Storage management is at the heart of Hitachi Data Systems' enhancements to its high-end Hitachi Lightning 9900 system. The LDEV Guard data-retention manager, integrated into the new 9900, lets administrators write once to a record, then enact read-only access. Three Data Center Copy lets administrators replicate data synchronously or asynchronously, for better protection or very rapid mirroring, across geographic regions. Both software features come with the new hardware.