EMC And Lenovo Team Up To Offer NAS Storage To SMBs

EMC and Lenovo have partners in a new joint venture that will see the two companies co-branded network attached storage (NAS) systems to distributed enterprise, remote branches, and SMEs. The announcement sees the Chinese PC maker move beyond its core base of PCs and laptops, along with the end of EMC’s Iomega brand.

The firms said in a blog post that the partnership, which rebrands Iomega as LenovoEMC, will “maximise the marketing, product research, sales and supply chain resources from both companies to drive innovative new product development and efficiencies of scale through the supply chain”.

Think storage

The firms launched LenovoEMC yesterday following the partnership being flagged last August. The effort also starts a wider strategic partnership between the two companies that will involve development of new industry-standard servers and networked storage systems built by EMC’s former Iomega division, it was announced.

“Lenovo’s record as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the world and Iomega’s heritage as a leader in network storage solutions enables the joint venture to pursue growth opportunities and drive innovation in the SMB NAS market,” said Eric Arcese, general managers of LenovoEMC

The Iomega networked storage portfolio includes desktop, tower and rackmount array products ranging in capacity from unpopulated, diskless versions up to 48TB. The systems will incorporate the EMC LifeLine operating system, which combines enterprise-level storage features with an ease-of-use tailored for small business users, remote enterprise offices, departmental data centres, and others.

These capabilities provide storage expansion to Lenovo’s ThinkServer and ThinkStation server and workstation offerings.

In addition to the joint venture, the global strategic partnership between Lenovo and EMC also encompasses an x86 server technology development programme, as well as an OEM and reseller relationship for storage products.

Both EMC and Lenovo are shareholders of LenovoEMC, with Lenovo holding the majority interest. The joint venture also gives EMC an entry into the lucrative Chinese market. The new company will have principal offices in Utah and Massachusetts.

The announcement sees EMC finally replacing its long-term partner Dell with Lenovo. The storage giant had a falling out with its former partner when Dell started making its own storage arrays in direct competition with EMC.

Rene Millman

Rene Millman is a former Gartner analyst, and editor. As a writer/broadcaster/Journalist. he has made numerous television appearances to give his views and expertise on technology trends and companies that affect and shape our lives.