Hitachi Vantara has announced the launch of Hitachi iQ Studio, a software platform developed to support enterprises in building, deploying and managing AI agents and applications at scale.
The new platform aims to address persistent challenges faced by organisations in operationalising AI, such as lack of in-house technical expertise and difficulties relating to data governance and regulatory compliance. Industry research cited by Hitachi Vantara indicates that 74% of companies struggle to move AI from experimentation into scalable deployment, and 62% believe inadequate data governance is the primary obstacle inhibiting AI initiatives.
Hitachi iQ Studio introduces capabilities including a no-code and low-code agent builder and a library of industrial AI templates. These features aim to speed up prototyping and production while maintaining control over data and models across different data environments.
The platform serves as an integration hub for designing, deploying and governing AI agents. It is built on the NVIDIA AI Data Platform reference design, providing pre-integrated retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines and supporting Model Context Protocol (MCP) for faster data access, automation, and use of pre-built templates. According to Hitachi Vantara, this supports the development of AI solutions even in organisations with limited in-house technical resources.
Hitachi iQ Studio is designed to run on-premises, offering enterprises a fully governed and sovereign AI environment. This allows information to remain within the existing infrastructure, supporting compliance in regulated industries and helping to protect sensitive information from unauthorised access. The platform also includes a model management system that lets enterprises deploy and serve large language and machine learning models locally.
"AI has evolved beyond experimentation, but many organisations still need the right foundation to scale it effectively," said Jason Hardy, Chief Technology Officer for AI at Hitachi Vantara. "With Hitachi iQ Studio, we are making AI more user-friendly and manageable by combining accessible tools with enterprise-grade performance and governance. The result is faster innovation, stronger oversight and a path to scalable, responsible AI."
Features of Hitachi iQ Studio cited by Hitachi Vantara include the ability to deliver AI-ready data for agentic AI through secure RAG pipelines, reduce the time between concept and production deployment using integrated components and ready-to-use algorithms, and empower nontechnical users to participate in AI development via visual interfaces. The system also supports industrial AI applications such as predictive maintenance, operator skill evaluation, and fleet optimisation.
Jacob Liberman, Director of Enterprise Product at NVIDIA, commented on the collaboration:
"As organisations bring AI into production, the ability to keep data secure, scalable and close to compute is essential for AI agents and other reasoning applications. By combining Hitachi Vantara's enterprise data expertise with NVIDIA accelerated computing and software, Hitachi iQ Studio gives customers the performance, scalability and efficiency they need to build and deploy advanced AI systems at enterprise scale."
Hitachi iQ infrastructure, including Hitachi Content Software for File (HCSF), has received validation from the NVIDIA Enterprise Storage Certification programme. This confirms that the company's systems meet the requirements demanded by large-scale AI and high-performance computing environments, providing the parallel file system needed to support data-intensive AI workloads. HCSF has also achieved the NVIDIA Cloud Partner (NCP) certification for use in cloud-native, multi-tenant and service provider contexts. This was based on criteria such as end-to-end AI stack compatibility and integration with platforms like NVIDIA AI Enterprise.
Ashish Nadkarni, Group Vice President and General Manager of Worldwide Infrastructure Research at IDC, addressed the market challenges and the potential solution provided by the new platform:
"The rapid growth and advancement in AI have left many enterprises struggling with scale, data governance and cost management - challenges that are compounded by a lack of in-house talent. Scaling AI depends as much on having the right data and infrastructure readiness as it does on models or compute. Solutions like Hitachi iQ Studio, which can provide built-in templates and enhanced data visibility, represent an important step toward creating unified AI environments that help organisations overcome data silos, strengthen governance and turn AI experimentation into measurable business outcomes."
Hitachi Vantara states that both business and technical teams can use Hitachi iQ Studio to create, manage and monitor AI agents and applications with support for evaluation, fine-tuning, and lifecycle governance. The platform is available for use with both generative and predictive AI applications, providing features for model and prompt management, data curation, scalable deployment, and built-in governance and safety controls.
