Lenovo continues partnership with other tech giants to build its data center

Lenovo officials are set to partner with other tech vendors and software makers as they expand the company’s data center infrastructure portfolio. The company on June 6 unveiled new server, storage, networking and hyperconverged infrastructure offerings that expand on executives’ strategy to make the Chinese tech vendor a larger player in the $87 billion data center technology space through a combination of in-house development and outside partnerships.

Lenovo has looked to accelerate its capabilities in the space since buying IBM’s x86 server business two years ago for $2.3 billion, a move that immediately made the company the world’s third-largest server maker. Company officials are looking to create a portfolio of data center solutions that use partnerships from established tech vendors and startups and Lenovo’s own products to bring emerging technologies to customers. “This dramatically expanded portfolio is a powerful demonstration of Lenovo’s commitment to creating purposeful data center innovation in a truly open ecosystem,” Tom Shell, senior vice president of Lenovo’s Data Center Product Group, said in a statement.

Lenovo is quickly growing out its capabilities in the storage segment of the market. The company launched a new software-defined storage (SDS) appliance program called StorSelect, starting with systems created through partnerships with Nexenta Systems and Cloudian to bring their SDS software to Lenovo’s x86 server hardware systems. The new DX8200N will use Nexenta’s open-source SDS software to support unified file and block storage for scale-up deployments, leveraging all-flash, hybrid and spinning drives. It builds on a partnership with Nexenta that Lenovo officials announced in March, when they first said Lenovo was integrating Nexenta’s products into their x86 servers. The DX8200C is an object-based storage appliance that will use Cloudian’s SDS software and will target large scale-out environments. Both systems will begin shipping in the third quarter.

Separate from the StorSelect program, Lenovo officials announced the V-Series lineup to 12G-bit storage-area network (SAN) offerings, which will feature the company’s first Lenovo-branded midrange storage systems. The V3700 V2 and V5030 are hybrid and all-flash SAN offerings that will begin shipping this month. Lenovo also is pushing to expand its networking capabilities, which include a new network operating system and a new reseller agreement around Ethernet switches with Juniper Networks. The two companies in March announced they were teaming up to develop hyperconverged data center systems that will combine Lenovo’s strength in x86 systems and Juniper’s networking expertise.