Lenovo expands data center portfolio with dozens of new systems

INFRA

Lenovo Group Ltd. today debuted dozens of new servers, storage systems and hyperconverged infrastructure appliances, as well as a cloud-based hardware management service.

The products are rolling as part of what the company describes as the largest-ever update to its data center infrastructure portfolio.

Beijing-based Lenovo is the world’s top maker of personal computers. According to research from International Data Corp., the company had a 24.3% share of the market in the second quarter. Lenovo also has a significant presence in the data center infrastructure market. 

Many of the data center systems that Lenovo debuted today are rolling out for its ThinkSystem series of servers and data storage systems. Lenovo is also updating its ThinkEdge edge computing device lineup, as well as the ThinkAgile family of hyperconverged infrastructure appliances. A hyperconverged appliance is a system that provides compute and storage hardware in a single chassis along with management software.

According to Lenovo, some of the new systems that it’s rolling out will feature Intel Corp.’s Sapphire Rapids server processors. The processors, which are set to become broadly available next year, are based on the 10-nanometer Intel 7 manufacturing process.

Lenovo will also roll out systems that feature chips based on Arm Ltd. designs. Additionally, the company is introducing another set of new systems that will include processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s upcoming Epyc Genoa chip lineup. Epyc Genoa processors are expected to feature as many as 96 processing cores.

According to Lenovo, its new servers can run financial analytics applications up to 70% faster than its previous-generation hardware. Developing artificial intelligence applications is another task that the company promises to speed up significantly for customers.

Increased performance is not the only new enhancement that the portfolio refresh promises to provide. As part of the update, Lenovo is making its Neptune water cooling technology available for more of its servers. Water conducts heat better than air and can therefore be used to cool data center hardware more efficiently: Lenovo says Neptune reduces power consumption by up to 40%.

“Lenovo has pioneered infrastructure solutions that have transformed entire industries for more than 30 years,” said Kirk Skauge, the president of Lenovo’s Infrastructure Solutions Group. “Building on this legacy, we are now delivering the broadest portfolio advancement in our history, with industry-leading performance, reliability and sustainability.”

Lenovo offers a suite of cybersecurity tools called ThinkShield Security for customers of its data center hardware products. Today, the company announced plans to expand the suite with several new capabilities. One of the new capabilities, which is known as Modular Root of Trust, can help companies more easily detect tempering attempts targeting their data center hardware. 

To help customers manage their data center systems, Lenovo is also introducing a new cloud-based service called XClarity One. The service enables administrators to monitor the performance of servers and track hardware usage. Additionally, XClarity One promises to ease a number of common infrastructure management tasks such as deploying new equipment. 

Photo: Flickr