Nimble set to conquer Japan after sealing Toshiba distie deal

Hybrid flash arrays ascend over the Land of the Rising Sun

Hybrid flash/disk drive array flogger Nimble Storage has won Toshiba as its master distie for Japan, virtually assuring it of success there.

Toshiba Cloud and Solutions Company has a group of distributors and resellers across Japan that will pump the Nimble gear out to their customers, with Toshiba IT Services Corporation providing support on a 24/7 basis.

The omens are good. Hironobu Nishikori, Toshiba Corporation Cloud and Solutions Company’s CEO and president, said: “We are experiencing a strong demand in Japan for Nimble Storage’s hybrid storage platform.”

It’s interesting that Toshiba, a NAND chip and disk drive supplier, should ally with Nimble, whose products use flash chips and disk drives.

Nimble CEO Suresh Vasudevan said: “Our partnership with Toshiba is a great stepping stone for our growth plans in Japan. This is a very important market for Nimble and aligning with a reputable partner that has its history steeped in flash technology, provides great momentum for our company.”

There’s a flickering hint of a flash deal here... or is there?

Perhaps we’re seeing more than there is to be actually seen. You know, 1 + 1 = 5, that kind of thing. The deal is probably just about flooding the Japan market with Nimble storage gear.

We could well expect Nimble's results, after the mid-point of 2014, to show a Japanese market-induced uplift. These guys are on an accelerating train and no slow-down is in sight. ®