Enterprise storage solutions provider Hitachi Data Systems has officially opened its new office at Singapore’s The Concourse.
The new 12,800 sq ft (1,200 sq m) premises, which are 70 per cent larger than the company’s previous office at Capital Square, will serve as the company’s ASEAN headquarters and also play host to a business solutions centre.
According to Ravi Rajendran, vice president and general manager for ASEAN, Hitachi Data Systems, the business solutions centre will serve as a demonstration showcase, training facility and certification centre for the company’s customers and partners.
Technologies showcased at the business solutions centre will include virtualisation and storage management solutions from both Hitachi Data Systems and its partners, such as Brocade, Cisco and VMWare. The centre is also expected to play a big role in growing Hitachi Data Systems’ channel network, according to a company spokesman.
Over the next three years, Hitachi Data Systems will invest S$10 million (US$6.7 million) in the new facilities, and increase its headcount in Singapore by 50 per cent. The company currently employs between 60 and 70 staff in its Singapore office.
Grabbing growth opportunities
“Amid the current economic turmoil, it is heartening to note that Hitachi has identified and is taking advantage of growth opportunities in Singapore and the region by investing in new facilities and services to prepare itself for the eventual economic upturn,” said S Iswaran, Singapore’s senior minister of state for trade and industry, who was present at opening.
Citing data from research firm IDC, which projected that the amount of digital information created, captured and replicated would increase ten-fold from 281 exabytes in 2007 to 1.8 zettabytes in 2011, Iswaran said the cutting down of IT budgets this year would probably not result in less data being generated.
Hitachi Data Systems will release its 2008 results in March. According to Rajendran, the company, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan-based Hitachi Ltd, is expected to have performed in line with expectations.
