Lenovo and Juniper Networks team up for next-generation data centre infrastructure

Lenovo and Juniper combine systems and network expertise to meet data centre requirements

Lenovo and Juniper Networks have signed a strategic partnership agreement to combine their strengths and deliver next-generation data centre infrastructure for enterprise and web-scale customers.

Announced today, the move will see Lenovo and Juniper develop joint go-to-market strategies for their combined product portfolios, as well as collaborate on the development of future products to meet data centre customer requirements.

As a first step, Lenovo customers will be able to purchase Juniper networking products directly from Lenovo with consolidated support. However, the intention is to develop a deeper collaboration between the two companies over time.

Lenovo said that data centres are currently undergoing a rapid transformation in terms of technology and consumption models as the industry moves towards cloud-based computing models.

This shift has prompted an overhaul in the way infrastructure is built, with converged and hyper-converged compute, storage and network components, and a move to software-defined storage and software-defined networking (SDN).

Lenovo, which acquired IBM's x86 server division and its portfolio just over a year ago, claimed that it is in a "unique position to innovate and deliver value to customers". The firm has also developed partnerships with other key vendors, such as Nutanix with its hyperconverged infrastructure platform.

"Lenovo and Juniper share a vision for the data centre that includes our common understanding of market trends, customer pain points and a path to addressing customer issues such as network disaggregation and management complexity," said Radhika Krishnan, Lenovo's general manager for converged/hyperconverged infrastructure and networking.

"Juniper, with its comprehensive portfolio of routers, switches, network security products, network management software and SDN technology, is an ideal partner for Lenovo."

Juniper explained that the partnership reflects a shared commitment to deliver simplified, flexible and high-performance solutions that provide faster time-to-value with reduced operating costs.

"We plan to collaborate for a simple network architecture from access layer to core network for orchestration and management of multiple switches from a single point with Lenovo xClarity, Juniper Contrail and other software solutions," said Juniper executive vice president Vince Molinaro.

The two companies added that they intend to offer simplified management and orchestration in the data centre, making use of Lenovo's xClarity management software as well as Juniper's Network Director and Contrail SDN software running on Lenovo hardware.

The partnership is expected to enable customers to use Juniper's strengths in networking and Lenovo's recognised leadership in x86 server reliability to derive manageable, scalable and simple infrastructures for data centres, the two firms said.