Hitachi Content Platform Anywhere Implementation Service Datasheet
Home Depot
1. Home Depot®
Builds Solid IT Foundation
with Hitachi Freedom Storage™
Thunder 9200™
“With the Thunder 9200 and Hitachi Data Systems,
we’re prepared—regardless of which direction
the business grows.”
COMPANY Home Depot
INDUSTRY Home Improvement
INFRASTRUCTURE Hitachi Freedom Storage™
Thunder 9200™
, UNIX®
2. “When you’re growing at the rate of several
hundred businesses a year, it’s absolutely
mandatory to have a robust, RAID storage
environment that delivers unshakable
performance levels and provides return on
investment,” says Larson. “Hitachi Data
Systems filled those bills—and more.”
Larson relies on the continued support of
Hitachi Data Systems’ world-class storage
organization to retrofit each store and
integrate Home Depot’s highly distributed
environment.
Most recently, he added new data warehous-
ing applications to track buying trends,
helping store managers with inventory replen-
ishment and management. Upgrading storage
resources has lowered his data management
costs and allowed the entire company to use
information more effectively.
“By keeping historical sales data on our
storage systems, we can discern buying
patterns at any period in time,” says Larson.
A Reliable Storage Infrastructure is Critical to Retailer’s Rapid Growth
Atlanta-based Home Depot is the world’s
largest do-it-yourself retailer. Over the past
two decades, the warehouse-style vendor
has undergone rapid growth, expanding
operations across the U.S. and seven Canadian
provinces. The outlet is known for revolution-
izing the home improvement industry.
It offers specialty products and the highest
level of customer service.
Home Depot needs a reliable storage infra-
structure to support its expansion and success.
That infrastructure must be capable of sup-
porting business-critical applications, such as
data warehousing, retail store systems,
accounts payable, human resources, and pay-
roll, as well as mounting data requirements
associated with info-rich images, training
videos, and online catalogs that feature up to
20,000 products.
“When you’re selling at such a fast rate, you can’t
afford to worry about the reliability of your systems.
Hitachi Data Systems’ hardware and support
are a rock-solid combination.”
Home Depot®
Builds Solid IT Foundation
Tom Larson, Director of Technical Services at Home Depot, has devel-
oped a “blueprint for success” with Hitachi Freedom Storage™
Thunder
9200™
systems. “As the world’s largest home improvement retailer, we
have to operate at the highest levels—even when we’re under con-
struction,” says Larson.
Larson understands that a surge in data no longer has to equal a bust
in operations. Responsible for maintaining all multi-user operating
systems, he ensures that resources are in place to accommodate the
retailer’s capacity growth needs due to ever-increasing volumes of
information. With consumers demanding 24/7 operations, Larson
knows that a scalable, robust storage infrastructure is needed if Home
Depot’s sales and inventory information is to be available at any time.
This is no easy task, especially considering that Home Depot’s latest
“home improvement” project involves a nationwide storage installation
to support nearly 1,300 stores. To handle this ambitious expansion,
Home Depot is building a solid foundation with Hitachi Data Systems.
3. Hitachi Data Systems extends
retailer’s no-limits storage blueprint
Larson, who has worked for Home Depot for
11 years, knows that the highest levels of
availability, scalability, and reduced total cost
of ownership are of utmost importance when
choosing a storage vendor.
Extending the long-term relationship with
Hitachi Data Systems, which began with the
deployment of Hitachi Freedom Storage™
5700E, Home Depot purchased hundreds of
Thunder 9200™
storage systems. This move
reflected Larson’s continuing confidence in
Hitachi Data Systems and aimed to cover the
company’s storage requirements for the
next two to three years. His expansion plans
called for superior reliability and a strong IT
foundation for 450 new stores that would
accommodate the new Thunder 9200 storage
systems and leverage the previously installed
5700 systems.
Home Depot prides itself on providing the
lowest prices and the highest level of customer
service. The retailer’s well-stocked inventory
has to accommodate any customer, from do-it-
yourselfers to construction professionals, at
any time. For the mega store, keeping track of
inventory around the clock is critical.
That’s one reason why Home Depot is among
the many businesses today requiring 24/7
operations. It’s also another reason why
Hitachi Data Systems isn’t just their storage
vendor of choice—it’s the only vendor they
are willing to bet their business on.
“When you’re selling at such a fast rate, you
can’t afford to worry about the reliability of
your systems,” says Larson. “Hitachi Data
Systems’ hardware and support are a rock-
solid combination. We run each store
autonomously. If a network problem occurs,
we can continue operations by isolating and
running key applications at each store.”
Each outlet runs inventory management,
labor scheduling, email subsystems, sales infor-
mation, and other typical retail applications
on two UNIX®
systems connected to Hitachi
Freedom Storage systems. Home Depot cen-
trally monitors each store for capacity and
performance management from its Store
Support Center in Atlanta, GA. This glass house
operation consists of approximately 400 UNIX
servers, many of which are also attached to
Hitachi Freedom Storage.
“The high availability of the Thunder 9200
keeps our key on- and offline applications up
and running,” adds Larson. “If a drive fails, it
can be replaced online.”
Thunder 9200 powers exponential
capacity growth
Managing information growth is essential
to maintaining consistent levels of perform-
ance. When your data is growing at an
unpredictable rate, storage solutions must
scale seamlessly to meet demand. Larson was
not only concerned with achieving continuous
uptime but also desired the capability to shift
storage resources on the fly. Such flexibility
ensures that storage utilization levels stay at a
high percentage, enabling Larson to extract
the most business value from his storage
investment.
With an ever-increasing need to respond
quickly to unexpected user demand and
customer transaction surges, the home
improvement leader relies on the scalability
of the Thunder 9200 storage system. “We
selected Hitachi Data Systems because we
were looking for a highly reliable storage sys-
tem that could meet the needs of both desktop
and data center applications,” says Larson.
“Hitachi Data Systems provides a robust
solution with a variety of entry points to
accommodate our data requirements.”
Capable of supporting up to 18TB, the
Thunder 9200 is the ideal storage system
to house Home Depot’s current and future
information storage needs, which include
an increasing amount of digital content
from computer-based training programs
to online images.
Home Depot and Hitachi Data
Systems hammer out world-class
solution
“One of our fundamental requirements was
to add 280TB of storage without going down
or ‘under construction’,” says Larson. Hitachi
Data Systems proved up to the task. Each
Home Depot store had a total of two stand-
alone 5700 storage systems and two attached
servers. From the start, Hitachi Data Systems
worked closely with the retailer to define a
solution that leveraged their existing infra-
structure. Then, in a matter of 12 weeks,
Hitachi Data Systems helped Home Depot
install 1,300 stand-alone 5700 upgrades and
70 Thunder 9200 systems across the nation
without disruption.
Sharing a commitment to customer service,
Home Depot and Hitachi Data Systems joined
forces to meet the challenge of supporting,
upgrading, and centrally managing the out-
let’s disk storage in disparate locations
throughout the U.S. Together, the Home Depot
and Hitachi Data Systems turned what used to
require lengthy recoveries and restores into
a distributed support infrastructure with a
commitment to zero downtime. Hitachi Data
Systems support staff spent time in the stores
to better understand Home Depot’s business.
And service level agreements specified that
Hitachi Data Systems technicians would per-
form on-site maintenance on field-replaceable
units in less than four hours, if needed.
“When we were completing throughput test-
ing, two Hitachi engineers flew in from Japan
to resolve a performance issue,” says Larson.
“They tweaked the microcode and made the
production modifications back in Japan.
That showed their dedication to making our
environment top-notch.”
Now, nearly 20 support technicians at Home
Depot are assigned to approximately 5,000
UNIX servers, half of which are connected to
Hitachi Freedom Storage. The home improve-
ment leader’s mission to provide the highest
levels of customer service and professional
advice was no less important to Hitachi Data
Systems. From immediate replacement units
to staging assistance, the Hitachi Data Systems
support team was committed to resolving
every issue.
Hitachi Data Systems solutions help
prepare you for what the future has
in store
Home Depot was looking ahead when it
upgraded the current environment and
purchased hundreds of Thunder 9200 storage
systems to support 450 new stores across the
nation. As its customers begin to expect 24/7
service in the form of storage-intensive online
videos and training programs, Hitachi Data
Systems will help the retailer scale to meet
demand.
“With the Thunder 9200 and Hitachi Data
Systems, we’re prepared—regardless of which
direction the business grows,” says Larson.
Hitachi Data Systems didn’t just partner with
Home Depot to provide more storage capaci-
ty—we collaborated to develop an intelligent
information infrastructure that will serve
as a foundation for successful expansion and
enable them to extend their industry lead. Put
us to work—we’ll help fortify your competitive
advantage, too.
Storage—No Limits
In today’s knowledge-based economy, information is central to the successful enterprise. Hitachi Data Systems
will help you build an intelligent information infrastructure to provide your enterprise with the availability,
scalability, and performance you need to transform data into knowledge. This bulletproof architecture com-
bines our industry-leading enterprise storage and software with Hitachi-developed solutions and strategic
alliances. We embrace industry standards and protocols, while capitalizing on advances in storage area net-
works and storage resource management. With our intelligent information infrastructure, our ability to deliver
the “Storage—No Limits” vision is fully realized. Where will it take you? You will acquire a powerful, truly
open alternative that allows you to enhance your business agility, improve capital utilization, achieve opera-
tional excellence, and minimize risk.
