Together in transformation: Fujitsu and Veritas, creating change for 30 years

The past 30 years have undoubtedly brought massive change in the technology business. For those of us with a vivid memory of the earlier stages of our sector’s growth, the transformation has been profound. As I cast my mind back to the early 90s, I’m reminded of the excitement that the emergence of the web brought and the fever that took hold as the decade roared on.

Yet, compared with the wealth of innovation we have today, our industry in those days was in its relative infancy. In 1992 – a landmark year as I shall explain shortly – there were only 10 websites in existence. The telecoms industry, which has been fundamental in shaping the 21st century, was also yet to reach maturity – that year, the first ever text message was sent and 2G mobile technology was launched. Even email, which had achieved widespread popularity by the turn of the century, was still a basic application and barely accessible to the consumer.

Amid this emerging technological landscape, Fujitsu and Veritas began a relationship that has now endured for three full decades, developing a long-lasting bond in an ever-changing industry. For me personally, I have been involved for two of these decades and, over the course of this three-part blog series, will share some of the milestones that endure in my memory, along with what I see as the combined strengths that reinforce our partnership and joint proposition.

30 Years in a Nutshell: Memories and Milestones

Looking back on what we’ve achieved together over that time, I can discern three periods and sets of milestones that have helped to define and reinforce the 30-year relationship.

The Birth of the Partnership (1992-2002)

Veritas and Fujitsu officially began collaborating on 23 September 1992 on a File System and Volume Management technology project. This progressed into the evolution and parallel operation of the ‘Veritas Cluster’ and the Fujitsu ‘Primecluster’ in 1994 to enable continuous access to Oracle databases in the event of a single processor crash. The success of these projects set the stage for ongoing collaboration. By 2000, Fujitsu offered Veritas Product Services for its most important products, including Storage Foundation, which later became Infoscale.

Exploring New Service Opportunities (2002-2012)

By the early 2000s the technology sector was maturing at a fast rate, bringing demand for more sophisticated solutions. This created the opportunity for our companies to work more closely around Internet security products, which had become a hot topic around the turn of the millennium. This joint strategy proved fruitful and was marked in 2004 by Veritas receiving recognition in Austria as “Enterprise Reselling Partner of the Year” for its work with Fujitsu.

As the relationship evolved our companies enjoyed a period of strong growth in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) from 2004 to2008, in which the joint business quadrupled. This underlined the exceptional trust level achieved between both companies and the executive leaders. The mutual respect and growing collegiality led to the formation of Veritas’ Fujitsu Products Core Team, dedicated to expanding the joint success, and a unique collaboration around the Veritas Cluster Server in EMEA.

Going Global (2012-present)

After cementing our global contractual relationship through the Global Strategic Alliance Agreement and the Global Solution Reseller Agreement in 2011, the past decade has been one of astounding success. In FY2012, our joint global revenues reached a new high. By 2013, our companies were working more closely on Managed Security Services, adapting to growing market demand for expertise in data security.

In recent years, the partnership has continued to thrive. In January 2018 Veritas was awarded Strategic Partner of the Year at the Fujitsu Suppliers Reception in Japan. In early 2020, Fujitsu EMEA developed its Data Driven Transformation Strategy with Veritas as a key contributor in Data Protection and Data Management, followed by further agreements on joint-GTM strategies.

In 2021 Veritas awarded Fujitsu Technology Solutions its Strategic Partner of the Year, Central Region honor. Then, in 2022, Fujitsu’s Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (DACH) and UK and Ireland regional teams received the same honor.

Adapting to Change

It makes me immensely proud to have been part of these developments and to have seen these milestones create a rich heritage and pedigree, which we bring to our joint customers today. The mutual understanding and trust contained in the relationship means that the services we offer to customers are well-tuned to address real needs, especially around data transformation as customers continue to adapt to the new operational and commercial landscape. Together, we are continuing to serve customers and help them achieve their goals in an evolving sector.

This progress has all been made possible due to several factors, including the commitment at a partnership management level to work together, building on our cultural alignment and match in domain expertise. It’s also been supported by the deep focus we both have on serving our customers. We are both passionate about technology, share a heritage that values community spirit, and have given the necessary priority to a long-lasting relationship between people and key stakeholders in both companies.

Ready for what comes next

Just as the past 30 years have brought unimaginable change, the state of enterprise technology in decades to come will be unrecognizable from today. As we celebrate three decades of partnership, we look with great optimism to what lies ahead.

Even as I look ahead to the coming years there are clear signs that our joint proposition is ready to serve the market’s most pressing demands, particularly around the mass adoption of cloud infrastructure and commitment to information protection, like ransomware protection, and increased sustainability in data management. We expect that over the next year, more than 50% of our customer will have data in the public cloud, and by 2025 customer spending on cloud data protection will be equal in proportion to what they currently spend on physical data center protection.

In a changing data landscape, agility and new thinking are critical. The relationship between Veritas and Fujitsu has evolved to where it is today and will continue to look ahead, helping our customers to achieve their technology and ESG goals.

Our achievements have been attainable as Fujitsu and Veritas are extremely well geared at all levels, from sales to engineering including back level technology agreements, and connections. A three decade-long partnership is a rarity in this industry – it shows the strong level of trust and gives us great confidence to move forward together in transformation. Join the conversation: #TogetherInTransformation

If you’re interested in finding out more about how Fujitsu and Veritas’ joint solutions can help your business, contact our team for more information.