In 2010, Hitachi Data Systems sold through direct and indirect channels in more than 170 countries and regions, with customers that included over half of the Fortune 100 companies at the time.

In 1977, a joint venture between National Semiconductor and Hitachi formed, and was contracted by Itel to manufacture IBM-compatible mainframes branded as Advanced Systems.

[5] IBM, however, had invested and obtained success in semiconductor technologies which enabled them to build powerful computers at lower costs.

[6] Meanwhile, the mainframe market was in decline as mini and microcomputers, and the Unix operating system gained popularity.

Before that, the origins of the company had a history that stretched back to Itel, an early player in the mainframe market.

Intel's Computer Products Group sold National Semiconductors' IBM plug compatible mainframes.

On January 29, 1999, Hitachi announced it would take over EDS' stake in HDS, appointing Jun Naruse as CEO of its new subsidiary.

[12] Shortly thereafter (June 26, 2000), the first HDS storage product was unveiled, the Freedom Storage Lightning 9900, featuring the crossbar switched architecture to interconnect memory, disks, servers, and other external devices instead of the traditional bus architecture.

[16] In January 2001, HDS announced the Thunder 9200, a mid-range modular storage system aimed at the small and medium business market, sold mainly through resellers.

[18] In 2002, Hitachi acquired Comstock Systems Corp, and analysts estimated that the acquisition would lead to a 35% percent market share.

[20] The corporate headquarters are in Santa Clara, California, with business offices in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

[34] Hitachi Data Systems appeared in Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list in 2012,[35] 2013[36] and 2014[37] and was ranked No.