Toshiba Europe’s new Storage Device Division (SDD) plans no major changes to its channel programme after acquiring Fujitsu’s storage division, but hopes to combine the best features from each vendor’s programme.

Otto Hinteregger, general manager at Toshiba’s SDD, said the channel programme was under review but there should be no rough ride.

“We are not planning any major changes, but we will review it. We will see what makes the best business sense,” he said.

“We don’t have really any overlap in the ranges. I think we will maintain our channel programmes over time, taking the best of each programme.”

Hinteregger was speaking at a presentation in London around SDD, outlining its plans following the February acquisition of its fellow Japanese storage rival.

Martin Larsson, vice-president of Toshiba’s SDD, said the unit would focus on hard disk drive (HDD) but also on SSD for the enterprise. Prices were not yet competitive enough for SSD to be attractive to small businesses or consumers buying notebooks – but the commercial argument was solid at enterprise server level.

Volume business would be critical.

Philip Walsh, director of business planning at Toshiba’s SDD, indicated that a global shortage of data storage was tipped to continue, even accelerate.

“On average, a 1MB email sent to four people becomes 51.5MB, once all the back-up, compliance [and the like] has been taken into account,” Walsh said.