Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., today announced that it has expanded its portfolio of Hitachi Compute Systems with the addition of the new Hitachi Compute Blade 500. The new blade server is the first Hitachi Data Systems product to incorporate the latest Intel Xeon processor E5-2600. The open, flexible architecture and high-performance, high-availability features of Hitachi Compute Blade 500 make it an ideal platform for virtualized infrastructures and demanding cloud applications."Hitachi Compute Blade 500 is a further step in our server strategy to help customers reduce integration efforts and accelerate time to production for critical applications," said Roberto Basilio, vice president, Infrastructure Platforms Product Management, Hitachi Data Systems. "Tight integration with Hitachi Data Systems storage and industry-standard data networking systems together with connection to common data center management frameworks speeds deployment and reduces total cost of ownership. We are already working with major software vendors to develop converged data center solutions with Hitachi Compute Blade 500 that will deliver added value, optimized performance and predictable scalability."

Hitachi Compute Blade 500 is a high-density 6U rack mount blade server system with a chassis that supports up to 8 server blades with associated I/O and management hardware. Like all Hitachi Compute Systems, the new blade server features native logical partition (LPAR) technology implemented in firmware. LPAR technology is typically associated with more expensive high-end enterprise platforms and is a reflection of the extensive experience and mainframe heritage of Hitachi Data Systems. An ideal complement to host-based virtualization, LPAR technology improves optimization of resources, and lets customers decrease overhead costs and increase manageability, reliability and performance. Hitachi Compute Blade 500 supports the co-existence of its native logical partitioning capabilities and different software hypervisors in the same chassis, bringing increased efficiency and flexibility to the data center.

Hitachi Compute Blade 500 also introduces a new state-of-the-art embedded 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch designed to increase scalability and enhance virtual machine (VM) mobility, further simplifying management and significantly reducing operational overhead of virtualized blade server environments. The new switch has a non-blocking, cut-through architecture for industry-leading performance and ultra-low latency, and dual speed (1Gbps/10Gbps) capable external ports.

The open, high-performance and flexible architecture of Hitachi Compute Blade 500 allows the system to be easily configured for a mix of virtualized applications and converged platform solutions. Server resources can be dynamically reallocated to match workload changes, and high levels of availability are achieved through features such as redundancy, hot-swap and automated cold standby failover.

Today's announcement builds on a foundation of more than 50 years of innovation and leadership in the enterprise server market. Hitachi Compute Blade 500 joins the existing portfolio of Hitachi Compute Systems, which includes Hitachi Compute Blade 2000 and Hitachi Compute Blade 320. The portfolio also includes a family of rack-optimized servers, Hitachi Compute Rack, that are the foundation for dedicated, packaged solutions such as the company's award-winning object store, Hitachi Content Platform (HCP).

Hitachi Compute Systems are ideal servers upon which to build converged data center solutions. These solutions combine Hitachi Data Systems storage, compute and industry-standard data networking systems, and are pre-configured and optimized for leading applications such as Microsoft Exchange 2010, SAP HANA and solutions with VMware. The seamless management integration of converged data center solutions from Hitachi Data Systems lets applications be deployed faster and with more predictability. This integration also creates operational efficiencies that can reduce costs and improve centralized management of enterprise application implementations. New converged data center solutions that feature Hitachi Compute Blade 500 will be made available in the coming months.