Samsung announces big data centre to launch in 2014 in a bid for corporate IT market

Electronics giant Samsung has unveiled plans to launch a major new data centre next year in a bid to grab a slice of the corporate IT market.

According to Korean press reports, the company sees business-to-business corporate IT solutions as its next big cash cow, with the conglomerate keen to position its products as competitors to Cisco and Samsung.

“This is the first time that Samsung has established a big data centre. For me, that means, by creating profiles for each corporate client or consumer through big data tools, Samsung’s brand offerings could be targeted to meet the customised and specific needs of each client and we believe this is really important for retailers,” a Samsung official told the Korea Times.

As SmartCompany reported yesterday, the data centre investment comes amidst concerns within the company that smartphone sales growth might have peaked.

At the same time, the company is aiming for $US400 billion (427 billion Korean won) in annual revenue by the end of the decade.

To put that figure into perspective, during the fiscal third quarter of 2013, the company posted quarterly revenues of 59.08 trillion won ($US58.8 billion) and a quarterly profit of 10.16 trillion won ($US10.12 billion).

In order to achieve this goal with declining smartphone revenue growth, the company is examining a number of strategies.

The strategies include a greater emphasis on smartphone accessories such as the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, a medium-term focus on telecommunications equipment and the cloud, along with long-term investment in R&D into materials.

Meanwhile, a reshuffle of the internal structure of Samsung Electronics has been less severe than initially anticipated.

The company is set to retain its three division structure, which sees the subsidiary split into consumer electronics, IT and mobile, and components divisions.

However, the company’s loss-making digital camera business will be moved across from consumer electronics to IT and mobile in a bid to boost its bottom line.

Samsung is set holding two major global strategy meetings later this month that will determine the conglomerate’s direction in 2014, and has also announced a major management reshuffle ahead of 2014.