Fortune - USA (2019-06)

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These new environments are delivering this

speed and effi ciency at a time when many organi-

zations are relying more on big data and analytics

initiatives, expanding their mobile technology envi-

ronments, and moving more aggressively into the

cloud for applications, application development, and

IT infrastructure services.

“Business models are evolving, changing the

way organizations need to operate,” says Kirk

Skaugen, executive vice president of Lenovo Data

Center Group and president of Lenovo. “Data-driven

customer-centric business decisions are more

important than ever, requiring IT solutions that can

deliver the unique capabilities to keep up with the

ever-changing requirements.”

Lenovo, which offers a portfolio of hypercon-

verged and cloud offerings as part of its ThinkAgile

portfolio, expects everything to become software

defi ned—both in the edge and in the cloud. It sees

edge servers becoming more popular and trans-

forming the data center.

bottom line, costing up to $400,000 per hour. For

six consecutive years, Lenovo’s x86 servers—in-

cluding the ThinkSystem server portfolio—have

received the highest reliability of all x86 server

systems, making them comparable to larger-

scale, far more costly mainframe class systems.

The company’s partnership with Nutanix is

key. Lenovo is Nutanix’s fastest-growing partner,

and the two share many joint customers. Lenovo

is integrating its management software with

Nutanix Prism, an end-to-end management plat-

form for virtualized data center environments that

streamlines and automates common workfl ows.

Using advanced machine-learning technology,

Prism analyzes system data to generate insights

for optimizing virtualization and infrastructure

management.

Nutanix has also seen a dramatic increase in

demand for hyperconvergence technology, says

Sunil Potti, the company’s chief product and

development offi cer. Potti likens HCI to Apple’s

iPhone, saying the data center technology ap-

peals to enterprises in much the same way that

smartphones appeal to consumers.

For example, before the iPhone, users needed

discrete products—a separate camera, GPS, and

game system, for instance—which are all now

apps available for use in the user’s single device.

Each of these had to be managed individually

and independently from one another, rather than

being part of a single cohesive system.

“HCI is what delivers this same concept for

the data center,” Potti says. “We took all of these

moving parts—compute, storage, security, net-

working—and used software to create essentially

what Apple did with the iPhone.”

The benefi ts are also similar, including greater

simplicity, increased productivity, and the ability

to manage multiple functions from a single point.

“The value of what Apple does with the iPhone

is that you don’t have to buy all of these different

parts,” Potti says. “That’s the same type of value

we’re delivering with HCI. It’s a good return on

investment.”

And HCI, like the iPhone, comes with a

“desire” factor. “People want to buy the newest

Apple device. They don’t need to,” Potti says.

“In the past, IT was always need-based, looked

at as a necessity rather than something people

wanted.” Now, with HCI enabling IT to focus on

business priorities and promising cost savings,

it’s something technology leaders across indus-

tries want to deploy. ■

The company's HCI business is growing at al-

most double the overall market, and Lenovo expects

this growth to continue as customers increasingly

look to extend simplicity across all technology layers

and achieve comprehensive, turnkey IT operations.

This will allow them to focus on their core business

priorities.

Lenovo’s software-defi ned strategy focuses on

delivering a wide choice of products, services, and

ecosystem solutions to enable customers to achieve

their IT goals. The company partners with software

leaders such as Microsoft, Nutanix, and VMware to

provide multiple levels of product support and solu-

tions, helping organizations shift their IT operations

from a project-driven cost center to a cloud-like,

demand-driven service center.

Among the strengths of the Lenovo HCI platform

are its uptime and reliability. Unplanned downtime

often has signifi cant impact on an organization’s

Business models are evolving,

changing the way organizations

need to operate.”

—KIRK SKAUGEN

EVP, Lenovo Data Center Group,

and President, Lenovo