Lenovo to build and run SAP's cloud in China

WWhat China wants, China gets – in this case an exception to #SAP 's usual practice of running its own cloud. Behind the great firewall that job's just gone to #'Lenovo, which “will deliver a new enterprise cloud solution created exclusively for customers holding licenses for the SAP #HANA platform in China.” Lenovo will also run and manage the rig for SAP's Chinese HANA customers. The “Lenovo Enterprise Cloud designed for SAP HANA” will be a RAM-crammed cloud using the Chinese company's System x3850 and x3950 X6 servers, plus the System x3650 X6 for application servers. So a nice showcase for the company's kit, and a big customer to boot which will be a fillip after recent revenue disappointments in Lenovo's data centre group. Perhaps more importantly, it will be a mighty symbol of Lenovo's smarts and ability to do big, complex, things for top software companies. SAP has partners elsewhere – such as Deloitte and AWS - but The Register is unaware of a whole-of-country deal to rival this Lenovo tie-up. The too-nauseatingly-confected-to-use canned quotes provided by both parties certainly leave no adjective unturned in pursuit of praising Lenovo's ability to take on this task. But the back story here is that China doesn't let western tech concerns do business behind the great firewall without making a substantial offering to nourish local players and develop local expertise. Hence the raft of joint ventures and other deals big companies do in China, all with a “national security” source code review before the fun starts. But SAP's not having its arm twisted here, because Lenovo can't afford to fail in this role. Who, after all, would want anything to do with the organisation that crocked SAP? ®

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/22/lenovo_sap_china_cloud_deal/