3PAR, a global provider of utility storage, announced on Wednesday that it has joined forces with Nissho Electronics in Japan to address the needs of virtual datacenters and the cloud computing service business in Japan. As part of this enhanced partnership, Nissho has become the first member of the 3PAR Cloud-Agile Program in Japan to offer 3PAR Cloud-Agile: ASSURED disaster recovery services based on 3PAR Remote Copy. As a 3PAR channel partner, Nissho has sold 3PAR Utility Storage, including the 3PAR InServ Storage Server, in Japan since 2003. With this expanded partnership, Nissho has strengthened its ability to support customers developing cloud-based infrastructures for both internal and external service delivery.

"3PAR is known internationally for its cloud computing advocacy -- both in terms of promoting the adoption of cloud-based architectural models, and by helping customers deploy agile and efficient cloud-based infrastructures," said Executive Officer Toshiki Takatsuka of Nissho Electronics. "We have already seen strong adoption of 3PAR Utility Storage among our national cloud service provider customers in Japan, and joining the Cloud-Agile program enables us to help strengthen our cloud-based service offerings."

With this new partnership, Nissho adds a disaster recovery (DR) solution to its enhanced service offerings, which currently include public cloud development and a private cloud environment service based on 3cV. "3cV" is a proven blueprint for the virtual datacenter featuring the combination of 3PAR Utility Storage, HP BladeSystem c-Class Server Blades, and VMware vSphere. This solution is designed to enable improved server efficiency and to enhance service levels in private cloud datacenters. All the cloud service-focused products that Nissho offers, including those based on 3cV, are available at the company's CloudNagivate Center, Nissho's private technology verification center where customers can verify the operation and performance of a cloud-based infrastructure built on 3PAR technology.

"We are excited by the robust cloud computing ecosystem that has continued to evolve around the 3PAR Cloud-Agile program internationally," said David Scott, President and CEO for 3PAR. "A major part of this ecosystem is the development of a strategic channel focused on delivering differentiated cloud-based services, and we are thrilled to welcome Nissho as our first partner in Japan to offer disaster recovery as a service as part of a suite of agile and cost-efficient, public and private cloud services backed by 3PAR cloud technology."