Lenovo Leaps Forward With Next-generation Thinkagile Composable Cloud Platform

@Lenovo Data Center Group (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY), one of the fastest growing #hyperconvergedinfrastructure ( #HCI) vendors according to IDC, – with HCI revenue growing at almost twice the market growth rate in Q1 2018 (149.1% compared to 76.3%)—is further expanding its ThinkAgile portfolio to provide an innovative solution for customers who desire the agility of the #publiccloud and the security of a #privatecloud. To address this growing customer trend, Lenovo – together with @Cloudistics – has developed the #ThinkAgile CP Series composable cloud platform, a ‘cloud-in-a-box’ that offers all of the conveniences and ease-of-use of a public cloud environment secured behind the customer’s own #datacenter #firewall.   Lenovo ThinkAgile CP Series – with fully-integrated infrastructure, application marketplace and end-to-end automation of software-defined network, compute and storage – delivers a turnkey cloud experience that can be easily and centrally managed from anywhere through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) portal.   “As a global company that is unencumbered by legacy, Lenovo is uniquely positioned to not only listen to our customers and understand their pain points, but also develop revolutionary solutions that eliminate IT roadblocks and accelerate their business growth,” said Roderick Lappin, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing of Lenovo Data Center Group. “The ThinkAgile CP Series is another example of how Lenovo is driving the industry forward by enabling customers to truly own their cloud experience in a secure, scalable and streamlined way.”   “Cloudistics’ private cloud computing platform cuts down application deployment cycles by 90%, which translates to faster time to revenue,” said Najaf Husain, Chief Executive Officer of Cloudistics. “We make private clouds as easy to use as the public cloud but with the control and performance enterprise customers want. Our partnership with Lenovo enables us to unleash a next-generation composable cloud platform to the market that is easy to implement, deploy, operate, maintain and support.”   The ThinkAgile CP Series features fully integrated high availability, backup, remote replication, usage metering, live help and support and multilayered, multitenant security. Customers can leverage a curated application marketplace (which they can extend with their own offerings) for rapid deployment and enjoy simple, plug-and-play scale-out of disaggregated units of compute and storage capacity. Lenovo ThinkAgile CP Series provides a premium experience for midmarket and enterprise customers seeking to take advantage of agile methodologies using a private cloud ecosystem. The platform is ideal for businesses or organizations that want the benefits of the public cloud, without compromising control, data security, application performance and service delivery.   “ICP had been an early adopter of the Cloudistics’ cloud platform as well as a Lenovo reseller. After hearing about these two companies coming together to deliver the Lenovo ThinkAgile CP Series, the entire ICP team jumped at the chance to position the new series to our valued customers,” said Sal Saglik, Director of Business Development, ICP Corp. “The ease of use, rapid deployment and scalability of ThinkAgile CP will allow us to deliver a cloud-like experience in a complete and secure solution without the costs and complexities of the public cloud.” “The simplicity of the platform significantly changed our work output,” said Scott Whitehouse, IT Director at Integreon. “We are able to easily import applications, assign cloud computing resources and launch applications on-demand based on our organizational needs in a fraction of the time it used to take us.” The Lenovo ThinkAgile CP Series is available through Lenovo and Cloudistics sales representatives and channel partners. Customer trials and proof-of-concept testing will begin in North America and Europe in August 2018 with further global rollout, including China, later this year. For more information, please visit http://www.lenovo.com/thinkagilecp

https://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=226681

Lenovo, Dell Biggest Gainers In U.S. PC Market For Q2

PC Growth Returns Conditions are improving in the PC market, according to research firm Gartner. For the first time since 2012, worldwide PC shipments generated quarterly growth with a 1.4 percent increase during the second quarter from a year earlier, Gartner reported. In the U.S. market, PCs also returned to growth -- of 1.7 percent -- following six quarters of declines in shipments. The growth was driven by strong sales in the government and education markets, while vendors including Lenovo and Dell put up the strongest growth numbers, according to Gartner. What follows are the details on how the top five U.S. PC makers fared during the second quarter of 2018.

https://www.crn.com/slide-shows/mobility/300106451/lenovo-dell-biggest-gainers-in-u-s-pc-market-for-q2.htm?itc=most_pop

Lenovo Boosts Incentives, Adds New Pricing Tool To 'Rebuild Trust' With Partners

@Lenovo Channel Chief @RobCato said that the company is making good on promises to improve conditions for partners in its North American PC and smart devices business. Following an overhaul to Lenovo's channel compensation program last fall that hurt profitability for many partners, company executives pledged at the Accelerate 2018 conference in May to roll out partner-friendly changes as a way to spark growth in the Lenovo PC business. [Related: 10 Key Takeaways From Lenovo Accelerate 2018] In an interview with CRN on Tuesday, Cato offered more details on what shape those changes are taking. "Lenovo is now in a position to get back to growth and [customer] acquisition," said Cato, who took over as channel chief in April. "Last year, growth and acquiring new customers were not at the forefront of what we were doing. We're now in a position where we want to reward growth and reward our partners for going out and acquiring new customers." While Cato did not share specific percentages, he said the company is increasing backend rebates and market development funds for partners, while also giving partners improved access to Lenovo sales and support teams. [Sponsored Suggested Post: Vox Mobile’s DaaS + MMS Simplifies Mobility and Drives Productivity Providing the best products for business combined with the best end-to-end lifecycle managed services – all for one affordable monthly price.] Importantly, Lenovo is segmenting its commercial business into three partner communities—SMB, large enterprise and K-12—and targeting incentives, support and planning based on those communities. "There'll be different incentives, higher sales coverage and a better, more-robust support organization to help them grow their business," Cato said. "We're going to put growth incentives in place ... Most of these will be in the form of backend rebates. And we'll have MDF accruals that they will receive to drive additional opportunities in the marketplace." Lenovo is also promising partners "deeper relationships with our channel sales teams—and not only with our channel sales teams but also with our end-user sales teams," Cato said. Additionally, on July 1 Lenovo add a new SMB bid tool to its partner portal, as a way to provide faster pricing information for partners, he said.  "That SMB bid desk will now speed up the turnaround time for pricing for SMB opportunities, from what used to be days now down to less than 24 hours," Cato said. Other new tools to more efficiently deliver information to partners, such as product information, are expected to launch in coming months. Cato noted that deal registration and existing incentive programs for SMB partners are remaining unchanged. "I do believe [the moves] will increase profitability," Cato said. "I also believe it will give them the excitement back into the Lenovo business, that frankly we needed to have." Michael Goldstein, president and CEO of LAN Infotech, a Lenovo partner in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., applauded the changes by Lenovo. "These are great steps to drive channel business," Goldstein said in an email to CRN.  "It's not enough to just have great products. Rebates and the pricing tool really help out." Along with expanding business among Lenovo's existing base of 26,000 partners, Cato said he is hoping to recruit new partners as well—and will be working especially closely with distributors to bring aboard new partners. Overall, the moves are "the first step in rebuilding that trust," Cato said. "Obviously that is earned over time. I feel very confident, after talking a number of our partners, that we are on the right path ... I really believe that we're going to rebuild that trust over the coming quarters."

https://www.crn.com/news/mobility/300106286/lenovo-boosts-incentives-adds-new-pricing-tool-to-rebuild-trust-with-partners.htm

Lenovo Names Rob Cato As New Channel Chief

@RobCato, a @Lenovo veteran who has served as interim channel chief for the company's North America PC and smart devices business since late January, has been appointed permanently to the position, the company said. Cato had succeeded previous Lenovo channel chief @SammyKinlaw on an interim basis after Kinlaw departed to become vice president of worldwide channel and OEM sales at printer vendor Lexmark. [Related: Lenovo Channel Chief Sammy Kinlaw Is Stepping Down] Cato joined Lenovo in 2005 through its acquisition of IBM's PC business, and before that had worked at IBM since 1994, according to his LinkedIn profile. He had most recently been serving as executive director for public sector, workstation and OEM at Lenovo. "Over the many years spent with Lenovo and IBM in this industry, I have enjoyed creating meaningful connections and relationships with our partners to drive mutual growth and profit," Cato said in a statement. "I look forward to building upon that foundation." Matthew Zielinski, president of Lenovo's North America business, said that Cato has 25 years of sales experience across both commercial business and the channel. "Rob’s established relationships, passion and knowledge are ideal for the North America channel business," Zielinski said in a statement. Michael Goldstein, president and CEO of LAN Infotech, a Lenovo partner in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said in an email to CRN that Cato is a "great choice" for the channel chief position. "I love the idea of bringing someone that has been with Lenovo through the good and bad times," Goldstein said. "It looks like he has a lot of channel experience, which really sets them up for the future."

https://www.crn.com/news/mobility/300102496/lenovo-names-rob-cato-as-new-channel-chief.htm

Lenovo is now testing Microsoft's Windows AutoPilot deployment service

@Microsoft took the wraps off its #Windows #AutoPilot service for setting up, resetting and recovering devices last summer. This week, @Lenovo provided an update on its implementation plans for Windows AutoPilot.  Lenovo At its Ignite conference in September, Microsoft officials said that starting in January 2018, Lenovo and HP would begin offering customers Windows AutoPilot. In an April 17 blog post, Lenovo officials said they're now testing Windows AutoPilot with select early-adopter customers. General availability for its large enterprise users will happen "in the coming months," they said. Lenovo is directly integrating with Windows AutoPilot to allow users to register Lenovo PCs to their Azure Active Directory tenants before they receive their PCs. When users sign into a customized out-of-box set up experience, the provisioning and security policies will be delivered automatically. Customers also will have the option of combining Windows AutoPilot with Windows 10 preloaded images, as well as with customer-designated applications and cloud-storage capabilities already integrated, the blog post said. As originally announced by Microsoft, the Windows AutoPilot Deployment Program is for OEMs, distributors, and resellers. It allows them to provide users with "business-ready" devices by linking Windows 10 PCs to an organization, existing Azure Active Directory, and Intune mobile-device management services and preloading it with Office 365 ProPlus apps. I haven't seen/heard anything regarding where HP is at in its planned AutoPilot deployment. Last year, Microsoft made AutoPilot an option for its Surface devices.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/lenovo-is-now-testing-microsofts-windows-autopilot-deployment-service/

Gartner Says Worldwide PC Shipments Declined 1.4 Percent in First Quarter of 2018

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Worldwide PC shipments totaled 61.7 million units in the first quarter of 2018, a 1.4 percent decline from the first quarter of 2017, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. The PC market experienced a 14th consecutive quarter of decline, dating back to the second quarter of 2012. “The major contributor to the decline came from China, where unit shipments declined 5.7 percent year over year” Tweet this Asia/Pacific and the U.S. experienced declining shipments, while other regions saw some minimal growth, but it was not enough to drive overall growth for the PC industry. In the first quarter of 2018, PC shipments in Asia/Pacific declined 3.9 percent compared with the same period last year, while shipments in the U.S. decreased 2.9 percent. "The major contributor to the decline came from China, where unit shipments declined 5.7 percent year over year," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "This was driven by China's business market, where some state-owned and large enterprises postponed new purchases or upgrades, awaiting new policies and officials' reassignments after the session of the National People's Congress in early March. "In the first quarter of 2018, there was some inventory carryover from the fourth quarter of 2017," Ms. Kitagawa said. "At the same time, vendors were cautious in overstocking due to the upcoming release of new models in the second quarter of 2018 with Intel's new eighth-generation core processors." The top three vendors — @HP, @Lenovo and @Dell — accounted for 56.9 percent of global PC shipments in the first quarter of 2018, compared with 54.5 percent of shipments in the first quarter of 2017 (see Table 1). Dell experienced the strongest growth rate among the top six vendors worldwide, as its shipments increased 6.5 percent.

Notes: Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs and ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface), but not Chromebooks or iPads. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels. Numbers may not add up to totals shown due to rounding.
Source: Gartner (April 2018)

HP Inc.'s worldwide PC shipments increased 2.8 percent in the first quarter of 2018 versus the same period last year. In EMEA, HP Inc. recorded double-digit growth in both desktop and mobile PCs. This was contrasted with a small decline in other regions. HP Inc. was adversely impacted by declining demand in the U.S., which generally accounts for one-third of its total shipments.

Lenovo's global PC shipments remained flat in the first quarter of 2018. Lenovo achieved 6 percent growth in EMEA and double-digit shipment growth in Latin America. However, in Asia/Pacific (its largest market), PC shipments declined 4 percent.

After record holiday sales for consumer and gaming products in the fourth quarter of 2017, Dell continued to perform well in the first quarter of 2018. With double-digit shipment increases in EMEA, North America and Latin America, Dell grew in all regions except Asia/Pacific. Desktop and mobile PCs grew in equal measures, showing Dell's strength in the business segment.

Rising ASPs

The average selling prices (ASPs) of PCs continue to rise. Acknowledging deceleration in the smartphone market, and uncertainty in PC replacement demand, component companies remain cautious about expanding their production capabilities. Therefore, persistent component shortages and a rising bill of materials continue to create an environment conductive to higher prices.

"In contrast to other DRAM-related price spikes, PC vendors are not reacting by reducing DRAM content. Rather they have passed the cost increase to consumers," Ms. Kitagawa said. "With fewer people buying new machines, manufacturers need to get the highest profit margin from each sale. To do that, they are raising the selling points and focusing on customer experience or perception of value."

Regional Overview

In the U.S., PC shipments totaled 11.8 million units in the first quarter of 2018, a 2.9 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2017. Dell moved into the No. 1 position in the U.S. based on shipments, as its market share increased to 29.1 percent. HP Inc. moved into the No. 2 position as its shipments declined 4.8 percent, and its market share totaled 28.4 percent in the first quarter of 2018.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180411006396/en/Gartner-Worldwide-PC-Shipments-Declined-1.4-Percent

Pure Storage And NVIDIA Announce AIRI Converged Infrastructure Reference Architecture

Last month, I attended @NVIDIA ’s GTC 2018 conference, which has turned into one of the premier #AI, #ML and #DL conferences in the world. You can read my analysis here. Part of the reason for this reputation is NVIDIA’s leadership in machine and deep learning training which it helped to create and popularize using its highly programmable and performant GPUs.

With less fanfare and credit, Pure Systems has taken a similar approach to storage in AI, ML, and DL, and have brought out AI-optimized FlashBlade storage systems to take advantage of the parallelized AI workflows. An AI solution without the right storage is like a fiddler crab with one giant claw- it can only get around as fast as that one, giant claw. We have previously covered this potential imbalance in a blog and a paper that both talk about the importance of parallelized storage when it comes to parallelized AI workloads. @NVIDIA and @Pure Storage are now pulling their combined “super-powers” together to a create what we normally expect from @HPE, @DellEMC, @IBM, and @Lenovo- that is, a converged infrastructure platform, called “ #AIRI ”. AIRI (AI Ready Infrastructure) is an AI-optimized converged infrastructure reference design, available from Pure and NVIDIA partners and contains different combinations of Pure Storage FlashBlades, NVIDIA DGX-1s, and Arista switches. DeloitteVoice What Today's Business Leaders Can Learn From The 1953 Mt. Everest Conquest AIRI is targeted at enterprise, not CSPs, who design and then get ODMs to build their own systems. Holistically, enterprises have two choices to get into AI. They can choose on-prem systems like AIRI or from vendors like HPE, Dell EMC, IBM, and Lenovo or use AI cloud services from AWS, Azure, GCP or IBM Cloud or Watson. Enterprises do not want to fall behind like they did with the public cloud, inevitably costing them both time and efficiency. Amazon.com AWS had a seven-year public cloud head-start, and many enterprises were caught flat-footed with the private cloud. Therefore, enterprises are hoping to get a much quicker start on AI applications that help to address security, cost or latency problems, and should be local and not in the public cloud.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmoorhead/2018/04/10/pure-storage-and-nvidia-announce-airi-converged-infrastructure-reference-architecture/#77fd57ea373b

What Microsoft Azure Stack Is and Isn't

In September 2017 @Microsoft released #AzureStack, after teasing its appearance for two years. Labeled as the first " #hybridcloud appliance" (some may disagree with that statement) it's nevertheless a very interesting platform, essentially offering the best of Azure in a rack in your datacenter. In this article I'll look at what Azure Stack is, and what it's not, the primary use cases and how it might fit into your organization's cloud strategy. Hardware + Software You don't buy #Azure Stack from @Microsoft, you take your pick of several "integrated systems" from @Cisco, @Dell EMC, @HPE or @Lenovo. These range from four, eight and 12 nodes, the current limitation in scale for Azure Stack (expansion with more nodes to an existing stamp, as well as joining a new stamp to an existing stamp is coming). If you compare the different offerings they cater to slightly different buyers, with memory per node ranging from 256GB to 768GB, from 12 to 24 cores per CPU and from 6TB to 12TB SSD cache with 40TB to 100TB of HDD storage. Some SKUs offer NVMe storage for cache (essentially SSD/flash storage connected directly to the PCI Express bus) and there are all-flash configurations available (using SSD for the capacity storage tier, and NVMe for the cache layer). Underlying Azure Stack is an Active Directory domain, running on virtual machines (VMs). The nodes all run Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V Core with the VMs that provide Azure infrastructure sharing the space with tenant VMs. Storage is provided through Storage Spaces Direct (S2D), combining local storage (HDD, SSD, NVMe) in each node for high performant, tiered and resilient VM storage. S2D currently has a limitation of 12 nodes which explains the current max number of nodes of 12 in Azure Stack. While S2D can be configured with a few different resiliency types, Azure Stack only uses three-way mirroring, storing three copies of each data slab on three different nodes, meaning you can lose up to two nodes in a cluster and still be up and running. The file system is Resilient File System (ReFS), the preferred file system for Hyper-V in Windows Server 2016 and later. Networking internally is RDMA, in most cases 40 Gb/s or faster between each node. Networking is provided through the SDN stack from Windows Server 2016, relying on the Network Controller (NC): a distributed, highly available (multiple VMs) configuration and automation plane for controlling both virtual and physical networks. The NC manages Virtual Networks (vNets), Datacenter Firewall (a software firewall), the Software Load Balancer (SLB) and the RAS Gateway. What Azure Stack Isn't Based on these specifications you've probably realized that Azure Stack is not a DIY virtualization platform for your server room. It's not a Hyper-V platform (fantastic hypervisor, average management tools) for you to migrate your current workloads to. And it's not something you run on your own hardware. Early in the lead up to the release Microsoft made it clear that Azure Stack (for production deployments) would only be offered from select vendors. It makes sense for Microsoft to do it this way. What you get is a turnkey, appliance-like solution that you and the hardware vendor integrate into your existing environment, which is then ready to deploy workloads on to. The geek in me (and I suspect many reading this) want to take it apart, figure out how it works and build my own, better version. But a company that drops $100,000 to $300,000 (there are no list prices available, but these are the range of prices I've heard) wants something that just works, not something for us geeks to play with. Azure Stack also isn't version 2 of Azure Pack. This free add-on that lived on top of Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V, System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)/Operations Manager (SCOM) and Service Provider Foundation (SPF) provided a "looks like Azure" self-service cloud model for your datacenter. For Pack you picked your own physical servers, your own storage and networking and then layered the software on top -- a consultant's dream. But the software stack was fragile and only provided a small subset of the services available in Azure, and more crucially, only offered the old Azure Service Management (ASM) model of API interfaces to Azure. So today with Pack, when all of Azure is built on ARM, your on-premises cloud only offers ASM, which makes it less useful as a hybrid cloud platform. There's nothing DIY about Azure Stack. You're not allowed to run agents for anti-malware, backup or monitoring on the hosts, although agentless monitoring is possible, either through SCOM or Nagios. You have very limited access to the built-in AD forest underlying Azure Stack, although there's a privileged PowerShell, Just Enough Administration (JEA) endpoint that you can access for some tasks and in emergencies, with a token from Microsoft support, you can access more high-level cmdlets. Azure Stack also isn't set and forget. There are monthly updates provided for the software stack from Microsoft and you have to update at least every three months to continue being supported -- again the idea being that apart from bug and security fixes, these updates keep Stack in sync with public Azure. Also, to maintain parity with public Azure, many features of Hyper-V aren't available, such as Generation 2 VMs, VHDX support and Live Migration. Finally, Azure Stack isn't a replacement for your current server virtualization platform. If you have VMware or Hyper-V clusters today in your datacenter, replacing them with Azure Stack just to run VMs isn't the right way forward (nor would it be cost effective). Connecting Azure Stack There are two main modes for deploying Azure Stack, fully disconnected (think ships, submarines and remote branch offices) or Internet connected. In the latter case you can use the Pay-as-you-use model where the usage of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) services are reported back through your Azure AD tenants in public Azure and charged just like normal Azure usage. If you're disconnected, you get charged on the number of CPU cores in your Stack. Deploying Azure Stack in your datacenter involves connecting the networking through Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) configuration and connecting it to your Azure AD tenant. There are two identity models, either AD Federation Services (AD FS) or Azure AD. The former can't be used in a multitenant deployment but is your only option in a fully disconnected deployment. There are built-in systems in Azure Stack for services providers where they resell capacity to multiple tenants through the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) framework. Backup of the infrastructure is simple -- just provide a file share outside of Azure Stack and a scheduled job runs to backup the internal side of Azure. For tenant IaaS and PaaS workloads, however, you need to look at other options such as Azure Site Recovery (ASR) or third-party solutions. The Point of Azure Stack Given the laundry list of what Azure Stack isn't, where does it fit? The promise of Azure Stack is that it provides a public Azure in your own datacenter. A selection of IaaS (A, D and Dv2) VMs can be provisioned, and PaaS services include SQL Server and MySQL, KeyVault (for storing certificates and passwords securely), Azure Functions (serverless compute) as well as App Services (Web applications). You can download Microsoft and third-party offers in the Azure Marketplace and provide them to your tenants. [Click on image for larger view.] The Azure Stack Web app. The big drawcard is that Azure Stack, more than any other offering on the market today, is a true hybrid cloud. Almost anything you write to deploy on public Azure should run in Azure Stack (provided the Resource Provider has been ported to Stack), without change, in a DevOps model. The Azure Resource Manager (ARM) QuickStart templates have their cousins in QuickStart ARM templates that work in Stack. More Resource Providers are coming to Azure Stack.

https://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2018/04/09/what-microsoft-azure-stack-is-and-is-not.aspx?m=1

Lenovo, China Telecom Mull CDR Homecomings

Bottom line: Hong Kong-listed "red chip" stocks like @Lenovo (OTCPK:LNVGY, HKEx: 992) and @China Telecom (CHA, HKEx: 728) could eventually make secondary listings in China under a new #CDR program, but will be forced to wait behind higher-profile Internet names like @Alibaba (NYSE:BABA). With all of the major IPOs for the week now in the history books, as most of the world takes a vacation for Good Friday, I thought I'd close out the week here in China with yet another angle on the China Depositary Receipt (CDR) program that is creating lots of buzz. Regular readers will know this is a reference to China's planned take on the popular American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program that lets companies with a primary listing in one market make secondary listings in another one. Lots has been written these last couple of weeks about how the CDR program could let U.S.- and Hong Kong-listed tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent (OTCPK:TCEHY, HKEx: 700) make new secondary listings in China, which they couldn't do before. But today we're getting the first few peeps about similar homecomings from top executives of a group of Hong Kong-listed companies known as "red chips," which are major Chinese firms that are currently barred from listing at home. In this case, the companies that have commented on the matter are Hong Kong-listed PC giant Lenovo, and China Telecom, the smallest of China's three major wireless carriers. None of the comments are too earth-shattering, and the only reason we're even hearing them is because it's earnings season in Hong Kong, and thus, top executives from many major firms are getting asked about the subject at their regular earnings press briefings. Still, this group of red chips would also be strong candidates for secondary listings back in China, which could have interesting implications for their Hong Kong- and New York-listed shares, especially if those shares are more highly valued in China as CDRs. These "red chips" and companies like Alibaba are two different kettles of fish in terms of the organizational tricks they use to shed their China roots in legal terms and become eligible for offshore listings. But the common element they share is that both groups are technically domiciled outside China, most often in the Cayman Islands. That makes them eligible for listings in New York, Hong Kong or pretty much any other foreign market. But it also disqualifies them from listing in China, even though in reality they are quite Chinese and most of their operations are in China.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4160163-lenovo-china-telecom-mull-cdr-homecomings

Lenovo Expands Easy-To-Use VR And Devices To Conference Rooms And Classrooms

Solution providers looking beyond traditional client devices to solve customers' increasingly complicated requirements will find opportunities presented by new mobile technologies combining business capabilities with consumer-friendly features. That’s the word from @StephenMiller, a @Lenovo ambassador, who this week told solution provider members of @Synnex’s Varnex community that office and education environments are rapidly changing, making them fertile grounds for channel partners shifting away from a focus on devices. "Solutions and verticals are important to Lenovo, and hopefully to partners as well," Miller said. [Related: Synnex Intros New Channel Partner Community Emphasizing Security, Networking And Communications] Offices and education environments are changing, Miller said. Rather than traditional cubicles, employees are now more likely to see team rooms, and are likely to be working in their break rooms, he said. For that reason, solution providers may want to bring customers new ways of meeting, Miller said. As an example, he cited Lenovo's new ThinkSmart Hub 500, a new video conferencing system with Microsoft Skype built in. The ThinkSmart Hub 500 includes a three-color LED ring that shows Skype status. Also featured are a 360-degree rotatable screen, Dolby Premium audio, a secure cable management door, and auto-on. It works with Microsoft PowerPoint, he said. [Sponsored Suggested Post: The C-Level Newsletter - Executive Voices. Exclusive Insights. News, interviews & perspectives on executives shaping the IT channel. Subscribe Today "It is far more cost-effective than any in the business," he said. Looking forward, Miller said Lenovo plans to offer versions more suited for larger conference rooms, as well as models with other communications capabilities other than Microsoft Skype. For the education market, Lenovo is moving to bring augmented reality and virtual reality into the classroom to meet the changing needs of students who have grown used to streaming audio and video and who are presenting a challenge to educators, Miller said. "Teachers are ready for it," he said. "Students are ready for it. They want the solution." The problem is, it is still early, Miller said. "My suggestion is to get involved now ... As you look into the next couple years, the numbers are doubling," he said. Channel partners can start getting ready for it with Lenovo's new Mirage virtual reality video immersion headset which Miller said will be compatible with applications built for a wide range of industries from oil and gas to hospitality to higher education. For instance, if there is a pipeline leak, one person or a drone can go inside while others observe via virtual reality. Alternatively, he said, medical students can do repeated training without the need for a $1,500 cadaver. For channel partners in the education market, Lenovo is preparing to offer the Lenovo VR Classroom Kit which includes one Lenovo tablet PC, three Mirage Solo Daydream headsets, a wireless router, and a case or cart. Miller said it would start shipping May. A single system can expand to up to 24 headsets. For the classroom, Lenovo is now starting to offer new Chromebook that students can use with #2 lead pencils instead of an expensive stylus, he said. Lenovo is moving in the right direction for a number of its products, but could be doing better, said Glenn Pubal, sales manager at Royal Business Equipment, an Elyria, Ohio-based solution provider focused on education and government and a Lenovo channel partner. Virtual reality offerings like the Lenovo VR Classroom Kit are interesting, but the cost is an issue, Pubal told CRN. "It is still priced out of the range of most schools," he said. "Twenty-four headsets at $300 per headset is expensive. For a school, virtual reality could take the place of a field trip. But the students expect to take a field trip together, and won't want to wait while only three can use the headsets at once." Pubal said his company sells a lot of Lenovo Chromebooks, and new models that replace the stylus with a #2 lead pencil look really cool. "Styluses are expensive at $20 to $30 each," he said. "If you lose one, it's tough. A pencil costs 50 cents, and it is a more natural writing device. I'm not sure if a pencil will hurt the screen over time. But Lenovo says it's easy to clean."

https://www.crn.com/news/mobility/300101156/lenovo-expands-easy-to-use-vr-and-devices-to-conference-rooms-and-classrooms.htm

Windows Server 2016 hyper-converged options are here

The latest edition of Windows Server from Microsoft includes options for implementing a hyper-converged infrastructure in a Microsoft-only IT operation. Microsoft has added hyper-converged infrastructure capabilities to Windows Server 2016. This makes it possible for organizations to implement a software-defined data center based on Windows Server and Microsoft-validated hardware.

@Microsoft 's Windows Server 2016 hyper-converged infrastructure ( #HCI ) story begins with the Windows Server Software Defined ( #WSSD ) program, a system for creating validated software-defined data center ( #SDDC) designs in conjunction with Microsoft partners, such as @Dell EMC, @Hewlett Packard Enterprise, @Fujitsu and @Lenovo. With an SDDC, virtualized, clustered servers function as consolidated resource pools.

The goal of the WSSD program is to ensure that customers deploy and operate their Windows Server SDDC implementations on validated hardware. To this end, the program provides guidance for designing reference architectures and performing SDDC-specific testing. The program also offers "experience guides" and automation scripts to deploy and manage HCI systems.

Some Microsoft partners already offer WSSD-approved systems that are configured and tuned for specific data center workloads. As of this writing, the WSSD program supports three categories of SDDC implementations: Converged Software-Defined Storage (SDS), HCI Standard and HCI Premium.

http://searchconvergedinfrastructure.techtarget.com/tip/Windows-Server-2016-hyper-converged-options-are-here

Lenovo Unveils Warm Water Cooled ThinkSystem SD650 in Rampup to LRZ Install

This week @Lenovo took the wraps off the #ThinkSystem #SD650 high-density server with third-generation direct water cooling technology developed in tandem with partner Leibniz Supercomputing Center (LRZ) in Germany. The servers are designed to operate using warm water, up to 45°C for general deployments and for special bid projects up to 50°C, lowering datacenter power consumption 30-40 percent compared to traditional cooling methods, according to Lenovo. Nearly 6,500 of the ThinkSystems SD650s featuring Intel Xeon Platinum (Skylake) processors interconnected with Intel Omni-Path Architecture will be put into production at LRZ this year, providing the supercomputing center with 26.7 petaflops of peak performance, housed in a little over 100 racks. The SuperMUC-NG supercomputer will be deployed with Lenovo’s new Lenovo Intelligent Computing Orchestrator (LiCO) and the Lenovo Energy Aware Runtime (EAR) software, a technology that dynamically optimizes system infrastructure power while applications are running.  Lenovo’s Scott Tease holding a ThinkSystem SD650 server “Pretty much all the investments that we made to get to exascale LRZ is taking advantage of in this bid we won with them,” said Scott Tease, executive director, HPC and AI at Lenovo in an on-site briefing at Lenovo’s headquarters in Morrisville, North Carolina, last week. “We will start building systems and start shipping them in March; the floor will be ready by the end of April, and move-in starts in early May. We’ll be ready to do acceptance in September with final customer acceptance in November.” The direct-water cooled design of the SD650 enables 85-90 percent heat recovery; the rest can easily be managed by a standard computer room air conditioner. The hot water coming off the servers can be recycled to warm buildings in the winter, as LRZ does with its petascale SuperMUC cluster, but the technology developed by Lenovo for SuperMUC-NG actually transforms that heat energy back into cooling for networking and storage components. The endothermic magic trick only works with “high quality heat,” Lenovo thermal engineer Vinod Kamath told us, so LRZ’s SD650 servers were designed to be able to consume 50°C inlet temperatures. Water is piped out of the servers at 58-60°C depending on workload and sent through an adsorption chiller, where it is converted to chilled 20°C water suitable for cooling storage and networking components. If you’re using chilled water to cool servers you can’t really take advantage of the economics of the adsorption chiller. With 60°C inlet water, the efficiency of Lenovo’s adsorption chiller is about 60 percent. If your energy source has a higher temperature, say 80-90°C then the extraction is even more efficient, but 60°C is good enough to realize significant savings. Adsorption chilling will be applied to half the nodes of the next-gen LRZ install, generating about 600 kilowatts of chilled water capacity. This translates into more than 100,000 Euros a year in saved energy cost at the European site, where the rate for energy is about 16-18 Eurocents per kilowatt-hour (roughly 2-3 times the cost for similar sites in the United States). Lenovo claims a 45-50 percent energy savings with the endothermic reaction versus a traditional compressor, dropping the datacenter PUE from 1.6 to less than 1.1.

https://www.hpcwire.com/2018/02/22/lenovo-unveils-warm-water-cooled-thinksystem-sd650-rampup-lrz-install/

Intel partners with Dell, Lenovo, and HP to build 5G-ready PCs

Collaborations with @HP, @Lenovo, @Dell, and @Microsoft, will bring the @Intel XMM 8000 line of #5G multimode modems to consumers and businesses alike. While some wireless carriers are rolling out early stages of 5G networks later this year, Intel's goal is to have these new devices ready for the holiday season in 2019. Intel also expects to show off its PC modems that support eSIM technology at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It will be interesting to see how the competition between Intel and Qualcomm will push forward the new Always Connected PC category. 11ax, the next big thing in Wi-Fi. On Intel's end, the goal is to enable super fast downloads on the move, high-quality video streaming and even better multiplayer gaming while out and about with seamless connections for users that travel between WiFi and cellular networks. 5G is not just another generation of wireless connectivity, it promises new opportunities for technology innovation across the computing and connectivity landscape from the cloud to the network and the client. The Xeon D-2100 extends the industry-leading capabilities of the Intel Xeon Scalable platform with power-efficient performance to meet the intensive compute, network and storage workloads demanded by 5G at the network edge. Intel will also show off 802.11ax on a thin PC at its booth at MWC. eSIM functionality, which is present in all its modems for PCs, will also be demonstrated. Considering the expected arrival date of Intel's 5G modems, however, that future remains a ways off. Intel made 5G data available to devices in PyeongChang, providing live, field-tested service at various sites in and around the Olympic Village that ran at gigabit speeds. This builds on our announcement last month with Deutsche Telecom and Huawei that we conducted the world's first successful test showcasing 5G interoperability and development testing (IODT) based on the Release 15 NSA 5G NR specification. Intel is fighting @Qualcomm and @Samsung in this market so this partnership is pretty important for them. The future of 5G is almost upon us.

http://dailydemocratpress.com/2018/02/23/intel-partners-with-dell-lenovo-and-hp-to-build-5g-ready-pcs/

Nutanix Acropolis hypervisor components and capabilities

When people talk about Nutanix Acropolis, they're typically referring to the software used to run VMware and Hyper-V on top of a Nutanix Enterprise Cloud. The Acropolis hypervisor refers to the KVM-based hypervisor stack with next-generation tools and techniques that add value. Paid-for options The commercial version of the @Nutanix software is available as a #hyperconvergedinfrastructure appliance from Nutanix, @DellEMC, @Lenovo or @IBM, or deployed on other server platforms from @Cisco and @HPE. The software comes in three different versions: Starter, Pro and Ultimate. The Starter version includes basic software and is good for small deployments, while the Pro version includes more management features and is good for large deployments. The Ultimate version includes the full suite of capabilities and is good for multisite deployments. The Nutanix Sizer can help you size the hardware -- CPU, RAM and disk -- to see which option best suits your individual needs.

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/tip/Nutanix-Acropolis-hypervisor-components-and-capabilities

PC Giant Lenovo Seeks Blockchain Validation Patent

A new @Lenovo patent filing suggests that the Chinese technology giant could look to using #blockchain as part of system for verifying the validity of physical documents. In an application released by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) last Thursday, Lenovo describes a set-up that utilizes digital signatures encoded in physical documents, which can be processed by computers and other machines, to verify the legitimacy of a document. The application was first submitted in August 2016, public records show. The processing machine decodes the signature and translates it into a digital "map" of the document, which can then be compared to the physical copy at hand. The application says that the digital signature represents a "security block chain," with a series of digital signatures representing blocks in the security chain. Lenovo clarifies that its "security blockchain" "refers to a distributed database that maintains a continuously growing list of data records secured from tampering and revision." It goes on to say that every block contains "information about the physical document at various points in time."

https://www.coindesk.com/lenovo-seeks-blockchain-patent-document-validation-system/

Lenovo Target HP and Dell In New PC Marketshare Battle

@Lenovo is set to kickstart a head on battle with @Hewlett Packard and @Dell in an effort to grow their share of the Australian B2B, consumer and enterprise, PC markets. According to Nick Reynolds the Chief Marketing Officer for Lenovo the Chinese PC Company is sitting in third position behind Dell and HP despite having what he describes as a “superior product offering”. He said that since Lenovo entered the Australian consumer PC market awareness of Lenovo has lifted from 10% to 50% and that in 20218 he is looking to lift that even further with an aggressive line up of new products particularly in the commercial and B2B markets. Key to their strategy is a new generation of Lenovo products, that include a new X1 Carbon notebook, an X1 Yoga and an X1 tablet compete with built in projector. The Chinese Company is also set to release a brand-new Think Smart Hub for business collaboration. With its black soft-feel cover, the ultralight ThinkPad X1 Carbon also has built in facial recognition, a fingerprint reader, built in global LTE capability, as well as rapid charging capability that delivers 15 hours of battery life from one hour of charging. Another key product that is designed to deliver better collaboration and communication capability for small business is a unique Skype For Business ThinkSmart Hub. This device allows business to manage connectivity using the recently expanded Skype for Business that is now built into Microsoft’s Office 365 offering.

https://www.channelnews.com.au/lenovo-target-hp-and-dell-in-new-pc-marketshare-battle/

Former HPE Channel Sales Superstar Vrij To Lead Lenovo's Global Partners, EMEA Business

Go-to-market superstar @Robert Vrij, who spearheaded partner engagement and drove channel sales at @Hewlett Packard Enterprise, is taking his leadership talents to @Lenovo, according to sources. Renowned as a channel advocate, Vrij is slated to become senior vice president and president of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) for Lenovo. In addition to running Lenovo's EMEA business, he will also take ownership of some the vendor's key channel relationships with global partners such as @CDW and @Insight as well as distributors such as @IngramMicro and @TechData, sources said. Lenovo is expected to announce Vrij's hiring publicly this week. Solution providers said hiring Vrij will be a game-changer for Lenovo. "Robert's going to bring a lot of channel credibility to Lenovo and their program," said Kenneth Lamneck, president and CEO of Tempe, Ariz.-based Insight, ranked No. 13 on the CRN 2017 Solution Provider 500 list. "He set up a really solid strategy for HPE and partners, and set up some great programs. He has great follow-through to really execute on everything. … This is a really strong move by Lenovo. He will have an immediate impact at Lenovo for sure." [Related: Lenovo Hires AMD Veteran As President For North America Biz] Vrij previously was senior vice president of HPE's Enterprise Group and managing director of HPE Americas. He was responsible for leading enterprise sales across the region as well as coordinating business strategies before leaving in late 2016. Vrij has just completed his 12-month non-compete clause after leaving HPE, according to sources. [Sponsored Suggested Post: New from CRN: The Most Popular Stories Newsletter. Get Our Top Trending Headlines Delivered. Subscribe Today]  Sources said former HPE America's superstar Vrij will now lead Lenovo's EMEA data center group, worldwide global accounts and the growth and strategy of selected top global partners.  Lenovo did not respond to a request for comment by press time. "He's a very senior, talented, experienced executive that will bring an amazing set of talents to Lenovo," said Robert Dutkowsky, chairman and CEO of Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor Tech Data. "He'll be able to build programs that will comprehensively deliver products into the market and improve the overall operations of [Lenovo's] go-to-market model." Dutkowsky said Vrij is a sales leader who builds programs that leverage the strengths of partners with the ability to work hand in hand with the channel to close deals. "I'm excited to see him in a role where he can influence the channel because he understands what makes a successful vendor," said Dutkowsky. Lenovo recently has seen some executive leadership turnover, including the departure of its North America president, Emilio Ghilardi; Gary Smith, COO and head of the company's PC and mobile device business; and Sammy Kinlaw, vice president and channel chief for Lenovo's North America PC business. "Lenovo has had a number of challenges over the years with executive leadership," said one source familiar with the matter. "So this is a good move for channel partners to have somebody of Robert's caliber that's responsible for growing the data center business. … He put in a number of stopgaps into the HPE system, which moved more of the enterprise business to the channel. So this is a big deal for guys like Tech Data, Ingram Micro, CDW, and it will be a big deal for partners with global customers. … Robert is an unbelievable fan of the channel. He'll be a champion for the channel." Vrij joined HPE in 2013 after serving five years at Alcatel-Lucent as executive vice president and chief of global sales and marketing, as well as president and chairman of Alcatel-Lucent USA. He was responsible for managing $15 billion in sales, as well as global alliances, marketing and communications. Vrij also spent nearly a decade at AT&T and Lucent Technologies, including a role as president and CEO of Lucent Technologies for EMEA. "He knows this market very well. He knows the key partners and knows the technology," said Insight's Lamneck. "Overall, he knows all the partners very well, and has a very strong following and strong relationships that will help Lenovo. … We're very excited."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-09/the-co-inventor-of-blackberry-is-building-canada-s-quantum-brain-trust

NVMe flash hopeful E8 Storage goes software-only route

#Allflash array startup @E8Storage has expanded into reference architecture with the launch of a software-only version. The new product, E8 Storage Software, runs on rack servers from @DellEMC, @Hewlett Packard Enterprise (#HPE) and @Lenovo. Customers can buy SKUs through channel partners, or purchase the software-defined flash directly from E8 Storage as an integrated nonvolatile memory express (#NVMe) appliance.

E8 Storage Software is qualified with Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd and PowerEdge r64, Hewlett Packard Enterprise ProLiant DL360 and DL380 Gen 10, and Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630. The validated hardware systems need to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux of CentOS 7.3 or higher.

The reference stack includes server chassis with 32 GB to 64 GB of memory, Intel Skylake processors, 24 NVMe U.2 hot-swappable SSDs, two 128 GB RAID 1-enabled M.2 boot SSDs with RAID, and two 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Mellanox Connect X4-C remote direct memory access network interface cards.

The E8 software-defined flash allows 96 clustered hosts to read and write to shared storage. The vendor’s flagship E8-D24 rack-scale system has dual controllers and scales to 140 TB of effective storage with high-capacity SSDs. E8 Storage also is previewing its E8-X24 block arrays with customers running the IBM Spectrum Scale parallel file system and Oracle Real Application Cluster environments.

Thje recent addition of host-level mirroringenables E8 Storage to market its software-only flash storage on its S10 entry-level appliance to enterprise customers. The S10 has a single-controller and has been used mostly with proofs of concept.

“Customers in database environments want us to fit into their existing disaster recovery environment, rather than running an additional layer.  Larger customers may want to do their own integration. We think smaller customers will still want a (turnkey) appliance,” said Julie Herd, E8 Storage director of technical marketing.

The NVMe standard is based on Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) protocol. It is designed to squeeze the most performance from software-defined flash storage. Rather than running traffic through network host bus adapters, an application uses PCIe to talk directly to storage.

NVMe flash storage is maturing to the point that some industry observers predict an uptick in mainstream adoption in 2018. The NVM Express organization, a consortium of industry partners, is expected to help advanced NVMe over Fabrics technologies this year.

E8 Storage and other NVMe flash startupsare jockeying for position, while established vendors Hitachi Vantara, IBM and Pure Storage are bringing systems to market built with custom flash modules.

Herd said the reference architecture stacks will help E8 Storage take on more workloads.  “We are a block system, so this will help us tackle file-based workloads, and also broadens the market for our channel partners.”

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/blog/Storage-Soup/NVMe-flash-hopeful-E8-Storage-goes-software-only-route

Lenovo Data Center Leader On HPE/Dell Competition, Meltdown And Spectre Strategy, And Game-Changing AI Push In 2018

Leading the channel charge for @Lenovo 's #datacenter organization is sales veteran @StefanBockhop, who said Lenovo will outpace its server and #hyperconverged competition through technology differentiation as well as  new initiatives around #artificialintelligence and the SMB market. "AI is going to be a game-changer for a lot of our partners," said Bockhop, executive director of North American channels for Lenovo's Data Center Group, who has been with the vendor since 2005. "We are taking a very forward-thinking position with our alliance teams, our solutions teams and our partners, saying, 'Hey, let's help our customers through this journey.'" In an interview with CRN, Bockhop talks about the biggest partner initiatives in 2018, market competition, and how the company is working with Intel to combat the global Meltdown and Spectre security issues.

http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/data-center/300098536/crn-interview-lenovo-data-center-leader-on-hpe-dell-competition-meltdown-and-spectre-strategy-and-game-changing-ai-push-in-2018.htm

Qualcomm signs $2 billion sales MOUs with Lenovo, Xiaomi, vivo and OPPO

(Reuters) - @Qualcomm Technologies Inc (QCOM.O) has signed memorandums of understanding for sales worth at least $2 billion with top Chinese smartphone vendors, receiving vocal support from the firms as it fights an unsolicited buyout bid from @Broadcom Ltd (AVGO.O). @LenovoGroup (0992.HK), @Guangdong @OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp, @vivo Communication Technology and @Xiaomi Communications have expressed an interest in buying Qualcomm components with a total value of no less than $2 billion over three years, the U.S. chip maker said on Thursday.  The non-binding agreement will be subject to further agreements and covers technology related to RF Front-End components, Qualcomm said in a statement. The companies announced the multi-year agreement at a Qualcomm-hosted event in Beijing attended by the U.S. firm’s chairman and chief executive. At the event representatives from the Chinese companies expressed concerns that a possible acquisition of Qualcomm by Broadcom could hurt investment in chip technology. Broadcom in November made an unsolicited $103 billion bid for Qualcomm, which Qualcomm says undervalues it. A potential merger would likely face regulatory scrutiny in China, where Qualcomm has been fined before over anti-trust issues and where the government is promoting local chip production.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-qualcomm/qualcomm-signs-2-billion-sales-mous-with-lenovo-xiaomi-vivo-and-oppo-idUSKBN1FE0D6