Operational Efficiencies Gained From Storage Modernization

Evidence and data. While some of their organizations were in the early stages of their adoption of VSP One, all the interviewees shared examples of how the platform simplified storage management and improved operational efficiency. The following points reflect their firsthand experiences and expectations for long-term value.

• Interviewees consistently reported that VSP One simplified day-to-day storage management tasks. The head of IT infrastructure at an education organization noted: “My team used to spend 1 to 2 hours troubleshooting storage issues weekly. Now, they just log in, check the health, and move on — it takes minutes.”

• Several interviewees highlighted the ease of adoption and minimal training required. The senior storage architect at a legal services firm told Forrester, “[VSP One] was simple to use — from login to moving data, it took under an hour.”

• The senior information technology specialist at a government finance organization reported a 33% reduction in storage administration labor, going from three to two dedicated FTEs after implementation.

• Interviewees said their organizations appreciated the unified management interface and automation features. The CTO at an information services company added, “Having a unified storage ecosystem that’s tightly integrated at the application layer reduces the operational complexity between IT and developers.”

• The head of IT infrastructure at an education organization also emphasized the intuitive GUI and ease of expanding storage, which improved responsiveness to internal requests. They noted: “In the past, I had to ask teams to wait while we freed up space. Now, I can expand storage immediately.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization spends $100,000 per year on managing and maintaining its previous storage solution. VSP One’s simplified operations and reduced administrative overhead mean it reduces the cost of managing and maintaining storage by 35% annually.

• Storage administrators reduce the amount of time they spend troubleshooting issues by 40% — freeing up hundreds of hours annually that would otherwise be spent resolving storage-related problems.

• The organization avoids approximately $14,000 per year in troubleshooting-related labor costs by reducing the time spent on issue resolution.

• Two-thirds of storage architects’ time is reallocated to higher-value activities, such as strategic planning, cybersecurity, or modernization initiatives, rather than routine storage management. This reallocation represents a productivity gain equivalent to $360,000 annually, as highly skilled staff focus on more impactful work.

• These operational efficiencies are consistent across the three-year analysis period, reflecting sustained value from the storage modernization initiative.

Risks. The value of this benefit can vary across organizations due to the following:

• Environments that are already modernized will have less room for improvement. Organizations that have already invested in modern, automated storage systems may experience smaller efficiency gains, as their baseline operational complexity is already low.

• Smaller teams may see less measurable impact. Organizations with fewer dedicated storage personnel or simpler infrastructure may not realize significant cost savings or productivity reallocation, limiting the overall value of the benefit.

• Integration challenges may reduce efficiency gains. Environments with complex or siloed IT systems may take longer to realize the full benefits of VSP One or require additional effort to integrate it with existing workflows and tools.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $915,000.

Decreased Cost From Increased Storage Efficiency Due To VSP One’s Compression And Deduplication Capabilities

Evidence and data. Interviewees shared that VSP One’s built-in compression and deduplication capabilities significantly improved storage efficiency, enabling them to delay or avoid additional hardware purchases and reduce operational overhead. These benefits were especially impactful for organizations managing rapid data growth or transitioning from legacy systems without data reduction features.

• The senior information technology specialist at a government finance organization reported that deduplication and compression allowed the organization to delay storage expansion, reducing short-term capital expenditure. They said, “We don’t really need to expand [capacity] in the short term because we are using that technology from Hitachi, and that’s really a cost-saving benefit.”

• The head of IT infrastructure at an education organization noted that their previous storage had no compression or deduplication and that VSP One’s capabilities significantly reduced the need for additional hardware: “With a higher compression ratio, I can actually require a smaller storage capacity … like a double cost saving.”

• The senior storage architect at a legal services firm shared that VSP One’s deduplication and compression features were delivering a 6:1 ratio in their enterprise arrays and similar results on VSP One. They said, “I don’t think we’re going to have to add storage to [our VSP One arrays] at all as they grow.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization benefits from an average 6:1 data reduction ratio through VSP One’s compression and deduplication capabilities.

• This efficiency enables the organization to delay or avoid purchasing additional storage capacity over the three-year analysis period.

• The composite avoids the need for at least one additional storage expansion cycle, which would otherwise be required to accommodate data growth.

• These efficiencies also reduce the burden on IT staff, contributing to improved productivity and helping avoid the need for additional headcount.

Risks. The value of this benefit can vary across organizations due to the following:

• Limited incremental gains for already optimized environments. Organizations with existing storage systems that already leverage high-efficiency compression and deduplication may see smaller cost savings from transitioning to VSP One.

• Variations in data reduction based on workload type. Organizations with less-compressible data types (e.g., encrypted files, media content) may achieve lower ratios and thus lower cost savings.

• Mismatches between modeled and actual storage needs. Organizations with fluctuating or lower data volumes may not realize the same level of cost avoidance from reduced physical storage requirements.

• Underutilization of storage policies and tiering. Organizations that do not actively manage data tiering or enforce deduplication policies may not fully benefit from VSP One’s efficiency features, limiting the realized savings.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $373,000.

Increased Time Savings From Optimized Workloads And Faster Provisioning Due To VSP One’s AI/ML Capabilities

Evidence and data. Interviewees described how VSP One’s AI/ML-driven automation and integration capabilities helped streamline provisioning, reduce manual effort, and accelerate workload deployment. These efficiencies translated into measurable time savings for IT teams and improved responsiveness to business needs.

• The senior infrastructure architect at a legal services firm reported that tasks like adding new hosts or carving out logical unit numbers (LUNs), which previously took 30 to 40 minutes, now take 5 to 10 minutes with VSP One: “That’s a decent metric.”

• The CTO at an information services company shared that VSP One’s integration with application-layer tools enabled faster provisioning and reduced IT/developer coordination. “We measured roughly about 30% to 35% reduction in operational complexity … that translates into a headcount at $200,000 to $250,000 a pop.”

• The same CTO noted that sprint cycles accelerated from monthly to weekly, enabled in part by the storage platform’s ability to support faster, more frequent updates without adding IT overhead.

• The head of IT infrastructure at an education organization noted that daily storage health checks, which previously took 1 to 2 hours per week per engineer, now take only minutes: “They just have to go in and see it’s fine … then move on to the next task.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization performs approximately 100 data-intensive and compute-heavy tasks per week, such as AI/ML model training, analytics, and large-scale data processing.

• VSP One’s AI/ML-driven optimization capabilities reduce the time required for these tasks by 30%, resulting in annual time savings of 1,560 hours.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for a storage administrator is $67, translating to $104,520 in annual time savings from workload optimization alone.

• In addition, the composite performs an average of two provisioning tasks per week. VSP One’s automation reduces the time required for each by 45%, saving an additional 47 hours annually — or $3,149 per year.

• In total, the composite realizes $107,669 in annual time savings from optimized workloads and faster provisioning, enabling IT staff to focus on higher-value initiatives and avoid additional headcount.

Risks. The value of this benefit can vary across organizations due to the following:

• Variations in workload intensity and frequency. Organizations with fewer AI/ML or data-intensive tasks may realize lower absolute time savings.

• Underutilization of automation features. Organizations that do not fully adopt VSP One’s AI/ML-driven provisioning and optimization capabilities may not achieve the modeled efficiencies.

• Differences in labor costs and staffing models. Organizations with lower fully burdened rates for FTEs or different staffing structures may see a reduced financial impact from time savings.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $241,000.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• A smoother procurement process due to trust in the vendor. Organizations consistently cited Hitachi Vantara’s long-standing reputation, reliability, and support as key reasons for selection. This trust helped streamline procurement and gain internal buy-in. The senior storage architect at a legal services firm noted that internal approvals were smoother due to high confidence in Hitachi, while the head of IT infrastructure at an educational organization praised the responsiveness and knowledge of the Hitachi support team.

• A better experience for IT staff. IT teams reported improved day-to-day experiences due to simplified interfaces and intuitive management tools. The system network administrator at an investment management firm highlighted the simplicity of the GUI as a key reason for selecting VSP One. Junior staff at a legal services firm found the new interface easier to use, while the head of IT infrastructure at an educational organization noted that reduced troubleshooting time allowed staff to focus on more strategic tasks.

• Support for modernization goals. Interviewees said VSP One was seen as a strategic enabler for modernization, including AI, hybrid cloud, and scalable architecture. The lead infrastructure architect at a higher education institution described how they replaced outdated 2015-era infrastructure to support AI and research workloads, while the CTO at an information services firm emphasized that VSP One enabled a more disciplined, scalable architecture for future growth.

• Improved security and compliance capabilities. Interviewees’ organizations valued features like immutable snapshots, encryption, and unified policy enforcement for mitigating ransomware risk and supporting compliance. The senior IT specialist at a government finance organization praised VSP One’s protection during a ransomware incident, while the head of IT infrastructure at an educational organization highlighted the potential to enhance data immunity through hardware-level features.

• Operational simplicity and reduced complexity. The unified platform helped interviewees reduce the administrative burden, especially for lean IT teams. According to the system network administrator at an investment management firm: “It’s very simple. This is why I selected this product — because I love a product that is simple. ... All the menus in the new GUI ... it’s really simple.”

• The ability to scale without disruption. Interviewees’ organizations appreciated the ability to scale incrementally — such as adding one disk at a time — without downtime or reconfiguration. The lead infrastructure architect at a higher education institution noted that this avoided large RAID group costs, while the senior IT specialist at a government finance agency emphasized the ease of expansion to meet growing data needs.

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement VSP One and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Enabling long-term strategic alignment with AI and automation roadmaps. Several of the interviewees, including those at a government finance agency, shared plans to integrate VSP One with AI-driven platforms and automation tools over the next three years. They expect these future integrations to enhance data intelligence, reduce manual intervention, and support evolving IT strategies.

• Positioning it as a foundational platform for broader IT transformation. The lead infrastructure architect at a higher education institution described VSP One as a “launchpad” for modernizing its research infrastructure, enabling the university to support high-performance computing and data-intensive workloads that were previously out of reach.

• Supporting seamless expansion into complementary Hitachi solutions. Multiple interviewees expressed their intent to adopt additional Hitachi offerings, such as Hitachi Content Software for File (HCSF) and hybrid cloud connectors; they want to build on the VSP One investment to create a more integrated, future-ready storage ecosystem.

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).