AMD launched its 4th Generation Epyc processor recently, which, again, performs well against the competition.
As an OEM, Lenovo was all in early to embrace AMD’s performance advantages. Lenovo adopted AMD’s Threadripper platform for workstations and rode that decision to workstation leadership in the related segment.
At AMD’s event, Lenovo’s Kirk Skaugen shared that Epyc processors were number one in reliability and in high-performance servers, which speaks well of Lenovo’s aggressive AMD position on PCs and servers. Like the business PC unit, the server unit was acquired from IBM and showcases what can happen if two companies partner well with each other.
I had a chance to meet with Lenovo at the event, so let’s talk about AMD’s performance and sustainability advantages and what this will mean for Lenovo’s movement in the server market.
AMD’s Epyc Launch
This was a powerful AMD launch with many vendors coming on stage to sing its praises, such as Oracle, Super Micro, Dell, and Lenovo.
The performance and energy efficiency of the new Epyc line of server processors is competitively strong. AMD’s new-generational performance advantage is due partly to AMD’s unprecedented focus and execution by its executive team, particularly its IBM-trained top executives Lisa Su and Mark Papermaster.
I was at AMD’s gaming launch recently, and, as you would expect, there was a lot of rowdy behavior and cheering. At AMD’s server event, the crowd seemed as excited about the Epyc release as the other crowd did about gaming.
Lenovo AMD-Based Servers
Lenovo is an exceptional partner. It attends its partners’ events without pitching itself as being above the partner it’s supporting. Lenovo has been using AMD to aggressively move against its competitors successfully for the last several years.
Winning award after award and gaining in market share, Lenovo has also benefited from its Chinese roots, because to operate internationally, Lenovo was forced to implement extremely rigorous security controls, which have had the unanticipated effect of making it more secure and far more reliable.
Companies live on uptime, and based on survey results, Lenovo’s AMD-based servers are by far among the most reliable in the market. Lenovo also shared that the power savings alone from its latest AMD servers provide a 12-month full return on investment on energy cost alone. This is a testament to the pivot Lenovo made toward using AMD as a huge competitive differentiator. One of the most interesting Lenovo efforts is the line of Lenovo Neptune servers that use water cooling but don’t require an external water source. In this regard, they’re more like water-cooled gaming desktop systems and provide the benefits of water cooling without the extreme costs of plumbing the data center for water.
Today, Lenovo is aggressively leading the server market in a number of key metrics with strong growth internationally. Increasingly, what drives that growth is the synergy within Lenovo between units, suggesting we are still at the beginning of this growth spurt.
Lenovo-AMD Partnership
Lenovo is using AMD’s Epyc serve line technology and partnership to drive competitive advantage at a global rate in the server market. Sometimes you can take a risk, and it can make the difference between staying with the pack and market leadership.
Both AMD and Lenovo highlighted at the fourth-generation launch of Epyc that they are taking the latter path. The result puts both of their competitors on notice that they came to play, and they do not intend to lose.
For data centers looking to cut back on operating costs while improving performance, both AMD and Lenovo made a good case for getting your business. It’s worth checking out.
