Looped In: The Business Case, Quantified

This month, we’re feeling grateful. Independent validation matters — not just for us, but for our customers. That's why we asked Forrester to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ study on our Virtual Storage Platform One (VSP One). The results are in, and we couldn’t be more excited to share them. 

As modern workloads grow more complex and data volumes surge, companies are looking for solutions that not only meet current needs but also provide headroom for future growth. 🦾 Forrester found that VSP One tackles those needs head-on — delivering measurable business value across industries worldwide.

Dive in to see what they found!

VSP One by the numbers

Forrester found that customers are using VSP One to simplify operations, reduce costs, scale quickly, and prepare for the future of complex, data-intensive workloads. Those organizations achieved:

• 🚀 285% return on investment in just seven months
• 💵 $1.1M net present value
• 💥 $1.5M in benefits over three years
• 💫 6x more data storage capacity
• 📈 Returns realized in less than a year

Forrester noted that with up to a 6:1 data reduction and streamlined provisioning, organizations are seeing significant efficiency gains and scalability across both hybrid cloud and on-premises environments.

Don’t just take Forrester’s word for it. “We measured roughly about 30% to 35% reduction in operational complexity,” said one chief technology officer in information services about VSP One. “That translates into a headcount at $200,000 to $250,000 a pop.”

Beyond cost savings, customers highlighted how VSP One makes it easier to expand incrementally and stay agile. According to one senior infrastructure architect: “The new array technology allows you to literally add one drive at a time. That’s a huge quantitative improvement.”

It’s helping staff get time back, too: “My team used to spend one to two hours troubleshooting storage issues weekly. Now, they just log in, check the health, and move on,” said the head of IT infrastructure at an education organization.

As our chief product officer Octavian Tanase put it: “Delivering more than just cost savings, VSP One is helping customers eliminate silos, simplify operations, and support hybrid environments without the constraints of proprietary systems.”

He added that the results show that “modernizing with VSP One has the potential to achieve rapid ROI, cut complexity, and give organizations the agility to scale and innovate.”

To learn more about how VSP One can help your organization, check out the full report.

Hitachi + NVIDIA: 🌎 A new era of physical AI

Hitachi has launched a global AI Factory with NVIDIA — a unified infrastructure designed to fast-track physical AI innovation. 

Powered by Hitachi iQ with NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, RTX PRO Servers, and Spectrum-X networking, the AI Factory connects teams across the United States, EMEA, and Japan to build and deploy advanced AI models at scale.

By combining Hitachi’s operational technology expertise with NVIDIA’s full-stack AI platform, the initiative will accelerate digital twin development, real-time AI applications, and sustainable transformation across industries — a cornerstone of Hitachi’s Lumada 3.0 vision.

Learn more about our Hitachi + NVIDIA AI Factory.

Sustainable Action: Green by design

🔍 It’s time for a closer look at the emissions behind our digital lives.

As AI and data-heavy workloads surge, energy demand is rising —  making emissions targets harder than ever to meet. With global regulations tightening, balancing sustainability requirements with innovation is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s non-negotiable.

One make-or-break factor? Infrastructure.

Our own Sasan Moaveni , global business lead of AI & High Performance Data Platforms, advises organizations to design efficiency into their systems by:

• 💫 Modernizing legacy and over-provisioned systems that create unnecessary carbon impact.
• 🔋 Adopting flexible consumption models that minimize waste.
• 📊 Using real-time emissions tracking to stay within carbon limits.

Solutions like Hitachi Vantara’s VSP One Block can cut energy use by 30% or more — proof that businesses don’t have to choose between performance and responsibility.

♻️ “True sustainability is far more than a box-ticking exercise — it’s about embedding environmental, social, and economic responsibility into the core DNA of a business,” Sasan writes. Read the full story.

On the road:

Hitachi Digital Summit and Hitachi Inspire Summit

☺️ We’re feeling energized by the inspiring ideas and conversations that took place at our Digital and Inspire Summits. These events brought together industry leaders, customers, and partners to explore the future of AI, energy, and digital transformation. Our CEO Sheila Rohra joined leaders from Hitachi Energy to discuss how AI and digital innovation are accelerating the energy transition and reshaping infrastructure for a more sustainable future.

And our CTO of AI Jason Hardy joined experts from Hitachi , GlobalLogic , and Hitachi Digital Services to showcase real-world applications of industrial AI and highlight how Hitachi is turning advanced technology into measurable impact.

👏 A big thank you to everyone who joined us!

SHARE Cleveland

From our booth to breakout sessions, we loved engaging with the SHARE Cleveland community on what’s next for mainframe storage, networking, and hybrid cloud. A huge thank you to everyone who joined us and to Brocade for teaming up with us to showcase the power of partnership! 🙌

Mud, grit, and heart — all in one unforgettable run 🏃

Hitachi Vantara employees in the Netherlands came together this month to conquer the Mud Masters Haarlemmermeer Obstacle Run: up to 96 obstacles 🤯 and 42.2 KM of pure determination 🥇.

This year, they pushed themselves for an even greater purpose — raising funds to fight childhood cancer.

A huge thank you to everyone who ran, cheered, donated, and helped make a real impact along the way 💫.

ICYMI: Announcements, events, and insights

Hitachi Vantara is among the first companies in any industry to deploy NVIDIA RTX PRO™ Servers 

🤖 The robots we once imagined in science fiction are now becoming reality. And as the physical AI revolution unfolds, we’re using NVIDIA RTX PRO™ Servers to accelerate the toughest physical AI workloads — from simulating entire power grids to optimizing manufacturing in real-time, all while improving productivity across overall business activities.

Physical AI — which connects digital intelligence with real-world systems — transforms automation from a collection of smart machines into a unified nervous system for civilization itself. As CTO of AI Jason Hardy put it, the physical AI wave “has the greatest potential to change how the world works.”

Virtual Storage Platform One SDS has landed on 🤝Microsoft Azure Marketplace 

Organizations face mounting pressure to do more with less. But this launch makes life easier by bringing seamless storage management to Azure users: IT teams can now manage and protect data across environments and simplify operations with built-in efficiency features that boost agility and cut costs up to 40%  💸. All without retooling, rewriting apps, or any other headaches 😀. Learn more.

CEO Sheila Rohra is breaking through barriers with her latest in Forbes

Companies are investing heavily in unifying their data silos, but many businesses are overlooking a more subtle barrier to progress: the silos between people. In her latest Forbes op-ed, our CEO Sheila Rohra explores how breaking down organizational barriers across teams, departments, and functions — by building trust, structuring for alignment, and rewarding collective accountability — is the next frontier in leadership. Read her full take.

Making the grade in storage performance

With 90,000 students and 21,000 faculty and staff across nine campuses, Indiana University Bloomington (IU) is known for investing in state-of-the-art technology to support its student body. Data is at the heart of everything they do.

To replace a fragmented, expensive, and tough-to-scale system, it turned to Hitachi Vantara to create a next-generation storage solution capable of supporting critical research and learning applications, 24/7.

Now, 65% of its servers run from just 800 square feet, all while using less power. For comparison, the Bloomington Data Center is nearly 90,000 square feet. “It’s phenomenal that such a small footprint provides such a large proportion of our IT services,” says Mark Spencer, Director of Telecom Infrastructure.

The revamp delivered:

• A 2x increase in maximum storage performance
• A 25% increase in total storage capacity
• Near-zero RTO and RPO for seamless business continuity

IU’s new cloud environment enables seamless data replication between two data centers, so if one goes down, the other takes over without anyone noticing.

That business continuity solution is “really unrivaled in higher ed,” Spencer says. “That’s what I enjoy most about Hitachi — the technology just works.”

Read the full story about Hitachi’s partnership with Indiana University.

Events and webinars

Modernize Your Data Lakehouse with Object Storage — Trends, Tech, and the Road Ahead

Want to future-proof your data lakehouse strategy? Join this expert-led session on October 15 at 10 a.m. EDT that will unpack everything you need to know about evolving requirements, real-world use cases, and future innovations. Register now.

Master the Art of AI Implementation

In today’s competitive economy, AI can unlock real business value — but only if it’s implemented the right way. This on-demand webinar shows you how to deploy AI effectively, avoid common pitfalls, and deliver measurable results that give your organization a real edge. Watch it now.

Until next time 👋

We’ll keep tracking and sharing big ideas that lead to real world impact. Check back in next month for more updates. And don’t forget to hit subscribe!