Acer Inc. announced on Wednesday its discussions with 10 local companies on the prospects of providing them with cloud computing storage solutions.
The Taiwanese computer maker collaborated with Taiwan-based Hope Bay Technologies to develop a new cloud storage solution for businesses.
"The partnership is in line with Acer's Build Your Own Cloud (BYOC) strategy of creating business applications and its plans to transform itself into a provider of 'hardware plus software plus services,'" said Towny Huang, president of Taiwan operations at Acer.
According to Huang, the cloud storage is suitable for use by companies that have 100 to 1,000 employees.
“We have cloud-computing technologies, but we need more software developers and sales experts to help Acer introduce valuable cloud-computing solutions to the market,” said Acer founder Stan Shih.
Shih also confirmed that Acer began its recruitment last week.
"We have the distribution channels, brand and services, and they (Hope Bay) have the products. So the cooperation between us is expected to create synergy," Huang said in an interview, during the sidelines of the launch of PChome Online Inc.'s new mobile transaction system.
Shih added that the electronics firm plans to recruit 1,000 people within a year in an effort to develop the scale of its cloud-computing business.
Acer said that it is in talks with National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) to build an intra-building communications network via the service in a bid to improve communication efficiency between paramedics and patients.
Acer and Hope Bay are lined up to host a seminar in Taipei on Friday to launch their new cloud storage solutions to officials of local small and medium-sized enterprises as part of efforts to expand its BYOC platform.
Under its BYOC strategy, Acer is eyeing to grow the gross revenue of its cloud application business in 2015 by gaining more corporate customers and expanding the payout rate for individual users.