To a lot of us, Samsung is the name that adorns the back of our smartphones and perhaps makes the TV in our living room, and a lot more in the realm of consumer electronics. It should come as no surprise however, that Samsung is so much more than that, and in South Korea the Samsung Empire makes up much of the nation’s economy. Samsung SDS, which is the part of Samsung that deals with IT Infrastructure and such, is partnering with industry giant SAP to work together on Cloud-based solutions for big enterprises throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
The two firms have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will see Samsung SDS and SAP work together to create a focused and comprehensive Cloud-computing solution. It’s said that Samsung SDS – as well as other parts of Samsung Electronics – use SAP themselves in their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and this new partnership will see Samsung offer Cloud solutions based on SAP’s software. Samsung SDS’ Chung Yoo-sung said that “this will be the opportunity to expand the enterprise cloud business market of the cooperation with SAP in the Korea and Asia Pacific.”
This follows on the heels of a similar decision that Samsung has made to work with IBM on Cloud-based solutions as well, albeit security-focused ones rather than the financial and sales focus of this deal with SAP. If anything, this is just another example of how strongly Samsung want to expand into all other areas outside of just consumer electronics, and partnering with the likes of IBM and SAP is a smart move. It will not only give their services credence in the industry, but help Samsung to become familiar with what their clients expect from such services. SAP’s Bernd Leukert said that he was “proud” to work with Samsung and said that “diverse solutions [like these] designed for various lines of business, we will further support our customers and partners”. It’s interesting to see how big names like these make money outside of their core consumer electronics businesses, and with Samsung looking to become dominant in the Internet of Things space, understanding the Cloud and networked solutions much better will only go to them in that endeavor.