During VMware Explore 2023, Lenovo and VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) unveiled a groundbreaking collaboration that brings forth a series of turnkey solutions resulting from their collaborative Edge and Cloud Innovation Labs. This initiative delivers advanced hybrid multi-cloud capabilities tailored for mid-size enterprises, aiming to facilitate seamless data utilization for driving intelligent transformations. As a significant stride, Lenovo also introduced its latest Generative AI Reference Design in partnership with VMware. This integrated solution, part of the Lenovo ThinkSystem portfolio, harnesses the power of NVIDIA-accelerated computing and specialized software, presenting a versatile, accelerated computing platform designed to facilitate efficient AI integration across various business verticals. These newly presented solutions stem from an expanded partnership with VMware, strategically designed to empower businesses of all scales with a fast-tracked route towards digital transformation. The partnership focuses on introducing integrated edge-to-cloud solutions that simplify the deployment of next-generation AI and data intelligence. Lenovo’s collaboration also extends to support the newly announced VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA generative AI solution, presented at VMware Explore.
Kirk Skaugen, President of Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group, affirmed Lenovo’s dedication to serving as a trusted partner in enabling intelligent transformations through IT modernization. He emphasized that the augmented collaboration with VMware represents a pivotal move toward enabling businesses to effortlessly leverage contemporary edge, AI, and hybrid cloud capabilities, all powered by NVIDIA technology, to effectively leverage data for accelerated business advancements.
Krish Prasad, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Cloud Infrastructure Business Group at VMware, highlighted the joint effort’s goal to help businesses of all sizes transition into digital enterprises by investing in the requisite infrastructure for the next generation of applications, including Generative AI. The outcome of the joint Edge and Cloud Labs, along with the integrated Lenovo systems, marks significant milestones that aid mid-market and enterprise customers in managing evolving IT landscapes, facilitating quicker innovation, and enhancing overall business outcomes.
Manuvir Das, Vice President of Enterprise Computing at NVIDIA, underscored the collaborative endeavor’s role in unlocking generative AI’s potential through comprehensive computing solutions, integrated systems, and advanced AI software. The concerted effort aims to enable enterprises to develop custom models utilizing their valuable business data, ultimately supporting the deployment of intelligent generative AI applications such as chatbots, assistants, search engines, and summarization tools.
With the escalating data volumes fueling the demand for distributed computing, businesses across diverse sectors, including manufacturing and retail, require robust IT solutions capable of delivering AI and real-time insights seamlessly across the entire spectrum, from data centers to edge and cloud environments.
Lenovo’s partnership with VMware extends to aiding customers in deriving value from their data. This involves deploying specialized NVIDIA AI solutions to catalyze transformative outcomes by leveraging NVIDIA AI Enterprise, a high-grade software underpinning the NVIDIA AI platform. A significant highlight is Lenovo’s latest Generative AI Reference Design based on Large Language Models (LLMs), offering guidance to businesses on deploying and commercializing potent generative AI tools and foundational models. This solution, validated and fully integrated, is optimized for data centers operating on VMware vSphere.
The Generative AI Reference Design incorporates NVIDIA GPU-dense platforms meticulously designed for AI workloads, including Lenovo’s ThinkSystem SR675 V3 and ThinkSystem SR670 V2. These platforms offer exceptional performance for accelerated workloads, showcasing versatility through different server configurations. Combining NVIDIA’s GPU technology with Lenovo’s computing expertise and VMware’s capabilities, these servers contribute to advancing AI and delivering generative AI applications to users across industries, spanning chatbots, search engines, summarization tools, and more.
To bolster network integration, Lenovo augments its AI portfolio with NVIDIA Spectrum-X™ networking technology. This involves incorporating NVIDIA BlueField®-3 data processing units (DPUs) and NVIDIA Spectrum-4 switches into the generative AI reference design, enabling more advanced integration of AI workloads. This complements existing options for accelerated networking using NVIDIA ConnectX-7 Ethernet NICs.
Moreover, Lenovo introduces the ThinkAgile VX Integrated Systems with VMware, targeting mid-market customers entering the AI and machine learning realm. These hyperconverged infrastructure solutions are factory-integrated and pre-configured, simplifying the journey to hybrid multi-cloud and edge environments. The partnership leverages VMware Cloud Foundation tools to facilitate the deployment and management of infrastructure and applications, ensuring scalability, performance, and reliability.
Lenovo’s forward-looking approach is also evident through the Lenovo TruScale Hybrid Cloud for VMware. This private cloud infrastructure-as-a-service offering empowers IT administrators and developers to effortlessly build, run, manage, and secure traditional and next-gen applications across multiple private data centers and cloud providers. By combining VMware Cloud infrastructure with cloud-like operational simplicity, Lenovo TruScale Hybrid Cloud for VMware delivers on-demand scalability while offering cost-effectiveness through an integrated billing and pay-as-you-grow model.
The expanded collaboration between Lenovo and VMware introduces new on-demand services and go-to-market strategies, enhancing accessibility to modern IT infrastructure solutions for a wider range of customers.
For more information, visit: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/servers-storage/alliance/vmware/
