Lenovo is doubling down in its efforts to capture the data centre market with a recent slew of announcements, including in software-defined storage, a partnership with Juniper Networks, servers, and hyperconverged appliances.
Software-defined storage (SDS)
Lenovo unveiled a new appliance program called StorSelect, which couples its hardware with ISV options.
Among the first solutions to emerge from this include the DX8200N and DX8200C storage modules, which integrate SDS software from Nexenta Systems Inc. and Cloudian Inc., respectively.
The DX8200N supports unified file and block storage while combining all-flash, hybrid, and all spinning drives. The DX8200C is an object-based storage appliance that is designed for large scale-out deployments. Both are built on the x86 server platforms and are available in Q3 2016.
Furthermore, the company also announced a mid-range storage system, dubbed the V-Series line of 12Gb SANs. The V3700 V2 and V5030 are hybrid and all-flash SAN solutions that will start shipping this month.
Networking
Starting June 17, customers will be able to download the “Lenovo Cloud NOS” or network operating system, which is designed to improve resiliency, cloud-level scalability and programmability.
Lenovo has also provided more details on its strategic partnership with Juniper Networks, which it announced in March, namely that it will sell the latter’s EX2300 and EX4550 Ethernet Switches, as well as the QFX10002-72Q data center spine aggregation switch.
These will be made available starting Q3 2016 as part of an integrated portfolio, which also includes Lenovo’s own data center products. The two companies have jointly published a new virtualized data centre reference architecture, to help customers build their own solutions.
Servers
Refreshed versions of Lenovo’s x3850 and x3950 X6 servers with Intel Xeon E7-4800 and E7-8800 v4 processors are also coming this month. They offer memory support up to 12TB and are designed for mission-critical environments, such as in-memory applications like SAP HANA or Hadoop, as well as large virtualization projects, big data and analytics workloads.
Both servers are now modular and upgradeable.
Furthermore, the hardware maker is releasing the ThinkServer sd350, a dense, 2U four node system designed for more demanding software-defined workloads. This will ship starting in July.
Hyperconverged appliances
There are a total of four hyperconverged appliances coming from Lenovo’s recent partnership with Nutanix.
These are based on Nutanix software and Lenovo’s server hardware, and include the HX1000, HX2000, HX3000 and HX5000.
Based on the model, they scale from remote office or branch office applications all the way through SMB, and compute heavy and virtualized environments.
Lenovo’s hyperconverged HX line already includes HX7000 designed for databases and intensive workloads. The new models will be available in Q3 2016.
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