The News: Lenovo upgraded its ThinkAgile hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) systems and ThinkSystem servers based on the next generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors that launched last week. Read more on the Lenovo website.

Lenovo Expands HCI, Servers, and Services Based on New Intel Chips

Analyst Take: The new Intel processors are designed to advance cloud deployment, hybrid connectivity, and AI capabilities. Lenovo sells three ThinkAgile HCI lines based on ThinkSystem servers and partners’ software: ThinkAgile HX (Nutanix), ThinkAgile VX (VMware vSAN), and ThinkAgile MX (Microsoft Azure Stack HCI). Lenovo bills these as its hybrid cloud platforms. All three have been given performance boosts based on the new 5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Lenovo also sells AMD-based ThinkSystem solutions running HCI software as part of its ThinkAgile portfolio).

Intel claims a 1.21x average performance gain over the 4th Gen Xeon processors, which makes them more efficient for data handling and processing tasks. The performance bump not only helps AI inferencing but also high-performance computing (HPC) applications.

The new chips power 17 new AI-ready ThinkAgile systems running VMware, Nutanix, and MS Azure HCI software with up to 77% more storage capacity. Lenovo also added a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) reference architecture and ThinkAgile MX450 Edge Integrated System with Azure Arc built in with this latest launch. ThinkAgile MX450 Edge Integrated System joins ThinkAgile HX AI for the Edge with Nutanix as products that can handle AI and machine learning (ML) compute or storage workloads remotely.

The new chips are also used in six new Lenovo ThinkSystem servers to run AI workloads in hybrid clouds. The Lenovo ThinkSystem portfolio supports the new Intel CPU across dense-optimized, rack, and tower server models. The new CPU is used in multi-node SD530 V3, SD550 V3, and SD650-N V3 dense optimized servers, which use up to 40% lower power with Lenovo Neptune liquid colling than the previous generation. Lenovo ThinkSystem SR650 V3 and SR630 V3 rack servers are optimized for AI workloads. The new Lenovo ThinkSystem SR250 V3 rack server and ST250 V3 tower server use Intel Xeon E-2400 processors with up to 21% higher overall compute performance for the edge.

The latest Intel chips will also be used in the new Lenovo TruScale Hyper Edge for Cloud as a service model. The TruScale portfolio is a pay-as-you-go sales model with self-service capabilities. The Hybrid Edge for Cloud service brings that capability to remote sites where data is created.

Lenovo further expanded its AI capabilities with Professional Services for AI, which will use AI experts to help companies plan their strategies and business cases around AI technology.

Looking Ahead

Lenovo has been a PC company for years but has turned into a viable infrastructure and services company over the past few years, based largely on ThinkSystem and ThinkAgile success. Lenovo is coming off a record quarter for storage revenue in which it grew 46% year-over-year (YoY), and it is now No. 3 worldwide in storage revenue. That shows its storage strategy of working with software partners to build on Lenovo-manufactured hardware is working.

Continued growth in storage and overall infrastructure will require building products around AI. Lenovo’s competitors such as Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) are also going all-in on AI. The fact that Lenovo announced these products on the same day as Intel launched its new CPUs shows just how important these HCI devices, servers, and services are to its long-term success. This laser-focus on AI can help Lenovo build on the progress it has made with its infrastructure products in recent years.

Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.

Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.