Hitachi: Thinking Big. Maybe Too Big?

November 28, 2011

I was puzzled when I read that Fujitsu had licensed search technology from the little-known Perfect Search. I have some passing familiarity with the technology, and once one of the Perfect Search wizards bought me fried tofu. My favorite meal! You can read about the Perfect Search Fujitsu deal in “Fujitsu Launches NuVola Private Cloud Platform Solution Featuring Transformative Appliance-Based Network Software Tools and Utilities.”

However, when I spotted “Hitachi Plans to Sell Systems That Integrate Data from Cities in the Cloud,” I had a new thought. Here’s the key passage:

Hitachi, which manufactures everything from nuclear power plants to mobile phones, said it aims for revenues of US$6.5 billion in the fiscal year through March, 2016 from cloud-related business, a big jump from the US$900 million it generated last fiscal year in the business.

Big money.

We have Fujitsu making big data noises. We have Hitachi making bigger data noises. My thoughts:

  1. The Japanese conglomerates are a bit like sheep. When MITI or another Japanese government agency drops a hint, the companies move.
  2. Whether the prospects realize they need the Japanese solution, the marketers will descend and make logical arguments about the proposed remedy to to computing woes.
  3. The efforts will be what I call a “sort of” success. IBM, Google, and other “big data” next-generation solutions providers will fight back.

Will struggling US cities ship their borrowed money to the Land of the Rising Sun? Long shot. And search? Further commoditization and value degradation ahead. This will be interesting to watch as Japan’s biggest companies attempt a half gainer with a twist.

Stephen E Arnold, November 28, 2011

Sponsored Pandia.com

Comments

2 Responses to “Hitachi: Thinking Big. Maybe Too Big?”

  1. Tim Stay on November 29th, 2011 2:34 am

    Perfect Search is well suited for the big data issues that Fujitsu is solving with its Nuvola platform with the scalability and performance that Perfect Search can offer. The beauty of the private cloud solution that Fujitsu is offering with the Nuvola platform is that a city or municipality doesn’t have to ship its data overseas. They can set up the private cloud in a single rack in their own data center.

    By the way, it is my understanding that the Hitachi Data Systems storage search is built on an old FAST version that Microsoft no longer supports. I had heard this but figured the Oracle of Harold Creek would know if anyone knew.

  2. Success Review Blog on December 2nd, 2011 2:09 pm

    Thinking Big…

    […] year through March, 2016 from cloud-related business, a big jump from the US$90 […]…

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