HP, Toshiba collaborate on cloud computing

IDG News Service - Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba will collaborate to push cloud computing and related services to infrastructure organizations, the companies said on Thursday

The companies will jointly work "to identify and develop opportunities" in areas such as water supply, energy, health-care and transportation where cloud-related services can be deployed, the companies said in a joint statement. The companies will also collaborate in the areas of networking and "intelligent infrastructure."

HP will provide its IT expertise while Toshiba will provide its domain knowledge in critical infrastructure areas. Besides being a computer and chip maker, Toshiba also makes products for other industries including energy, health care and transportation. For example, Toshiba's power system company makes equipment for nuclear power plants, and its medical systems unit makes X-ray equipment and magnetic resonance imaging systems.

The collaboration will also pave the way for HP to deploy products and services being researched in the company's labs, according to the statement. HP has research efforts going on in fields such as cloud services, security, infrastructure development and solar energy.

Toshiba said the collaboration will help grow its Smart Community Business Division, which was formed in October 2010 and is focused on building smart grids and modernization of infrastructure. By taking advantage of cloud computing and other opportunities in the area of "smart community", the company hopes to grow the business of the division from ¥300 billion ($3.7 billion) in fiscal year 2010 to ¥900 billion in 2015. Toshiba last month acquired smart meter company Landis+Gyr for $2.3 billion, which Toshiba said would help expand division sales.