How Lenovo Boosts Enterprise AI with AI-Ready Storage

It is well known that organisations face numerous foundational barriers when attempting to successfully adopt enterprise AI, including scalability, performance, cost, security, sustainability and integration.

With this in mind, Lenovo has launched its largest-ever data storage refresh to help enterprises enhance IT infrastructure for the AI era.

The portfolio features 21 new ThinkAgile and ThinkSystem models that are crafted to support inferencing, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and large language models (LLMs) workloads.

Additionally, Lenovo’s liquid-cooled hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) appliance is an industry first – as it can deliver up to 25% energy savings for demanding AI workloads.

The impact of Lenovo’s new portfolio

Not only does the launch help address Chief Information Officer (CIO) concerns around data sovereignty, quality and achieving return of investment (ROI) on AI investments, but it also helps to empower businesses with future-ready infrastructure that accelerates AI adoption.

Data Storage Solutions
Firstly, Lenovo’s Data Storage Solutions will help organisations to address changing data operations through software-defined storage (SDI), storage arrays and new virtualisation and AI innovations. 

The innovations will allow businesses to deploy data modernisation and AI workloads at scale while utilising data to power real-time reasoning. 

Scott Tease, Vice President and General Manager of Infrastructure Solutions Product Group at Lenovo, says: “The new Lenovo Data Storage Solutions help businesses harness AI’s transformative power with a data-driven strategy that ensures scalability, interoperability and tangible business outcomes powered by trusted infrastructure.

“The new solutions help customers achieve faster time to value no matter where they are on their IT modernisation journey with turnkey AI solutions that mitigate risk and simplify deployment.” 

By focusing on enabling scalable, high-performance and efficient infrastructure, these solutions will empower organisations to meet the demand of modern enterprises, such as virtualisation, AI and sustainability. 

AI Starter Kits for Lenovo Hybrid AI Platform
Furthermore, the new AI Starter Kits for Lenovo Hybrid AI Platform will simplify AI deployment by offering pre-validated infrastructure, such as GPUs, compute, storage and networking components that will support retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) workflows and AI inferencing.

Security and uptime will also be improved through integrated features like failover replication and ransomware protection.

ThinkAgile SDI V4 Series
Then there’s the ThinkAgile SDI V4 Series that will support rapid AI inferencing for LLMs and streamlines complex IT operations – which will enable efficient, scalable data-driven reasoning and accelerate time to value.

Next-Gen ThinkSystem Storage Arrays
Lenovo’s updated Next-Gen ThinkSystem Storage Arrays offers up to 97% energy savings, 3x faster performance and 99% improved density over legacy HDD systems.

They further consolidate block, file and object storage to support faster insights using SSD flash technology and break down data silos. 

Lenovo ThinkAgile Converged Solution for VMware
Meanwhile, the new Lenovo ThinkAgile Converged Solution for VMware will offer independent scaling of compute and storage.

Other converged solutions are crafted for virtualised enterprise workloads and help to enable greater flexibility by cutting software licensing costs by up to 40%.

Lenovo Neptune Liquid Cooling
Lenovo also introduces the debut liquid-cooled hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) appliance called the Lenovo Neptune Liquid Cooling.

This powers the GPT-in-a-Box solution, is part of the ThinkAgile HX series and achieves up to 25% energy savings, enhancing efficient AI deployment from edge to cloud.

These new components aim to reduce the cost and complexity of managing enterprise data workloads while enabling scalable AI adoption and modernising legacy infrastructure.

Marco Pozzoni, Director, EMEA Storage Sales at Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group says: “This is a pivotal moment for our customers across EMEA. 

“With organisations facing a range of complex challenges, our largest-ever data storage portfolio refresh delivers the performance, efficiency and data resiliency required by Data Modernisation and Enterprise AI workloads. 

“At a time when businesses are increasingly looking for ROI on their tech investments, these next-generation data storage solutions will empower our customers to unleash the power of their data, securely.” 

AI at the core

Lenovo’s largest-ever data storage portfolio update secures AI’s position as a catalyst of scalability, innovation and efficiency in enterprise IT.

The 21 new models allow organisations to power data modernisation and AI workloads at scale, responding to rising enterprise demands for better data utility and real-time reasoning.

For instance, the updated ThinkAgile SDI and V4 Series offer turnkey solutions purpose-built for LLM workloads, while ThinkSystem Storage Arrays use high-performance SSD technology to cut energy use and latency.

This means that the solutions support primary enterprise AI use cases, like RAG, AI model fine-tuning and LLM inferencing.

Lenovo’s Data Storage solutions will also meet the demands of AI workloads to process and move vast amounts of data efficiently by using AI to both power performance through workload optimisation and protect it through AI-led cybersecurity.

As a result, AI is integrated to improve operational efficiency through data lifecycle optimisation and predictive maintenance.

These latest innovations mean IT teams can support AI adoption at scale and manage growing workloads without rising complexity or cost.

Its inference performance, AI-ready infrastructure and security mean organisations can offer performance, resilience and automation – all of which are vital in the AI era.

The importance of security

Lenovo’s new data storage portfolio also tackles challenges around data compliance, protection and cyber threats by integrating AI-led cybersecurity measures and advanced security architecture across every layer.

The portfolio maintains resilience, robust protection and regulatory readiness as organisations modernise their infrastructure and scale their AI workloads.

The most prominent cybersecurity advancement is the autonomous ransomware protection in the new ThinkSystem DG and DM Series storage arrays.

By relying on AI and ML models, this feature can detect and proactively mitigate ransomware attacks in real-time.

The AI-led layer monitors behavioural patterns to offer early warning signs and automated responses to ensure threats are contained before they damage data.

The storage arrays support software-based encryption to protect data in transit and at rest, tamper-proof snapshots for immutable data backups and synchronous replication.

This maintains security and continuity across critical enterprise workloads.

Lenovo’s storage systems also  integrate with Lenovo XClarity to centralise protection and simplify administration. 

XClarity provides secure communications protocols across storage environments, unified control of user access and encryption and visibility and automation to reduce human intervention – which means Lenovo can effectively maintain cybersecurity across multi-cloud and hybrid environments.

Furthermore, Premier Enhanced Storage Support ensures IT teams can access security experts and rapid incident response. 

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