On September 13 at Lenovo’s Transform 2.0 conference in New York, Lenovo, a technology leader in intelligent transformation, and NetApp, a hybrid cloud and data company, announced a global multi-faceted, partnership to bring innovative technology and a simplified experience to help customers modernize IT and accelerate their digital transformation. As innovation leaders in high-performance computing and flash storage solutions, Lenovo and NetApp are uniquely positioned to bring leading technology and scale to enable customers worldwide to modernize their IT architectures from the edge to the core network to the cloud.
The two companies are co-developing the largest range of new Lenovo-branded storage products that combine NetApp’s all-flash data management solutions with Lenovo’s ThinkSystem infrastructure. These new products will utilize core software technology from NetApp and will be manufactured by Lenovo, leveraging Lenovo’s supply chain
Additionally, Lenovo and NetApp announced a new joint venture company in China to deliver storage products and data management solutions localized and tailored to meet China’s specialized requirements and distinct cloud ecosystem. The new venture is expected to be operational by spring 2019, pending local approvals.
Just prior to the announcement, I sat down with Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing and NetApp CEO George Kurian. Yang said, “Customers want a total solution. They want to reduce their vendor footprint where they can. This union brings together the capabilities of complementary players.”
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Kurain added, “Computing and data are the foundational elements of digital transformation. This is a play to enable our customers to simplify their infrastructure and to get more out of their data faster. Data-driven transformation has a profoundly better chance of success.”
Yang went on to say, “More than just digital transformation, this is about intelligent transformation.” He noted three elements to this intelligent transformation:
- Data
- Computing and infrastructure power
- Algorithms
The data will be driven by smart devices and the Internet of Things more generally. Yang noted, “The data generated through the devices – make the things smarter. This will become the fuel to drive our smart vertical.”
Regarding computing and infrastructure power, Yang noted that the partnership will facilitate the development of networks that will be the engine to store and analyze data. Yang said, “This will drive smart infrastructure. We are the number one supercomputer company in the world. When you add our combined advantages in cloud and edge computing, we will drive the supercomputing advantages.”
Finally, regarding algorithms, the partnership should yield better vertical know-how. Yang noted, “Better access to and analysis of data will lead to a smarter commercial IoT.”
Yang concluded by noting that the transformation it hopes to enable for customers is already happening within Lenovo, itself. He noted, “We are transforming ourselves through the use of advanced algorithms. Our decisions are made with better, more accurate, and more timely data. We are also using chatbots to answer questions. In fact, 50 percent of our customers’ questions are answered through Lenovo chatbots. We are using the deep learning and big data to help our own value chain. The data allows us to target customer needs more accurately. Finally, we rely less on focus groups in developing the next generation of products. We can verify how our customers use our products and draw better conclusions on what is working, what needs further refinement, and what is not working at all.”
Kurian concluded by saying, “In today’s global economy, customers demand new approaches to IT infrastructures that support their digital transformation; through this partnership, Lenovo and NetApp will offer a comprehensive portfolio of products, solutions, and service that is unrivaled in the market today. Combining our complementary strengths in customer-centric innovation, Lenovo and NetApp will establish a new standard to accelerate our customers’ success.”
Date: September 26, 2018
Source: Forbes