In an era where uninterrupted business operations and disaster recovery are critical for enterprises, Hitachi and NTT Communications have achieved a groundbreaking milestone. The companies recently demonstrated the world's first real-time data synchronization over a staggering 600 kilometers—equivalent to the distance between Tokyo and Osaka or San Francisco and Los Angeles.
This success leverages Hitachi’s Virtual Storage Platform One Block (VSP One Block) and the IOWN All-Photonics Network (APN), signaling a major advancement in distributed data center capabilities.
Revolutionizing Disaster Recovery with Storage Virtualization
For businesses operating in mission-critical industries—finance, telecommunications, and infrastructure—data availability and system resilience are non-negotiable. The collaboration between Hitachi and NTT Com showcases how storage virtualization can be leveraged to manage geographically dispersed data centers as a single, seamless entity.
Hitachi’s VSP One Block enables synchronized data replication across vast distances, ensuring that organizations can maintain business continuity in the face of disasters. The demonstration successfully proved that when a failure was simulated at the main site, full system operations were automatically restored at the backup site without data loss—eliminating the need for manual intervention by IT teams.
Ultra-Low Latency Connectivity with IOWN APN
A key enabler of this achievement is NTT Com’s IOWN APN, a next-generation optical network that offers high speed, low latency, and high energy efficiency. The demonstration confirmed that even over 600 kilometers, the APN achieved round-trip data synchronization within 20 milliseconds—far exceeding the response times required for seamless system recovery.
With the rising frequency of natural disasters, organiations has been actively seeking more resilient IT infrastructure. However, traditional disaster recovery solutions have been costly and inefficient, requiring extensive hardware investments and significant ongoing maintenance. The combination of Hitachi’s VSP One Block and NTT Com’s APN not only enhances business continuity but also reduces infrastructure costs and energy consumption.
A New Era for Distributed Data Centers
Beyond disaster recovery, this breakthrough sets the stage for a future where distributed data centers operate as a unified system. By enabling real-time connectivity between distant data centers, businesses can strategically relocate facilities to regions with abundant renewable energy sources, reducing their environmental footprint.
As generative AI and high-performance computing continue to drive exponential growth in data processing, energy-efficient, scalable, and resilient IT infrastructure is more important than ever. The real-time data synchronization demonstrated by Hitachi and NTT Com marks a pivotal step toward sustainable, high-performance IT operations.
Looking Ahead
Hitachi and NTT Com plan to continue refining their solutions to support industries that require mission-critical IT infrastructure, including cloud service providers, financial institutions, and energy companies. By bridging the gap between storage virtualization and advanced optical networking, the future of IT resilience is here—faster, smarter, and more sustainable than ever.
For IT solution providers, this demonstration underscores the power of leveraging next-gen technology to deliver seamless, future-proof data infrastructure. Whether optimizing disaster recovery strategies or building more resilient IT environments, enterprises now have a clear path forward in an increasingly data-driven world.
Get all the details of this demonstration at Hitachi Vantara.