While it was clear that it was , it was also a big moment for Hitachi worldwide, as HUS was the first large update to the vendor's platform in numerous years.

As to why HDS' storage platform underwent a significant transformation, Hitachi IT platform business strategy and planning operation general manager, Akinobu Shimada, attributes it to making storage more streamlined.

"Hitachi and HDS' unified storage concept is to consolidate and centrally manage block, file and object data on a single platform," he said.

Although HUS is naturally in the spotlight due to its recent debut, Shimada points out that the entire hardware product portfolio, including HUS, will be supported by Hitachi's Command Suite management software.

When speaking about the timing of HUS, Shimada says that it was released now in order for the vendor to be "first to market" with what they consider to be a "true" enterprise-class unified storage solution.