Micron Technology and Seagate Technology plc today announced a strategic agreement that establishes a framework for combining the expertise of both companies. The framework of the agreement will enable customers of the two companies to benefit from a focused approach to deliver storage solutions. While initially focusing on next-generation SAS SSDs and strategic NAND supply,
Micron and Seagate anticipate that this multi-year agreement will extend into future collaboration on enterprise storage solutions featuring Micron NAND flash memory.

"This agreement enables Seagate to secure a strategic supply of NAND flash memory and enables collaboration on future products and technologies," said Phil Brace, Executive Vice President, Electronics Solutions, Seagate. "Our companies are leaders in the storage industry, and in working together we build on that success."

"The collaboration will assure both Seagate and Micron target the growing enterprise flash market with industry-leading offerings across both of our product portfolios," said Darren Thomas, Vice President of Storage, Micron. “The relationship provides Micron access to enterprise drive technology and platforms, expanding our portfolio and accelerating our push into the enterprise market segment."

Seagate and Western Digital, the two biggest HDD companies, have made acquisition of various companies involved in flash memory technology. These have included Seagate’s acquisition of LSI’s flash memory controller business as well as Western Digital’s acquisition of Skyera and before that Virident. In addition Seagate obtained some flash memory supply as part of its acquisition of Samsung’s HDD business, while HGST (a division of WD) has a multi-year agreement with Intel on design and supply of flash chips for enterprise SSDs.

Micron is the third largest flash memory chip supplier after Samsung and Toshiba/SanDisk.