Lenovo updates System X and Flex servers to Xeon E7 v3 and adds SAP HANA designs

Lenovo refreshes the former IBM server line-up with Intel's latest chips

Lenovo has joined the ranks of vendors unveiling new or updated hardware based on the latest Xeon E7 v3 enterprise server chips from Intel, refreshing its System X and Flex System hardware, along with prequalified integrated solutions including some optimised for the SAP HANA platform.

Available later this month, the updated server platforms are some of the products Lenovo inherited when it acquired IBM's mainstream server business last year.

The 6th generation System X servers were launched by IBM early last year, for example. Now, Lenovo is updating the four-socket Lenovo System x3850 X6 and the eight-socket Lenovo System x3950 X6 with the Xeon E7-4800 v3 and E7-8800 v3 processors announced this week by Intel.

Lenovo said that the design of the X6 systems, with pull-out Compute Book modules, makes them easy to upgrade without incurring the cost of a complete new server.

Upgrading to the Xeon E7 v3 delivers over 50 percent greater performance than the previous generation, and will enable customers to operate most memory-intensive workloads, including demanding databases and analytics.

"Lenovo's new X6 servers provide the performance, agility and resiliency needed for mission-critical applications, while simultaneously providing your business with the advantage to win in an extremely competitive environment," said Darrel Ward, vice president for Lenovo's Enterprise Marketing and Storage business unit.

Likewise, the converged infrastructure Flex System X6 models have also been given an update, in this case the Flex System x480 X6, which has two sockets but can scale to four by combining two nodes, and the Flex System x880 X6, which can scale to eight sockets by combining four nodes.

With the new 18-core Xeon E7 v3 chips, the latter can thus scale up to a system with 144 compute cores in a single enclosure, Lenovo said.

Along with other vendors such as HP, Lenovo has identified SAP HANA as a key platform, and is offering SAP-certified configurations based on the System x3850 X6 and System x3950 X6 hardware.

When combined with Lenovo Enterprise Solution Services, these workload-intensive solutions can be operational in just days, according to Lenovo, helping customers to speed deployment of new SAP HANA applications and simplify ongoing management of the infrastructure.

The new servers are also supported by Lenovo's recently introduced XClarity systems management platform.

The System x3850 X6 and the System x3950 X6 will be available from 26 May with prices starting at $7,979 (£5,233), while the Flex System x480 X6 and Flex System x880 X6 will be available from 27 May with prices starting at $10,415 (£6,830).