Lenovo Introduces Single-socket Servers, Designed Specifically for Edge and Data-intensive Workloads

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY), a technology leader in Intelligent Transformation, today introduced the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR635 and SR655 server platforms, two of the industry’s most powerful single-socket servers. As businesses are tasked with doing more with less, the new Lenovo solutions provide the performance of a dual-socket server at the cost of a single-socket. These new additions to Lenovo’s expansive server portfolio are powered by next-generation AMD EPYC™ 7002 Series processors and were designed specifically to handle customers’ evolving, data-intensive workloads such as video security, software-defined storage and network intelligence, as well as support for virtualized and edge environments. The result is a solution that packs power along with efficiency for customers who place a premium on balancing throughput and security with easy scalability.

“Lenovo’s endless pursuit of innovations to accelerate our customers’ intelligent transformation has been paramount in our rise to become one of the fastest growing data center OEMs in the world,” said Doug Fisher, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Units, Lenovo Data Center Group. “Today Lenovo is expanding our AMD relationship with new, fully optimized solutions to help our joint customers address complex and data-intensive workloads, enabling them to do more with less while still providing uncompromised end-to-end security.”

Organizations are juggling business priorities with tight budgets. Lenovo’s new ThinkSystem SR635 and SR655 server platforms not only allow customers to run more workloads on fewer servers, but also offer up to 73 percent savings on potential software licensing¹, empowering users to accelerate emerging workloads more efficiently. Additionally, customers can realize a reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 46 percent². Further supporting these advances in workload efficiency and TCO savings are the ThinkSystem SR635 and SR655 servers’ 16 world records, including two for energy efficiency³. The net result of all these enhancements is better price for performance.

The Lenovo ThinkSystem SR635 and SR655 provide more throughput, lower latency and higher core density, as well as the largest NVMe drive capacity of any single-socket on the market. Beyond that, the new 2^nd Gen AMD EPYC™ processor-based systems also provide a solid opportunity for the enablement of additional hyperconverged infrastructure solutions. This gives Lenovo the ability to offer customers vSAN and other certified nodes and future ThinkAgile software-defined appliances for simple deployment, management, and scalability.

Enabling Smart Cities

A new forecast from IDC estimates there will be 41.6 billion connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices, generating 79.4 zettabytes of data by 2025⁴. Much of the growth will be driven by IoT and video security technology. Lenovo’s new solutions are especially ideal for use cases where more computing power is needed in confined spaces, using less energy; an example of this is video security for public safety in smart city, campus and mass transit environments. Governments and other public safety organizations are tasked with monitoring these environments, swiftly and accurately identifying potential threats and responding quickly. The Lenovo ThinkSystem SR655 coupled with Pivot3’s software provides an edge computing video security solution capable of supporting up to 33 percent more video cameras per node⁵ than similar solutions. With the increased bandwidth of PCIe^® 4.0, supported by the 2^nd Gen AMD EPYC™ processors, customers get faster data transfer from the edge to the core and greater storage capacity permitting quicker recall of video for recognition and analysis.

The ultra-dense NVMe configurations of these new Lenovo solutions with AMD processors allow users to store and access huge amounts of data. Supporting up to six single-width or three double-width graphics processing units (GPUs), these new systems provide the ability to process and analyze high-definition video much quicker and more efficiently. The GPUs coupled with the new AMD processor deliver faster video ingest rates, enhanced video analysis and improved machine learning, helping governments and other organizations better protect the people they serve.

“The combination of Lenovo’s quality and resilience and the breakthrough performance of the 2^nd Gen AMD EPYC processor deliver what our customers need to support their mission critical deployments,” said Bruce Milne, Pivot3 Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer and General Manager. “As Pivot3 customers expand their use of intelligent infrastructure for safe airport, campus, hospitality and transportation use cases, security, resilience and management simplicity at scale are critically important. AMD and Lenovo allow us to deliver all of that and to delight our customers.”

Maximizing the Value of Virtualization

In virtualized environments, organizations often have to decide between maximum performance and security. The hardware-assisted VM and memory encryption security features of the AMD EPYC™ 7002 Series processors combined with Lenovo ThinkShield solutions solve for this dilemma utilizing an extra layer of security for virtualization that isolates and minimizes threats in the data center. Moreover, because the VM encryption resides in the hardware as opposed to the software or hypervisor, they do so without compromising on system performance. Security is also of the utmost importance in video analysis and public safety scenarios. New features like a physical intrusion switch can detect and prevent tampering, allowing organizations to confidently run their security systems on Lenovo’s secure platforms. With up to 64 cores per socket and increased performance, these new Lenovo solutions allow organizations to host more virtual machines per server, providing greater distributed computing capability and improved workload efficiency.

Unleashing Smarter Networks with Data Intelligence

Many customers have been eagerly anticipating these systems due to their ability to handle data-intensive workloads, including Allot, a leading global provider of innovative network intelligence and security solutions for communications service providers (CSPs) and enterprises. They require solutions that can turn network, application, usage and security data into actionable intelligence that make their customers’ networks smarter and their users more secure. The market dictates that those solutions be able to match their ever-evolving needs and help them to address new pain points that surface as IT demands continue to change.

“Lenovo’s integration of next generation I/O and processing technology gives Allot the ability to manage more network bandwidth at higher speeds, allowing us to pull actionable insights from increasingly heavy traffic without any degradation in performance,” said Mark Shteiman, AVP of Product Management with Allot. “The communication service providers and enterprises we support need to see and react to their network needs in real time. We evaluated Lenovo’s ThinkSystem SR635 and SR655 server platform prototypes and were immediately impressed.”

The new Lenovo ThinkSystem SR635 and SR655 solutions are now available through Lenovo sales representatives and channel partners across the globe.

For more information, please visit https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/data-center/single-socket-innovation

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¹ Software licensing:
(a.) 9x x3650 M5 servers -18 sockets VMware vSphere 6 w/ 5 years support ($9,390.48 per socket) =$169,020
(b.) 5x SR655 servers – 5 sockets VMware vSphere 6 w/ 5 years support = $46,950 **software licensing costs taken from DCSC (https://dcsc.lenovo.com/#/) on 6.2.19
² TCO Calculation: Retrieved 6.9.2019: https://amd.valuestoryapp.com/epyc/sales; https://dcsc.lenovo.com/#/ | VMware vSphere 6 w/ 5 years support ($9,390.48 per socket) | 9x x3650 M5 servers (Xeon E5-2699 v3 2.3GHz) – 2 CPUs x 18 cores = 320 VMs | Total TCO: $389,908 | 5x SR655 (AMD EPYC 7002 @ 2.2GHz (225W) – 1 CPU x 64 cores = 320 VMs | Total TCO: $179,822
³ https://lenovopress.com/lp1197
⁴ https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS45213219
⁵ Pivot3 Proof Point –65 cameras on one node (current support) –SR655 integration AMD configuration –86 cameras on one node (1080p 30fps video streams)

About Lenovo

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a US$50 billion Fortune Global 500 company, with 57,000 employees and operating in 180 markets around the world. Focused on a bold vision to deliver smarter technology for all, we are developing world-changing technologies that create a more inclusive, trustworthy and sustainable digital society. By designing, engineering and building the world’s most complete portfolio of smart devices and infrastructure, we are also leading an Intelligent Transformation – to create better experiences and opportunities for millions of customers around the world. To find out more visit https://www.lenovo.com, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Weibo and read about the latest news via our StoryHub.

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Contact information

Worldwide
Ashley Kusowski, akusowski@lenovo.com, +1 919-339-2819
Lowell Sachs, lsachs@lenovo.com, +1 919-237-8204
Zeno Group - LenovoWWDCG@zenogroup.com

EMEA
Caroline De Souza, csouza5@lenovo.com, +44 (0) 7768-080028

APAC
Sheryl Tham, stham@lenovo.com, +65 6827-1109