Toshiba and NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) announced today an alliance under which Toshiba's data-center and cloud-computing services will be provided by NTT Com's Enterprise Cloud service and data centers. NTT Com's services will be provided in North America and Asia from April, and will later expand in Europe.

Toshiba, which has provided data-center and cloud-computing services primarily to domestic companies in Japan, will now use Enterprise Cloud to provide global-scale data-center and cloud-computing services for enterprises.

Also under the alliance, Toshiba has begun supplying NTT Com with storage systems that are now being used in selected parts of the Enterprise Cloud environment.

Enterprise Cloud, which offers cloud computing resources, VPN connections and much more, is accessible via NTT Com's global network, which reaches 196 countries and regions and offers over 150 data centers worldwide. Enterprise Cloud is an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) that connects directly to the network services of communication carriers to enable customers to control server infrastructure in 8 countries and 10 locations from customer portals.

Looking ahead, Toshiba and NTT Com plan to further utilize each other's technologies and services to strengthen their respective global cloud businesses.

Work With Canon On 15nm NAND flash

Seperately, Toshiba i also reported to work with fab-tool maker Canon to develop 15nm NAND chips.

The two companies will develop a lithography technology dubbed "nano-imprint" to manufacture 15nm NAND flash products, according to a report from the Japanese-language Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun.

Volume production slated for 2015, the report added.