Samsung enters the cloud fray with Joyent purchase
Samsung Electronics has announced that it will acquire Joyent, a US-based public and private cloud provider, which will allow it to have its own cloud platform to support mobile, IoT, and software services.
The acquisition makes up for the South Korean tech giant's lack in software, especially cloud, that has made it dependent on other vendors. It can now self-supply its huge demand for cloud services, while Joyent, which will remain a standalone company, can use Samsung's global network to reach out to more clients.
"Samsung evaluated a wide range of potential companies in the public and private cloud infrastructure space with a focus on leading-edge scalable technology and talent," said Injong Rhee, CTO of Samsung's mobile business, in a statement.
"In Joyent, we saw an experienced management team with deep domain expertise and a robust cloud technology validated by some of the largest Fortune 500 customers,"
Joyent's technology will allow Samsung to scale its own cloud infrastructure and services, the company said. The US firm's portfolio of container-native infrastructure, object storage, server-less computing, and Node.js will help the Korean tech giant meet consumer needs, it added.
Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDS, the conglomerate's IT service affiliate, have attempted to create their own cloud platform for years but the plans were scrapped
The South Korean tech giant has relied heavily on Amazon Web Services' cloud platform to service its mobile software abroad.
The acquisition also shows Samsung's increasing willingness to avoid doing everything itself, and instead buy firms with more expertise to fill in functionality gaps.
The company bought LoopPay last year that eventually evolved into Samsung Pay, the most successful case recently of its buy-and-apply strategy.
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