachi Ops Center, these price reductions could make the offerings highly attractive for customers looking to modernize their data centers.

Existing quotes can continue to be acted on through their valid period. If updates are made to an existing quote, the new list price will be reflected and any special pricing allowance will require new submission and reapproval. All new quotes will automatically reflect the new list pricing.

Questions? Contact your partner manager, authorized distributor or the Partner Program at partnerprograms@hitachivantara.com.


Partner Enablement Update
The Hitachi Vantara velocity pricing project is swiftly moving into field testing, where we will validate improved workflows and pricing logic. Based on continued success within the project, we remain on schedule to introduce this new functionality as of the first calendar quarter next year. Under our digital sales platform initiatives, we continue to apply innovative and AI-driven means to increase partner productivity. Hitachi Vantara partner velocity pricing is a key component of our strategy and goals around reducing time to revenue and the burden of back office operations.

In addition to velocity pricing, and to further ease your proposal process, Hitachi Vantara will soon be implementing an online proposal generator that can be leveraged by select partners directly or through your local partner manager. The proposal generator can provide up-to-date business and technical materials spanning our portfolio and is aimed at helping you avoid wasting time and resources when you’re gathering content to encourage customer response.

For your convenience, BrightTalk webinars, are available on the BrightTalk Partner Channel and by joining the channel you can access on-demand playback. Access our November Partner Connect webinar on the NEW Hitachi Ops Center for Hitachi VSP and targeted platforms. Join today..

Two new sales plays are ready for leveraging. We’ve updated the Modern Storage Platform Sales Play to incorporate Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) 5000. And check out the new AI Ops Sales Play to find out how Hitachi Ops Center improves IT operational efficiency in the data center while lowering costs and risks.

With the announcement of Hitachi Converged and Hyperconverged Infrastructure Solutions, we’re updating Big Conversations and other tools, making it easier than ever to accelerate your customers’ best-in-class hybrid and private cloud solutions, analytics infrastructure solutions and mission-critical application infrastructure solutions. Watch the on-demand FY19 Hitachi Vantara Partner Program, Webinar Series #6 for an update on Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for CI.

Hitachi Vantara Partner Marketing Hub Webinar Training Series and New VSP 5000 Marketing Campaign
Join us for the first on-demand webinar in our new series about the new Hitachi Vantara Partner Marketing Hub. Find out how utilizing the Partner Marketing Hub can greatly enhance your marketing endeavors and lead nurturing processes. Learn email campaign best practices, ways to keep your contacts engaged, and how to leverage professional co-branded campaigns in order to enhance your brand and boost your digital marketing success. Watch the video

Easily generate awareness and leads to meet your sales and marketing objectives for the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) 5000 Series and new Hitachi Ops Center software with our wealth of marketing campaign resources on the Partner Marketing Hub, designed to open doors, maximize opportunities and close more business around these exciting new solutions.

Cisco Validated Design

Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure

We are excited to announce that we will have an opportunity to train all of Cisco’s data center engineers around the world on our joint Cisco validated design (CVD), which includes VSP 5000, as a component. If you’ve got customers looking to refresh or to replace older Vblocks, this solution offers a fantastic opportunity to check out the CVD.

To drive more convenient and successful campaigns around Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure, be sure to leverage the valuable assets on the Partner Marketing Hub–such as email nurturing, an infographic, a design guide and more, including shared analytics and reporting tools to track and measure the success of your initiatives.

Introducing Ken Marks, New VP, Americas Partner Sales

We are pleased to welcome Ken Marks as Vice President, AMER Partner Sales. In this role, Ken is responsible for leading the AMER partner strategy, accelerating revenue, and driving cross-functional alignment and go-to-market execution across the partner ecosystem.

With more than 25 years of industry experience, Ken was most recently Area Vice President, Americas Channels at Splunk, and prior to that held leadership positions at Palo Alto Networks, Juniper Networks and IBM. Ken holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics from California State University, Hayward. He resides in Marietta, Georgia, with his wife and children.

Please join us in welcoming Ken to Hitachi Vantara!

Price Increases for Services Starter Packs Effective Jan.1

With the roll out of Pricing Systems Configurator 4.0, which includes new role-based rates, a list price increase for all Starter Packs will go into effect January 1, 2020. With the momentum we have seen the past few weeks over the automation of the new Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) 5000 Starter Pack, this pricing change comes at the perfect time. It allows you to remain competitive within the market while still obtaining margin gains across the board.

Huawei Sanctions Notice

Due to the U.S. government sanctions on Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., preventing it from sourcing U.S. products and technology in addition to barring its products from being used in U.S. communications infrastructure and networks, Hitachi Vantara is prohibited from having a business relationship with Huawei.

To comply with the sanctions, Hitachi Vantara cannot partner with or resell Huawei products. We will continue to sell and support Hitachi Vantara products into customer environments that contain Huawei technology but with reduced support capabilities. We are not permitted to provide any joint support or service that involves communication with Huawei personnel nor are we allowed to provide managed services or direct support for Huawei technology.

Hitachi Vantara will also not be able to qualify new interoperability with or develop new solutions for Huawei products. We will continue to support existing interoperability and solutions but with the support limitations noted above. As a result, we will not be able to support Hitachi Vantara technology or third-party technology we sell, when it is connected to Huawei equipment AND the support issue requires us to exchange technical information with them.

Visit the FAQ brief for additional details.

Hitachi Transformation Awards: Social Innovation Winner
Recent research indicates that 84% of large firms are deploying IT transformation initiatives. 41% of all technology spending in 2020 is currently earmarked for digital transformation. While the demand for technology that accelerates digital transformation is strong and continues to grow, some companies commit their transformation to “powering good” in society and in the lives of its customers. A standout example is this year’s Hitachi Transformation Award winner in the category of Social Innovation, Dai-Ichi Life, the oldest and the third largest life Insurance company in Japan. Watch how Dai-Ichi expands on its motto, “By your side for life” by unlocking the power of data to lower premiums and improve its customers’ health and quality of life.

Read how Dai-Ichi Life is disrupting the insurance industry model.

Since the launches at NEXT of our powerful next-generation storage and infrastructure foundation, we’ve seen over 120 enthusiastic media articles and a dozen positive analyst commentaries. These are some highlights of this coverage

It’s not idle boasting…. At 21 million IOPs, Hitachi VSP 5000 is double Dell’s top-of-the-line PowerMax system. –Network World

Hitachi Vantara…threw down the gauntlet at other storage venders. – CRN

Our competition is talking about 5 or 6 nine’s…. What’s 2 nines? That’s 100 times more reliable. – ITPro, quoting Dan McConnell, Hitachi Vantara Senior VP, Product Management – Storage

At an event that emphasized the ability of Hitachi Vantara’s new solution set to deliver end-to-end performance for the DataOps economy, the most exciting new product of the show was a box. But it’s a very special box. – Channel Buzz

For those crunching large amounts of data, Hitachi claims the VSP 5000 offers response times as low as 70 microseconds. – The Verdict

Hitachi is a rare beast – a global leader in both industrial systems and information technology which puts it in a relatively unique position as the internet of things and the industrial internet starts to dramatically scale…. Hitachi VSP 5000 series and Hitachi Ops Center form the bedrock of its next-gen storage and infrastructure foundation. – Which-50

NVMe-optimized storage platforms provide significant opportunities for customers to cost-effectively consolidate mixed enterprise workloads onto fewer systems. For IT leaders considering this type of consolidation, issues such as performance, availability, and scalability are critical. With the new VSP 5000 Series storage arrays, Hitachi is delivering across all of these metrics, turning in industry-leading high-end throughput on systems that deliver sub-100 microsecond latencies backed by its venerable 100% data availability guarantee. — Eric Burgener, research vice president in the Infrastructure Systems, Platforms and Technologies Group at IDC

Keep Engaging with Us: Helpful Links, New Resources and Tools
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Discover Global Learning: From instructor-led, classroom-based courses to web-based trainings (WBT), Global Learning courses expand your knowledge so you can accelerate sales opportunities.

View Webinars: Watch featured Webinars or search directory of recorded on-demand Webinars available for instant playback.

Access Sales Resources: Drive new sales with this wide range of assets and resources, such as playbooks and sales guides.

Got questions? Find answers here:
FY19 Hitachi Vantara Partner Program

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