Lenovo debuts new hyperconverged systems with Nutanix, Microsoft and VMware

Lenovo's Data Center Group on Thursday announced a series of new and updated hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) systems, delivered in partnership with Nutanix, Microsoft and VMware. The expanded lineup comes as organizations, still responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, turn to virtual desktop infrastructure to support remote workers. 

"Covid has caused many customers ot actually accelerate business modernizations," Kamran Amini, Vice President and General Manager of Server, Storage and Software Defined Infrastructure at Lenovo DCG, said this week. Customers, he said, are asking, "How quickly can I deliver solutions, and deploy and scale based on my needs?"

HCI is uniquely suited to provide virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). Lenovo, Amini said, is focused on delivering a variety of different solutions from a number of leading partners. "The choice is key," he said. "We're not pushing a single agenda."

With Nutanix, Lenovo is introducing a version of the ThinkAgile HX powered by AMD Epyc processors. The new system will allow customers to run their virtual desktop workloads and maintain consistent performance in the same 1U form factor, with up to 50 percent fewer servers. It offers two GPUs per one unit and 45 percent more memory bandwidth. Availability is planned in late November as an appliance or a certified node.

The new offering is the first time Lenovo has introduced an AMD-based platform.

"We are all about offering the choice and benefit of an open ecosystem," Lenovo's Shekhar Mishra told reporters -- not only in terms of ISVs but also in terms of platform choices. 

"We see customers more and more asking for a platform based across both Intel and AMD," he said.

Next, in collaboration with Microsoft, Lenovo is introducing the new ThinkAgile MX Azure Stack HCI Edge and Data Center systems. The new ThinkAgile MX appliances offer an easy way to deploy Azure Stack HCI, as well as simple management and scalability of Azure services. The ThinkAgile MX offers a single, simplified console for lifecycle management and scaling. Lenovo plans to offer consumption-based pricing of Azure Stack HCI and Azure Stack Hub.

With VMware, Lenovo is introducing new ThinkAgile VX HCI Solutions, designed to improve agility and reliability for SAP HANA database deployments. The ThinkAgile VX 4S solution offers double the SAP HANA database memory and direct connect NVMe. The integration of Lenovo XClarity Management software and the new vSphere Lifecycle Manager tools should simplify the lifecycle management of vSAN environments. The system will be available later this month.