Hitachi Data Systems doesn't have its own compression/deduplication technology but looks set to get it.

Dell is buying Ocarina for such technology and HDS is the array supplier holdout, as competitors EMC, HP, IBM and NetApp each have their own technology for data reduction. What is HDS going to do?

Senior executives are being very cagey. Asked if it is important for HDS to have direct control and ownership of its own data reduction technology, Chief Strategy Officer Michael Hay said: "We already have it with HCP [Hitachi Content Platform]. Focusing on deduplication alone is to miss the boat." He added that his challenge was that this was the only extent he could talk about it. Was that a hint?

Chief scientist Claus Mikkelsen was asked the same question. His response was pretty similar: "No. We talk about capacity efficiency. We have efficient RAID 5. We're happy reselling Diligent, FalconStor and Ocarina … You're not going to get me to comment on roadmap items."

Oh, we get it. Mikkelsen and Hay cannot say whether HDS will get some kind of compression/deduplication technology in house because it is on the roadmap. Okay. ®