Lenovo Data Center Group Debuts New Products with Nutanix, Microsoft, VMware

By | Managed Services News

Sep 03

It’s all about digital transformation and adapting to the new business normal.

Lenovo Data Center Group (DCG) on Thursday introduced new and updated hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) offers that address the new business normal. The new solutions include technology partners Nutanix, Microsoft, VMware and Diamanti. The company also announced Lenovo Cloud Services.

The vendor’s new normal product strategy responds to accelerated business transformation. This acceleration demands offers that address business resiliency, agility and modernization. This vision also demands adaptation of hybrid cloud and data center infrastructure.

Lenovo's Kamran Amini

Lenovo’s Kamran Amini

“Customers are looking for choice. They’re looking for flexibility of a different infrastructure solution that gives them maximum value,” Kamran Amini, vice president and general manager of server, storage and software defined infrastructure, Lenovo DCG, said in a product briefing. “Choice is key. At Lenovo, we’re not pushing a single agenda like our competitors.”

Partnership and Choice

More specifically, Lenovo Data Center Group introduced ThinkAgile HX powered by AMD EPYC processors and Nutanix; Lenovo ThinkAgile MX and Microsoft Azure Stack; Lenovo ThinkAgile VX and VMware; and Diamanti SR630 Kubernetes.

The ThinkAgile HX HCI series enables customers to run their virtual desktop workloads and maintain consistent performance in a 1U form factor. And, that’s using up to half the number of servers. Here are some features:

  • Improved TCO. The Lenovo ThinkAgile HX AMD two-socket delivers a wide range of core counts to match application needs and enable excellent performance for virtualization and VDI consolidation, the company said.
  • Nutanix software increases flexibility for customers continuing their multicloud adoption journeys. It provides simplified operations, increased workload density, stronger data protection and seamless application across clouds for a true hybrid architecture.
  • Expect availability in late November as an appliance or a certified node.

Microsoft and VMware

The new Lenovo ThinkAgile MX Azure Stack HCI Edge and Data Center solutions, in collaboration with Microsoft, allow customers to rapidly deploy a hybrid cloud infrastructure.

  • The new ThinkAgile MX appliances provide easy deployment, management and scalability of Azure services from edge-to-core-to-cloud. In addition, Lenovo plans to offers consumption-based, pay-as-you-go, pricing of Azure Stack HCI and Azure Stack Hub.
  • ThinkAgile MX has a single, simplified console for life cycle management and delivers an enhanced customer experience, said Lenovo.

In collaboration with VMware, the new Lenovo ThinkAgile VX HCI Series  aims to improve agility and reliability for SAP HANA database deployments.

  • Lenovo ThinkAgile VX HCI Solutions are 4S certified nodes that address modernization of infrastructure for high-end database solutions and SAP HANA. They improve agility and simplify life cycle management of vSAN environments via the integration of Lenovo XClarity Management software and the new vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) tools.
  • Lenovo XClarity is the management console for Lenovo ThinkAgile HCI solutions. It provides auto-discovery and asset management, policy-based firmware updates across hardware and software, and is the integration interface to leading ISV management tools, including vLCM.
  • The Lenovo ThinkAgile VX 4S solution offers double the SAP HANA database memory and direct connect NVMe, for accelerated response times, speed to business insights and improves TCO.
  • Availability is scheduled for later this month.

For ISV Partners

Lenovo also announced an OEM On Demand program. This program enables ISV partners to offer turnkey, integrated IT infrastructure solutions to market through their respective brands.

For example, Lenovo, working with Diamanti, introduced Diamanti SR630, available now. This solution is powered by Lenovo ThinkSystem servers. Diamanti specializes in Kubernetes deployments.

The new Lenovo Cloud Lifecycle Services aim to help customers find the right solution as they transition to the new normal. They address workshop and assessment, design and implementation, management and support, and Lenovo TruScale infrastructure services.

So, what does this mean to partners?

“If you think about these new solutions, at the end of the day we are taking out a lot of risk around integration and validation for our channel partners. And, our strategy has always been channel-first,” said Shekhar Mishra, director of software defined infrastructure, Lenovo DCG.

Partners can bring their solutions for a specific environment and add their own services.

“That’s a motion we do see as being very successful,” he said.

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