Technology company Lenovo is pressing into the automated systems management market with XClarity. The third-largest global x86 server hardware supplier is targeting both small and large enterprises, as well as service providers, and government organizations.
Meanwhile, two new Lenovo RackSwitch top-of-rack network switches promise to optimize Lenovo server and storage solutions performance. And the Lenovo Flex System SI4091 could gain traction as a low-cost system interconnect module for Flex Systems.
“Lenovo developed XClarity by leveraging the decades of experience of its System x and Flex System personnel and their deep understanding of modern data centers,” Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, told us. “The result is an entirely new system management solution that clearly capitalizes on Lenovo’s existing strengths and fresh innovations to meet the core needs of enterprise and service provider customers.”
Addressing Critical Requirements
According to Lenovo, XClarity addresses critical customer requirements, like the need to centralize and streamline hardware resource management, make visibility and control of physical resources from outside management software tools a reality, and speed up cloud and traditional infrastructure deployments. The new solution is available in two editions: Lenovo XClarity Administrator and Lenovo XClarity Pro.
Lenovo XClarity Administrator is built on an agent-less virtual appliance architecture that supports some (not all) System x servers as well as the Flex System converged infrastructure platform. IT pros can configure XClarity Administrator in minutes instead of hours, the company said.
It offers a tablet-friendly user interface that helps users find critical information and execute tasks quickly. Lenovo said automating core infrastructure tasks — such as firmware updates, configuration management, and operating system deployments — simplifies cloud and traditional server deployments so IT can focus on more mission-critical tasks.
Lenovo XClarity Pro adds on to all that the Lenovo XClarity Integrator for VMware vCenter and Lenovo XClarity Integrator for Microsoft System Center. This version targets customers looking to further centralize their server management activities within the virtualization management environment. By dynamically evacuating workloads from affected hosts during predicted hardware failures, Lenovo XClarity Pro promises to slash unplanned downtime.
“In essence, Lenovo XClarity qualifies as a solution that enables companies to easily adopt new computing technologies and to effectively adapt to market and technological changes at their own pace,” King said. “That makes Lenovo XClarity worthy of consideration by both Lenovo’s core enterprise customers and other organizations considering or seeking innovative new system management solutions.”
Low-Cost, Pre-Configured
Moving on to the networking switches, Lenovo RackSwitch G8296 and Lenovo RackSwitch G8272 are two new top-of-rack networking switches. Both are optimized to support Lenovo server and storage solutions in the data center. The switches are cloud-ready and promise optimized, low latency performance for 10 Gb and 40 Gb Ethernet connectivity and support OpenFlow and Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) communication protocols.
Finally, Lenovo Flex System SI4091 is an interconnect module that supports 10 Gb Ethernet or FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet). It works to simplify the network and interoperability challenges IT system admins face. The module comes with pre-configured settings that do away with the need to configure each device or individual ports — and that reduces the number of required management points.
Lenovo XClarity Administrator and Lenovo XClarity Pro will roll out during the second quarter of 2015 with a list price of $ 200 per managed server and $ 350 per managed server, respectively. Lenovo RackSwitch G8272 will hit the market at the end of April, with a list price of $ 19,999. The Lenovo RackSwitch G8296 will be available in August with a list price of $ 29,999. Lenovo Flex System SI4091 will be available at the end of April with a list price of $ 7,999.
