Malayala Manorama in India Chooses Hitachi Vantara

Hitachi Vantara, LLC announced that Malayala Manorama, India’s second-largest newspaper by circulation, selected Hitachi Vantara’s Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) technology and Hitachi Advanced Servers to enhance its growing media operations and ensure uninterrupted BC.

This partnership has enabled Malayala Manorama to improve TCO over the lifetime of storage arrays, with increased storage density reducing the physical footprint of storage arrays by 66%, and cutting power and cooling costs by 70%.

Founded over 135 years ago, Malayala Manorama has transformed into a modern media powerhouse, with a diverse portfolio spanning print, broadcast, and online media brands. In era of 24-hour news and streaming media, Malayala Manorama’s media operations depend on complete availability. Any disruption – whether through system outages affecting journalists or interruptions in broadcasting and streaming – poses a significant risk of audience attrition. To safeguard vs. such risks, Malayala Manorama appointed Hitachi Vantara, in partnership with Vertex Technosolutions Pvt Ltd, to implement a highly resilient IT architecture, including four major data centers and 11 local sites, all connected through a robust network.

“Hitachi Vantara’s solutions align perfectly with our goals of enhancing efficiency, scalability, and reliability,” said V V Jacob, senior GM IT, Malayala Manorama. “Their innovative products are at the forefront of storage technology, and their proactive support is second to none, which made them the ideal partner for our IT transformation. Their expertise and dedication have empowered us to achieve our objectives and position ourselves for future growth.“

The Virtual Storage Platform and Advanced Servers were implemented to address Malayala Manorama’s critical IT requirements. The solution delivers performance, ensuring rapid data access and application responsiveness through low latency and high throughput. Moreover, its reliability and scalability guarantee maximum uptime and the ability to accommodate growing data volumes and evolving business needs. To simplify management, Hitachi Ops Center Administrator centralizes storage resource management, reducing administrative overhead.

With the new storage in place, Malayala Manorama was able to migrate data from its legacy arrays in a timely manner. The organization benefits from faster performance, with users noting that applications that previously took several seconds to process tasks now respond almost instantly.

“Total cost of ownership over the lifetime of the arrays has also improved significantly,” said V V Jacob. “Storage density has increased dramatically, requiring 66% less rack space to house the same capacity, and we are saving 70% on our power and cooling costs.“

The new infrastructure has also delivered exceptionally HA, thanks to the quality of the hardware and its ability to recover automatically from disk failures. The 3-way replication between data centers ensures that the IT team can switch over to a backup system in the event of a serious failure, minimizing potential downtime.

“Hitachi Vantara is privileged to be associated with Malayala Manorama as a trusted partner for their mission-critical IT infrastructure. We are proud to support Malayalam Manorama in achieving their business goals and delivering exceptional value to their millions of readers. Our advanced storage and server solutions have been critical in ensuring 100% data availability and seamless services. As businesses embrace digital transformation, we remain committed to providing the innovative solutions needed for success in a rapidly evolving landscape,” said Hemant Tiwari, MD and VP, India and SAARC region, Hitachi Vantara.

“At Vertex, we take pride in collaborating with Hitachi Vantara to implement this transformative and highly resilient architecture for Malayala Manorama,” said Bijoy R Nair, MD, Vertex Techno Solutions Pvt Ltd. “Hitachi Vantara’s advanced storage and server technologies set a new benchmark for reliability and efficiency. The impressive results achieved by Malayala Manorama underscore the importance of leveraging robust, reliable solutions to ensure uninterrupted operations and position businesses for long-term success in today’s data-driven landscape.“

Hitachi Vantara continues to lead in storage innovation, recently launching the Virtual Storage Platform One, designed to deliver exceptional energy efficiency and performance, earning top ENERGY STAR certifications. In parallel, Hitachi Vantara’s AI-driven Ops Center is helping organizations streamline operations, automating up to 70% of tasks. With these advancements, Hitachi Vantara is empowering businesses to reduce their TCO, enhance performance, and optimize IT infrastructure for the future.

Case study: Delivering 24/7 Availability for Malayala Manorama’s 24-Hour News