Toshiba Combines HDD and SSD Businesses

Toshiba Corporation will realign its storage products businesses in a unified organization by merging its Semiconductor Company and Storage Products Company in a new in-house company, Semiconductor & Storage Products Company, on July 1.

The current Semiconductor Company business range includes NAND flash memories and the solid state drives (SSD) for consumer applications that they make possible, while the Storage Products Company covers hard disk drives (HDDs) and SSDs for enterprise applications.

This strategic reorganization will place three key storage device business lines – HDD, SSD and other solid state memories, including memory cards, and NAND flash memories – in a more closely focused operating structure that will facilitate more efficient product development and sales. More specifically, the reorganization will reinforce strategic planning by unifying customer support, support increased product differentiation by merging product development teams of complementary products such as enterprise and consumer SSDs, and also enhance sales operations.

As advances in information technology forge ahead, demand for data storage is growing in all market segments, from the consumer to corporate, and in applications as diverse as on-line commerce and communications. The most recent development is the emergence of cloud computing, and the use of huge data centers to store software, services and data in remote locations. All of these developments are made possible by-and stimulate heightened demand for-high speed and low power SSDs and increasingly large storage capacity HDDs.

Alongside high speed, low power and large storage capacity, the market also wants more flexible storage solutions that maximize the respective advantages of HDDs and SSDs and that are able to meet the demands of increasingly numerous and diverse users. As a company with a notable global presence across HDDs, SSDs and NAND, Toshiba is determined to meet these market requirements; the current reorganization will streamline Toshiba Group support to customers, integrate complementary businesses from development to manufacturing and through to sales, and provide optimized solutions.

The new organization, Semiconductor & Storage Products Company, will now include the Memory Division, the Storage Products Division, covering HDDs and SSDs, and the Storage Strategic Planning Division, which will develop overall business strategies for storage devices. The new organization will support Toshiba in securing enhanced operating efficiency, developing solutions quickly, and in consolidating a leadership position in the global storage device business.