Gijima powers sustainable data infrastructure with Hitachi

Gijima, a leading Black-owned South African Information and Communications Technology (ICT) company, selected the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) arrays to reduce energy costs while also improving the performance and scalability of its data infrastructure. 

Gijima’s state-of-the-art data center hosts business-critical systems for many of the company’s biggest clients. Due to explosive data growth, data centers across the globe increasingly consume large amounts of electricity and account for an estimated 4% of the total greenhouse emissions worldwide. Based on these critical requirements, it became imperative for an enhancement of its storage sytems while also focusing on improving sustainability and efficiencies while lowering their carbon footprint and overall costs. 

Gijima successfully identified and deployed Hitachi VSP systems at its production data center and additional arrays for disaster recovery. The all-flash storage systems replaced bulkier spinning-disk arrays, significantly consolidating the physical infrastructure, reducing from nine racks to three in the production data center, and freeing up additional racks at the disaster recovery site. As a result, the new deployment provides a much smaller footprint and a considerable reduction in power consumption, which will reduce CO2 emissions and help Gijima save on energy costs. 

Marais De Bod, Technical Solution Engineer at Gijima said, “Gijima was looking for a storage solution to underpin our shared hybrid cloud platforms, spanning across X86 as well as Midrange platforms, and we needed a solution that would enable us to continue improving our services to clients on a technical and commercial level, while keeping sustainability in mind given our current country environment. Today, energy-efficient solutions are a priority for many of our clients, and as a result of our new infrastructure we are already seeing a 66% reduction in power, cooling, and space requirements. From a commercial perspective, the pricing model gave us a lot of flexibility, since we only pay for the storage capacity we need. The Hitachi platform and model has enabled Gijima to scale our solutions as our client demand grows and provides us with a storage platform that is extremely stable and predictable so that we can continue to ensure and deliver on the SLA’s that we contract with our customers.” 

“We design, develop, and deliver data storage systems that consume up to 30-40% less energy with each new release, enabling organizations to continually lower their carbon footprint without compromising on performance,” said Mark Ablett, President, Digital Infrastructure, Hitachi Vantara. “Through our eco-friendly infrastructure, innovative diagnostics, and data-driven automation, we help organizations better manage their IT and carbon footprints, so that they can holistically take action to reduce emissions. We are committed to powering good for people and planet.” 

Improved Performance, Reduced CO2 Emissions 

Many organizations are scrambling to understand their sustainability posture to lessen their impact on the climate and lower costs. For many, they’re turning to infrastructure, the heart of the data center, for answers. Hitachi Vantara’s eco-friendly infrastructure innovations engage and empower organizations to meet social and environmental goals through data-driven sustainability. 

Hitachi Vantara has followed a rigorous process for lowering the carbon footprint of its systems as a core design principle for more than a decade. Of note: 

•       Between generations of storage solutions, Hitachi Vantara cut carbon emissions between 30% to 40% compared to previous models – including the procurement of raw materials, production, transportation, five years of use and final recycle. 

•       With utilizing the Carbon Footprint of Products (CFP) certification[1], Hitachi Vantara has continually visualized and lowered greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the entire lifecycle of its systems. 

•       Hitachi Vantara has built-in interactive tools, including a CO2 estimator, that allows any organization the ability to examine their current data center carbon footprint and identify steps they can take to reduce their energy use without sacrificing on their storage needs. 

“Corporate sustainability has moved beyond the abstract of what is possible and become an imperative for organizations and businesses around the world," said Bjoern Stengel, Global Sustainability Research and Practice Lead, Sustainable Strategies and Technologies with IDC. "There is now enough evidence to show not only that it can be done, but it must be done. The demand is there, there are tangible steps that organizations can take to reduce their emissions, and it can also help drive better business results."