Lenovo to re-sell Nimble's all-flash storage arrays

Nimble's predictive analytics software also coming to Lenovo customers soon

PC and server giant Lenovo is to resell storage systems from all-flash storage array upstart Nimble, as well as Nimble's storage management software, alongside its own data centre server hardware.

Lenovo plans to integrate its XClarity infrastructure management software with Nimble's InfoSight in a bid to absorb the company's predictive analytics to provide greater automation to users of Lenovo's data centre server hardware.

The two companies will work together to create what they claim will be 'self-healing' systems management capabilities across the entire data centre infrastructure, including storage, compute, and networking.

Using Nimble's predictive analytics, the alliance between the two companies is intended to improve data centre resiliency by using predictive analytics to identify emerging problems and to offer automated intervention across the infrastructure stack.

The first fruits of the two company's partnership will emerge with the launch of Lenovo's ThinkAgile CX Series of converged infrastructure products.

"Immediate data access is critical to maintaining competitive edge. Unfortunately, enterprises continue to be challenged with complex infrastructure that causes applications to slow down and impact business. We strive to provide simple, self-managing infrastructure so IT organisations can steer their attention to strategic business initiatives," said Suresh Vasudevan, CEO at Nimble Storage.

He continued: "By combining our innovative technology with Lenovo's global footprint and product scope we'll provide a portfolio of high performance, application optimised solutions that minimise infrastructure management and lower overall support costs."

Nimble claims that its Predictive Flash platform can speed up the performance of already fast all-SSD-based storage systems by using predictive analytics to "predict and prevent barriers to data velocity caused by complex IT infrastructures".

David Lincoln, general manager of Lenovo's Server, Storage and Solutions Business Unit in its Data Centre Business Group, admitted that the deal would enable Lenovo to catch up with rivals.

"This strategic relationship with Nimble enables us to deliver a state-of-the-art all-flash offering... Through this new alliance, we are able to deliver a continuous integration of hardware, software, and analytics support, establishing the means to develop the next generation all flash data centre and drive strategic value for our customers," said Lincoln.