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Samsung SDS to accelerate drive for cloud biz

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By Kim Bo-eun
  • Published KST
  • Updated KST

By Kim Bo-eun

Samsung SDS is preparing for business opportunities in cloud services for the public sector, the IT solutions affiliate said Thursday, as it seeks to focus on cloud computing as one of its next sources of revenue.

"We are expecting new business opportunities as public institutions are hoping to migrate their systems to the cloud," Koo Hyung-joon, head of the company's cloud business, said during a call to investors upon announcing the company's first-quarter results. "In the second quarter, we will focus on cloud systems for R&D and switching systems of the financial industry to the cloud to expand our cloud businesses and prepare for public-sector projects next year.”

The Samsung affiliate is building a high-performance computing (HPC) data center specialized in artificial intelligence (AI), R&D and data analysis in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, as demand for cloud services will be on the rise.

"This will be the nation's first large-scale HPC data center," Koo said. The company is aiming for the data center to be completed by 2022.

The company posted an operating profit of 217.1 billion won for the three-month period ending March 31, up 26.8 percent, year-on-year. Sales grew 25.7 percent in the same period to a record of 3.06 trillion won. Samsung SDS said it achieved the highest quarterly sales, backed by a recovery in IT investments that saw a plunge last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Samsung unit said its earnings of the IT services division, which grew 6.4 percent year-on-year to 1.36 trillion won, were driven by an expansion of cloud-based services. The company said it plans to scale up businesses in digital consulting, cloud-based solutions as a service (SaaS), production facilities and manufacturing process security and cloud solutions.

"We expect a decline of investment in conventional IT products, and for the demand for HPC-based R&D cloud to grow," Koo said.

Samsung SDS CEO Hwang Sung-woo pledged earlier to shift the company's focus to cloud computing.