Micron and Seagate Just Became Best Friends in the SSD Space

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Strength in numbers

Memory and storage heavyweights Micron and Seagate have signed a multi-year agreement in which the two will form a "framework for combining the innovation and expertise of both companies." Or in plain English, they're going to help each other in the storage space with an initial focus on SAS solid state drives and NAND supply, and then later in the enterprise SSD space.
This really boils down to the supply of NAND flash memory. It's a volatile market, and it's one of the reasons why OCZ Technology ended up being acquired by Toshiba. The fluctuating prices and unpredictability of NAND flash memory supply made it difficult for OCZ to run a business that had become primarily focused on SSDs. Selling to Toshiba made sense in that regard.
Storage companies see the writing on the wall, which is that SSDs are the storage format of the immediate future. To ensure they remain competitive, they've been investing in flash memory companies -- Seagate acquired LSI's flash memory controller business and Western Digital acquired flash memory maker Virident and later Skyera, a maker of enterprise SSD systems.
There's no acquisition taking place between Micron and Seagate, but the strategic partnership should ensure that both remain competitive -- it's a 'scratch my back and I'll scratch your back' type of deal. In theory, Seagate shouldn't have to worry about NAND flash memory chips and wild fluctuations, and Micron lines itself up a major buyer.
"The collaboration will assure both Seagate and Micron target the growing enterprise flash market with industry-leading offerings across both of our product portfolios," said Darren Thomas (PDF), Vice President of Storage, Micron. "The relationship provides Micron access to enterprise drive technology and platforms, expanding our portfolio and accelerating our push into the enterprise market segment."
There's no mention of this partnership extending beyond the enterprise space, though depending on what develops, this could be something that trickles into the enthusiast market too, especially as PCIe SSDs become more common.
Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook


More...