Lenovo Storage Innovation and Channel-Centric Strategy Drives Record Growth and Infrastructure Leadership

Lenovo Group Ltd. announced solutions to enable customers to better solve for growing data management needs, coupled with new milestones in its enterprise storage momentum.

For the first time, the company is ranked as the #1 storage provider in the ‘Price Bands 1-4 (storage <$25,000) external storage’ category, which represents 61% of the total market for storage device units sold globally ⁽¹⁾. The firm also grew to the #5 storage provider globally in all segments, according to IDC Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker, 4Q22. Additionally, its enterprise-class storage solutions deliver power efficiency increases and datacenter space savings to help support sustainability goals while ThinkSystem storage systems help safeguard critical data with advanced ransomware protection. Lenovo’s storage portfolio has experienced growth in the last year with an all-time record 138% Y/Y revenue increase.

Fueled by strong market momentum in edge-to-cloud servers, storage, and software, the company is further transforming into a full-service solutions provider with continued expansion and leadership across an infrastructure solutions portfolio. Building on its global leadership among the ≠3 server companies in the world, the firm has also seen >100% Y/Y growth in the AFA category and 22% ⁽²⁾ growth in midrange storage, further demonstrating the firm’s data management and storage portfolio is gaining broad market momentum. As part of the company’s overall achievement, the company’s TruScale IaaS also grew more than 600% Y/Y.

“Lenovo is committed to being the industry’s most trusted partner and empowering our customers’ intelligent transformation,” said Kirk Skaugen, president, infrastructure solutions group. “Our tremendous growth in the market, now becoming the #1 storage provider in price bands <$25,000, underscores the trust customers and partners have placed in Lenovo through our channel-centric strategy. The breadth of our data management portfolio is continuing to expand with our recently announced Weka solutions, custom cloud storage solutions, and an ever-increasing software defined portfolio.”

Storage innovation
The company offers a portfolio of enterprise-class data management solutions from entry to high end, including enterprise storage arrays and infrastructure, HCI, SDS, TruScale Infinite storage as-a-service, and vertically focused workload solutions working with ISV application software partners. Leveraging in-house design and manufacturing capabilities to drive innovation, the firm is releasing storage solutions to protect vs. threats to customers’ critical data and help support sustainability goals by more effectively powering today’s demanding data management and analytics needs.

The new solutions include:

D4390 storage appliance

• D4390 high density JBOD for SDS: Delivers power and space savings to help support sustainability goals:
  • Up to 62% less power consumption as compared to previous generation ⁽²⁾
  • Lower OPEX – up to 60% reduction in data center space
  • Higher overall performance – 24Gb SAS connectivity increases data throughput
• ThinkSystem DM systems 9.12 software release: Delivers innovations that reduce threats from cyber-attacks and increase data management efficiency:
  • Automated ransomware protection
    • Autonomous ransomware protection
    • One-click defense vs. malicious files
    • Tamper-proof snapshots prevent ransomware deletion
  • Hardened Zero Trust architecture that increases defense from insider threats
    • Multifactor authentication
    • Immutable, tamperproof logging
    • Enhanced auditing
  • 33% storage efficiency improvement over previous gen with new 4 to 1 efficiency
    • Lowers Capex by storing more data with less storage
• Recently announced high performance data management solutions with Weka IO Ltd., selling across 160 global markets. The solutions accelerate AI and analytics for high performance workloads by speeding time to insights while reducing cost.
• TruScale Infrastructure-as-a-Service, which enables all of the company’s data management offerings to be consumed via a pay-as-you-go model

Solving data management needs for customers
The firms breadth of data management solutions meet the complex needs of customers across a breadth of high-growth industries. The ability to protect, analyze, and manage data is vital to an organization’s business. Petco, which operates more than 1,500 pet care centers across the U.S., Mexico, and Puerto Rico, is modernizing its IT infrastructure to support its customer success strategy. The company is deploying a network of ThinkSystem DE4000 storage systems and SR650 V2 servers to gain better data insights and scalability through a flexible consumption and deployment model.

“Petco is focused on setting new standards in pet care with seamless, one-stop shopping and more personalized support for pet parents, and our data management infrastructure is critical to delivering this experience for customers,” said Guillermo Cortés Prieto, director, technological innovation and systems, Petco Mexico. “Petco is leveraging industry-leading ThinkSystem storage and servers with the TruScale as-a-Service model to unlock faster insights to help us deliver new and differentiated offerings to the market.”

Enabling channel through channel-centric strategy
The company delivers value for channel partners when it comes to data management and storage solutions through the Lenovo 360 global channel framework for partners and a channel-centric commitment. Partners can access the breadth and depth of the firm’s portfolio across services and solutions, infrastructure, and intelligent devices. The framework helps partners to strengthen their position in the market and better respond to customer needs.

“Lenovo is one of the best technology partners in the industry to help us address the robust media storage solution requirements of our customers in the Media and Entertainment industry,” said Dave Van Hoy, president, Advanced Systems Group, LLC. “Lenovo’s storage portfolio delivers the ideal benefits for our customers, and we can count on their continued partnership to deliver enablement and support to meet our business needs.”

“With a channel first mindset and broadened focus on entry storage lines, Lenovo ISG continues to grow its channel success with Ingram Micro – enabling more and more partners to solve for the storage needs of their customers,” says Cheryl Rang, executive director, advanced solutions, Ingram Micro. “By tapping into our Advanced Solutions team and Lenovo’s 360 partner framework, channel partners gain valuable resources and are better equipped to deliver and manage secure, end-to-end storage solutions to businesses of all sizes.”

Providing efficiency and control over product development, innovation and supply chain operations, the company has expanded its global reach, servicing over 180 markets with 35+ manufacturing facilities, including its first European in-house manufacturing facility recently opened in Hungary. Ranked 9th in the world of all global companies by Gartner in supply chain capability, the firm’s globally engineered supply chain highlights company’s leadership as a purpose-driven organization and operational center of excellence in the global supply chain community.

⁽¹⁾ Representative of the percentage of entry system units shipped vs. total storage units shipped as measured in IDC Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker, 4Q22    
⁽²⁾ Due to the existing JV in PRC the share represents the combined Lenovo and Lenovo NetApp Technology total
⁽³⁾ Comparison representative of replacing the predecessor model, the D3284, with a ThinkSystem D4390. Actual savings will depend on customer environment and usage patterns.