Object Storage Ledger 2026
Ledger
Object Storage Ledger 2026
Hitachi HCP: Object Storage Ledger 2026 Scorecard
Hitachi HCP and VSP One Object (2024) score on multi-site durability and security, held back by packaged hardware and a single documented lock mode.
Edition October 16, 20268 min read
Where Hitachi HCP put its effort, 2016 to 2026
Each square is one capability area in one year. The brighter it is, the more the area gained in the Object Storage Ledger that year; 1, 2 and 3 mark that year's biggest pushes.
| ’16 | ’17 | ’18 | ’19 | ’20 | ’21 | ’22 | ’23 | ’24 | ’25 | ’26 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S3 API fidelity | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| Immutability and compliance | 1 | ||||||||||
| Durability and resilience | 2 | ||||||||||
| Performance and scale | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Deployment freedom | |||||||||||
| Security and multi-tenancy | 3 | ||||||||||
| Operations | 2 | ||||||||||
| Protocols beyond S3 | |||||||||||
| Lifecycle and tiering | |||||||||||
| Ecosystem and openness |
no change+0.5+1+1.5 or moreScores out of 5 per area.
Biggest pushes overall: Immutability and compliance (+3.5), S3 API fidelity (+1), Performance and scale (+1). Already strong in 2015: Durability and resilience, Security and multi-tenancy, Performance and scale.
Top focus each year: 2019 S3 API fidelity; 2024 Performance and scale; 2025 Immutability and compliance; 2026 Performance and scale. 7 of 11 years show no gain in any area.
Part of the Object Storage Ledger (edition 2026-10-16). How the scores work: methodology.
Snapshot
- Type: product
- Owner: Hitachi Vantara LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (Japan); Akinobu Shimada became CEO on 2026-04-01 after Sheila Rohra resigned; a 2026-01 press report that Hitachi was looking to sell Hitachi Vantara is unconfirmed, and Blocks and Files wrote on 2026-09-15 that it had not been sold
- Licence: Commercial; VSP One Object on a term capacity licence of 36 or 60 months (72 and 84 months on request) measured on the logical capacity of active objects; no list price found; HCP licence terms not found
- Latest release: HCP 10.0.1 (May 2026, maintenance: S3 virtual-host-style addressing, a checksum header fix, Kerberos and OpenSSH CVE fixes); HCP 10.0 (November 2025); VSP One Object 3.3 (May 2026, bug fixes and groundwork for the O14 servers, per search summaries)
- Support lifecycle: End of support dates not found; HCP 9.x upgrades only from 8.x, online or offline, no downgrade
- Next milestone: VSP One Object support for VSP One Block NVMe QLC and TLC storage "in an upcoming release" (announced 2025-08-12, no date)
- Object lock: VSP One Object: S3 Object Lock in compliance mode with legal hold and versioning (spec sheet); governance mode and bucket default retention are not listed, so they are unverified; Veeam Ready Repository (Capacity Target) with immutability for VSP One Object 3.1.0 (Veeam article 1683, 2025-09-23), retested on 3.2 with Veeam 13 (modified 2026-04-13), with legacy MD5 required because SHA256 is not supported. Classic HCP: retention and legal hold, and a Cohasset validation for SEC, FINRA, CFTC and MiFID II claimed on Hitachi's product page (report not read); no Veeam listing for classic HCP
- Tier: Appliance or hardware-bound
- Archetype: Integrated stack
- Evidence grade: B. The VSP One Object specification sheet (code 24Aug26), the HCP 10.0.1 release notes (May 2026) and the Veeam Ready listing (article 1683) were read directly. The VSP One Object 3.2 and 3.3 release notes returned HTTP 401, so their content comes from search summaries (grade B). The Cohasset claim, the sale report and all history before 2023 are grade C.
Scope of the scores: Hardware-bound. Hitachi sells three object lines: classic HCP, HCP for cloud scale and, since 2024-11, VSP One Object, which Hitachi presents as the successor to HCP for cloud scale. The scores follow HCP until 2024 and VSP One Object since, and count HCP features where HCP is still sold. VSP One Object ships on packaged Supermicro or HPE servers (4 to 128 nodes); HCP runs on qualified servers or as a VM on VMware ESXi only.
Scorecard
| Dimension | Score | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Capability today | 67.0 / 100 | higher is better |
| Momentum since end of 2022 | +14.3 points (2015 to 2022: +2.7) | higher is better |
| Credibility | 13.5 / 25 | higher is better |
| Commercial risk | 15.0 / 25 | lower is better |
| Technical lock-in | 14.0 / 25 | lower is better |
| Integrator fit | 12.0 / 20 | higher is better |
| AI leverage | 5.0 / 20 | higher is better |
| Ledger Index | 54.7 / 100 | balanced weights; see the methodology |
Capability by domain, 2015 to today
Scores 0 to 5 against fixed anchors; total is weighted to 100.
| Domain (weight) | 2015 | 2019 | 2022 | Today |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S3 API fidelity (15) | 2.5 | 3 | 3 | 3.5 |
| Immutability and compliance (12) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.5 |
| Durability and resilience (12) | 3.5 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Performance and scale (12) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Deployment freedom (10) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Security and multi-tenancy (10) | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 4 |
| Operations (10) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3.5 |
| Protocols beyond S3 (7) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Lifecycle and tiering (7) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Ecosystem and openness (5) | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Total / 100 | 50.0 | 52.7 | 52.7 | 67.0 |
Year by year: 2015: 50.0 · 2016: 50.0 · 2017: 50.0 · 2018: 50.0 · 2019: 52.7 · 2020: 52.7 · 2021: 52.7 · 2022: 52.7 · 2023: 52.7 · 2024: 53.9 · 2025: 64.8 · 2026: 67.0
What moved the score
| Year | Domain | Change | Points | Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Durability and resilience | 3.5 → 4 | +1.2 | HCP 8.x: geo-distributed erasure coding across 3 (2+1) to 6 (5+1) sites with up to five topologies (HCP 10.0.1 limits; introducing release and year grade C); VSP One Object adds 3+2 and flexible erasure coding with async replication; rebuild tests not published |
| 2019 | S3 API fidelity | 2.5 → 3 | +1.5 | HCP 8.x and HCP for cloud scale: broader S3 coverage including versioning and lifecycle expiration (versions and year grade C) |
| 2024 | Performance and scale | 3 → 3.5 | +1.2 | VSP One Object: 4 to 128 nodes, metadata on NVMe, up to 2.5 billion objects per node (spec sheet) |
| 2025 | Immutability and compliance | 0 → 3.5 | +8.4 | VSP One Object: S3 Object Lock in compliance mode with legal hold (spec sheet), Veeam Ready with immutability on 3.1.0 (2025-09-23) and 3.2 with Veeam 13; governance mode not listed; Cohasset validation is a vendor claim for classic HCP |
| 2025 | S3 API fidelity | 3 → 3.5 | +1.5 | VSP One Object 3.x: versioning, multipart, SSE-S3, S3 Select, lifecycle expiration and S3 table buckets with an Iceberg catalog (spec sheet); no STS or IAM API found; legacy MD5 must be enabled because SHA256 is not supported (Veeam); HCP added virtual-host-style addressing only in 10.0.1 (2026) |
| 2025 | Security and multi-tenancy | 3.5 → 4 | +1.0 | VSP One Object: KMIP 1.3 external KMS, FIPS 140-3 certified library for data at rest on S Series nodes, mTLS, SAML, OIDC, MFA and RBAC (spec sheet); no STS and no public advisory record found |
| 2026 | Operations | 3 → 3.5 | +1.0 | VSP 360 management extended to VSP One Object (reported 2026-07); Prometheus metrics, Grafana dashboards, syslog and SMTP events (spec sheet); HCP 10.0 cluster stress indicators; no Terraform found |
| 2026 | Performance and scale | 3.5 → 4 | +1.2 | O14 platform with up to 4x small object IOPS (vendor maximum, reported 2026-07); HCP up to 64 billion objects per system, 100 billion with SSD indexes; no S3 over RDMA and no independent benchmark |
Direction, 2023 to 2026
Each release item carries one theme and one driver (V vision, C customer need, M market window, U upstream, P portfolio).
| Date | Item | Theme | Driver |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Storage products regrouped under the VSP One brand after Hitachi Digital Services was spun out | Packaging | P |
| 2023-10 | HCP for cloud scale Veeam Ready listing updated (last modified 2023-10) | Immutability | M |
| 2024-11 | VSP One Object introduced in the VSP One family | Packaging | P |
| 2025-05 | VSP 360 management software launched for block, file and object | Operations | P |
| 2025-08 | Native S3 Tables support and S3 Object Lock announced for VSP One Object | S3 API | V |
| 2025-08 | PII detection service and embedded SQL engine positioned for AI and lakehouse use | AI | V |
| 2025-08 | VSP One Block NVMe QLC and TLC support promised for an upcoming VSP One Object release | Packaging | P |
| 2025-09 | Veeam Ready Repository listing for VSP One Object 3.1.0 with immutability | Immutability | M |
| 2025-11 | HCP 10.0: O12 hardware replacing G11, cluster stress indicators, log collection | Operations | C |
| 2026-04 | Veeam listing retested on VSP One Object 3.2 with Veeam Backup and Replication 13 | Immutability | M |
| 2026-05 | HCP 10.0.1: S3 virtual-host-style addressing, checksum header fix, Kerberos and OpenSSH CVE fixes | S3 API | C |
| 2026-05 | VSP One Object 3.3: bug fixes and groundwork for the O14 servers | Packaging | P |
| 2026-07 | VSP 360 support for VSP One Object | Operations | P |
| 2026-07 | O14 platform with up to 4x small object IOPS (vendor maximum) | Performance | C |
- Centre of gravity: Packaging (4), Immutability (3), Operations (3)
- Blind spots (no items): Durability, Deployment, Security, Protocols, Lifecycle, Ecosystem, Licensing
- Driver mix: Vision 14%, Customer need 21%, Market window 21%, Upstream 0%, Portfolio 43%
- Idea-to-need index: 0.25 (0 = demand-pulled, 1 = thesis-pushed)
Credibility: 13.5 / 25
| Criterion | Score | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Cadence | 3 | Dated release notes about twice a year: VSP One Object 3.2 (2025-10) and 3.3 (2026-05), HCP 10.0 (2025-11) and 10.0.1 (2026-05) |
| Roadmap transparency | 2 | HCP release notes PDFs are public; VSP One Object notes return HTTP 401; no roadmap |
| Say-do | 3 | Object Lock and table buckets reached the spec sheet; VSP One Block QLC and TLC support is still unconfirmed |
| Velocity | 3 | O14 servers, Object Lock, table buckets and VSP 360 in about a year; 3.3 itself has no major new features |
| Lifecycle stability | 2.5 | Three overlapping object lines with a successor line; KVM and HSwift support removed |
Commercial risk: 15.0 / 25 (lower is better)
| Criterion | Score | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Price and licence volatility | 2.5 | No public prices, so changes cannot be seen; term licence on ingested capacity |
| Purchase constraints | 3.5 | 36 or 60 month term licence, four node minimum, packaged hardware |
| Channel and access | 3 | Direct and partners; VSP One Object release notes behind a login |
| Owner stability | 3 | CEO change on 2026-04-01, executive departures in 2026 and an unconfirmed sale report (2026-01); the parent is a large listed group |
| Cost of staying supported | 3 | Term licence renewals; hardware generations G10, G11 and O12 replace each other; end of support dates not found |
Technical lock-in: 14.0 / 25 (lower is better)
| Criterion | Score | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Formats | 3 | Proprietary object layout; data leaves through S3, HCP REST, NFS or CIFS |
| Export path | 1.5 | Standard S3 and REST reads and replication; no export tooling found |
| Stack coupling | 3 | Own microservices stack on every node |
| Hardware / cloud coupling | 3.5 | Named Supermicro or HPE servers for VSP One Object; HCP VM on VMware ESXi only since KVM support ended |
| Skills and tooling coupling | 3 | Hitachi-specific tooling and VSP 360; smaller skills pool than the larger storage vendors |
Integrator fit: 12.0 / 20
| Criterion | Score | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Partner programme openness | 3 | Hitachi partner channel exists; terms not verified |
| Multi-tenancy and self-service | 3.5 | HCP: up to 1,000 tenants, 10,000 namespaces and 10,000 users per tenant (P limits); VSP One Object tenancy model not read |
| API and infrastructure-as-code | 2.5 | S3 and REST management APIs; no Terraform or Ansible found |
| Skills and certification | 3 | An HCP certification exam exists (search result) |
AI leverage: 5.0 / 20
How the product uses AI, scored per year like capability. Only GA counts.
| Criterion | 2019 | 2022 | Today | Latest step |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI workload support | 1 | 1 | 1.5 | 2025: VSP One Object with NVMe metadata and "AI optimized data paths" (vendor wording); no GPUDirect or S3 over RDMA found |
| AI platform stack | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2025: VSP One Object: S3 table buckets with an Apache Iceberg catalog and a PII detection service in the spec sheet; embedded SQL engine is a vendor claim; GA date not stated |
| AI-assisted operations | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2015: None found |
| Agent openness | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 2015: S3 and REST management APIs; no MCP server found |
Year by year: 2015: 2.5 · 2016: 2.5 · 2017: 2.5 · 2018: 2.5 · 2019: 2.5 · 2020: 2.5 · 2021: 2.5 · 2022: 2.5 · 2023: 2.5 · 2024: 2.5 · 2025: 5 · 2026: 5
AI say-do, 2023 to 2026: 3 AI items announced; 2 GA, 0 still preview, 1 pending, 0 dropped. Table buckets and PII detection appear in the 2026-08 spec sheet; "AI optimized data paths" has no feature definition behind it.
Hitachi's AI case for VSP One Object is the data lakehouse: table buckets, an Iceberg catalog and a PII detection service. There is no GPU data path, no AI in operations and no agent interface beyond the APIs.
Reading
Hitachi scores on what HCP built over many years: geo-distributed erasure coding across up to six sites, 1,000 tenants per system and a security list that now includes KMIP, FIPS 140-3 and SAML. Immutability rests on VSP One Object, which documents only compliance mode and needs MD5 for Veeam, while the Cohasset assessment is a vendor statement about classic HCP. Deployment is the weakest domain: packaged Supermicro or HPE servers, and an HCP VM that lost KVM support. A buyer should ask Hitachi which line the quote covers, HCP or VSP One Object, and get its Object Lock modes and end of support dates in writing.
Open questions and items to re-score
- Governance mode and bucket default retention in VSP One Object; the snapshot records compliance mode only.
- The Cohasset report for HCP: date, version covered and whether it applies to VSP One Object.
- VSP One Object 3.2 and 3.3 release note text (HTTP 401) and the GA date of S3 table buckets.
- When HCP for cloud scale or classic HCP first supported S3 Object Lock, and whether the 2023-10 Veeam listing for HCP for cloud scale included immutability.
- Latest HCP for cloud scale version (2.5.1 seen in a title only) and its end of support.
- Support lifecycle matrix and end of support dates for HCP 10.x and VSP One Object 3.x.
- Whether VSP One Block QLC and TLC support shipped; the HCP 9.3.3 date when KVM support ended.
- Whether Hitachi Vantara is being sold (single press report, 2026-01); price and HCP licence terms.
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