Hitachi Vantara has confirmed recent layoffs, and multiple c-suite executives have left the data storage vendor in recent weeks, Blocks and Files reports. The changes come as new CEO Gajen Kandiah attempts to position Hitachi Vantara for five emerging business and technology opportunities.
Hitachi Vantara had roughly 7,000 employees in early 2019. That figured scaled to roughly 12,000 people when Hitachi Consulting and Hitachi Vantara merged in January 2020, according to Consultancy.org estimates.
The business combination apparently hasn't been an easy one. In addition to the October 2020 job cuts, an earlier round of job cuts surfaced in February 2020.
The executive team also appears to be in transition. Recent Hitachi Vantara executive departures include Chief Marketing Officer Jonathan Martin, Digital Solutions President Brad Surak, Chief Financial Officer Catriona Fallon and Chief Product Officer Sanjay Chikarmane, Blocks and Files said. ChannelE2E has not independently confirmed the departures.
Hitachi Vantara CEO Gajen Kandiah: Five Focus Areas
To lead the business forward, Hitachi Vantara hired Cognizant veteran Gajen Kandiah in June 2020 to succeed Toshiaki Tokunaga.
During 15 years at Cognizant, Kandiah helped to growth that company from $368 million in annual revenues to more than $16 billion. He was most recently president of Cognizant's Digital Business, a role in which he led the acquisitions of software engineering company Softvision, marketing solutions provider Netcentric, and Idea Couture, a digital innovation and technology services company, Hitachi Vantara notes.
Kandiah is organizing Hitachi Vantara to focus on five business and technology opportunities, according to a recent blog from the CEO. Those five opportunities include:
- Solutions to Optimize Data Center Efficiency, which leans heavily on the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform 5000 Series.
- Solutions to Maximize Data Center Flexibility, which taps the company's updated Unified Compute Platform (UCP).
- Solutions to Accelerate to the Cloud, which leverages the acquisition of REAN Cloud, and forthcoming Kubernetes service offerings.
- Solutions to Modernize Data and Applications via the company's Lumada DataOps and Smart Spaces offerings.
- Solutions for OT/IT Convergence, which taps the company's Lumada IoT platform.
Despite the recent job cuts, Hitachi Vantara has a large installed base to leverage. The wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd. serves more than 80% of Fortune 100 companies.
