Lenovo TruScale Infrastructure Services – Industry Snapshot

Lenovo TruScale Infrastructure Services

Lenovo has announced an as-a-Service acquisition model for its ThinkSystem and ThinkAgile product portfolios called TruScale Infrastructure Services. It is a subscription-based offering that allows customers to use and pay for Lenovo hardware, integrated OEM software and services. TruScale can be applied to an on premises data center or another customer-preferred location such as a colocation facility. Customers are not required to purchase equipment or to separately license the pre-integrated software.

We note that as-a-Service offerings are growing in number and variety for which we have identified four categories:

• Large, global, managed storage services providers who offer storage infrastructure as-a-service with management and operational services included in the offering. (Examples: DXC Storage as a Service, HPE PointNext GreenLake, IBM GTS Cloud Private Storage)
• Storage vendors who offer their own storage infrastructure (hardware and software) on an as-a-service basis (Examples: Hitachi Vantara Storage on Demand, Pure Elastic Storage Services)
• VARS and smaller services providers who, depending on customer need, take a vendor’s Storage as-a-Service offering and layer management, support, and operational services on top. (Examples: Datalink, ViON
• Storage startups who bring their solutions to market solely on an as-a-Service basis (Examples: ClearSky, Zadara)

Lenovo fits into the category of vendors who offer their own infrastructure on an optional as-a-service basis.

TruScale Details

TruScale Infrastructure Services are offered for any ThinkSystems or ThinkAgile configuration that meets a customer’s needs – whether storage-rich, server-heavy, hyperconverged or high-performance compute (HPC) – and can be scaled as the customer dictates. The ThinkAgile HX Series integrates Nutanix software onto Lenovo’s. Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series is a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) appliance solution that combines VMware’s vSAN software with vSphere and vCenter, running on clustered, Lenovo ThinkSystem servers. The Lenovo VX Series leverages the on-going advancements of VMware’s vSAN technology[1].

TruScale services include:

• Preinstallation assessment and planning
• Installation and deployment to production
• Infrastructure monitoring, metering and maintenance by Lenovo
• Customer portal for monitoring usage and environmental data
• On-going maintenance
• Software support and updates, where desired
• Additions and upgrades via a Change Request process
• Assignment of Customer Success Manager to customer who also conducts quarterly reviews and reviews capacity trends

Lenovo’s metering solution remains outside of the customer’s data plane. The customer portal provides the ability for customers to view consumption in real time, enabling the ability to control and predict costs. This, along with an assigned Customer Success Manager, enables customers to have easy access to any level of detail needed, as well as guidance to drive problem resolution.

TruScale is available through Lenovo sales representatives and channel partners world-wide. In addition, Lenovo partners can layer-on their own services.

Pricing, Terms & Conditions

Lenovo’s TruScale Infrastructure Services include hardware installation, deployment, management, maintenance and end-of-term removal, and are available under the following terms and conditions:

• Monthly pricing inclusive of hardware and software services as well as maintenance, support, remote monitoring and system health presented in one bill. Consumption is metered and billed monthly.
• No minimum hardware capacity commitment is required by the customer. However, there is a minimum dollar value for infrastructure cost of $100K and a minimum contract term of three years at the end of which the contract can be renewed or equipment removed. Shorter contract lengths can be negotiated. Capacity can be scaled up or down throughout the term.
• The monthly bill includes a flat rate for hardware, software, maintenance and support services, plus an additional amount for capacity actual consumed during a given month from 0 to 100% customers only pay for capacity when their workloads are actively running.

Additional Comments

Lenovo TruScale customers can now acquire any Lenovo ThinkSystem or ThinkAgile systems on an as-a-service basis directly from Lenovo or Lenovo partners. When a TruScale

System is delivered by a partner, the customer can take advantage of whatever additional services are offered by the partner.

[1] For more information on Lenovo’s ThingAgile VX Series, see the Evaluator Group Product Brief.