Lenovo and VMware expand partnership to offer turnkey Nvidia-powered AI solutions

Lenovo and VMware have expanded their partnership to bring new Nvidia-powered turnkey generative AI solutions and multi-cloud solutions to business customers. 

Announcing the move at VMware Explore 2023, the companies said the new offerings will provide businesses with an accelerated path to digital transformation through integrated edge-to-edge cloud offerings that simplify the development of next-generation AI and data intelligence.

Lenovo also unveiled its newest Reference Design for Generative AI, a new and fully integrated ThinkSystem solution that features Nvidia-accelerated computing and software to help businesses implement AI.

“This expanded collaboration with VMware is a pivotal next step in enabling more businesses to seamlessly leverage modern edge, AI, and hybrid cloud capabilities powered by NVIDIA in order to harness data for accelerated business outcomes,” said Kirk Skaugen, president of Lenovo’s Infrastructure Solutions Group.

The aim is to help customers benefit from more predictable outcomes through Nvidia’s AI Enterprise platform, which includes Nvidia NeMo software designed to boost the development and deployment of production-ready large language models (LLMs).

Lenovo’s newest Reference Design for Generative AI based on LLMs will show businesses how to deploy and commercialize powerful generative AI tools and foundation models, using a pre-validated, fully integrated solution for data centers running on VMware vSphere.

The offering features Nvidia GPU-dense platforms that are purpose-built for AI workloads, including the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR675 V3 and ThinkSystem SR670 V2, offering up to eight GPUs in a compact 3U or smaller footprint.

The Lenovo computing platforms offer three server configurations in one, including support for Nvidia HGX A100 4-GPU systems with Nvidia NVLink technology and Lenovo Neptune hybrid liquid cooling. They also provide four or eight GPU configurations featuring Nvidia L40S and 80GB Nvidia H100 Tensor Core GPUs, or Nvidia H100 NVL servers.

By combining Lenovo and Nvidia technologies with VMware, the companies say these servers will help professionals take generative AI applications like intelligent chatbots, search, and summarization tools to users across industries.

“VMware and Lenovo are partnering to help clients of all sizes become digital companies by investing in the infrastructure required to power a new generation of modern applications, such as Generative AI,” commented Krish Prasad, senior vice president and general manager of VMware’s Cloud Infrastructure Business Group. 

“Together we’re helping mid-market and enterprise customers manage their changing IT landscape, deliver faster innovation, and improve business outcomes.”

Lenovo said it is also adding Nvidia’s latest Spectrum-X networking technology to its AI portfolio, using Nvidia BlueField-3 data processing units (DPUs) and Nvidia Spectrum-4 switches in its generative AI reference design.

“Together, we’re helping enterprises create custom models using their valuable business data that will enable them to run intelligent generative AI applications, including intelligent chatbots, assistants, search and summarization,” said Manuvir Das, vice president of Enterprise Computing at Nvidia.

Additionally, new ThinkAgile VX Integrated Systems with VMware aim to help mid-market businesses enter the next wave of AI and machine learning with IT that is easier to deploy across hybrid, multi-cloud and edge environments.

Lenovo’s ThinkAgile VX with VMware Cloud Foundation provides integrated multi-cloud infrastructure for building and managing private and hybrid clouds, leveraging VMware’s tools for automating the deployment and management of infrastructure and applications.

The company is also offering an on-demand model with Lenovo TruScale Hybrid Cloud for VMware, a new private cloud infrastructure as a service offering designed to enable IT admins and developers to tackle next-generation applications and scale hybrid cloud workloads on demand. The solution is available through a single, pay-as-you-grow model for total cost of ownership savings, the company said.