Lenovo Unveils ThinkServers Designed for Virtualization, Cloud Deployments

Lenovo announced this week at the EDUCAUSE annual conference, two new rack servers, the ThinkServer RD540 and ThinkServer RD640. Armed with the latest Intel Xeon E5 processors, these highly efficient and flexible servers are designed for easy integration into existing IT infrastructures that handle demanding virtualization, cloud and compute-intensive workloads.

Lenovo’s ThinkServer RD540 and RD640 are an ideal choice for educational institutions seeking affordable options that pack a punch. The RD540 and RD640 provide the performance, security and reliability needed to support large university workloads and operations. When optionally equipped with Stoneware’s webNetwork software, school administrators, students and staff can access data, applications and services from a multitude of devices and platforms using just a browser. With low price points, built-in redundancy, high reliability components and sophisticated cooling technology, the RD540 and RD640 deliver outstanding value for higher education.
 
With  high-performance hardware RAID for data protection, web-enabled remote management and a powerful, easy-to-use management tool suite all offered as standard equipment, the budget-friendly RD540 and RD640 provide uncompromising performance ideal for scale-out data analytics, virtualized business workloads, and compute intensive applications.
 
The ThinkServer RD540 and RD640 rack servers come equipped with up to 320GB memory and the latest IntelXeon E5-2600 v2 processors, which offer compute power-per-watt -- up to 24 cores -- delivering 27 percent faster performance than the previous generation award winning RD servers. Both of these servers feature balanced design, flexible configurations and expansive I/O to handle demanding deployments.
 
Available in either 1U (RD540) or 2U (RD640) configurations with included tool-less rail kits for easy installation, both of these new ThinkServers are based on open standards and management protocols and  fit seamlessly into any hybrid network environment. Lenovo Smart Grid power management technology uses Intel Node Manager to scale power management to the data center level, simultaneously managing as many as 1,000 server nodes.  Smart Grid can be used at each level of the data center hierarchy—rack, row, room or group—to provide IT policy-based, power management that increases server utilization while significantly lowering energy consumption and operating costs.
 
Lenovo’s ThinkServer rack servers offer a complete virtualization management solution, using VMware vSphere Operations Management and LenovoEMC storage technology. ThinkServer rack servers also support the latest plug-in tools for VMware vCenter and Microsoft SCE, providing easy deployment, alerting, and systems management for managed networks. 
  
The ThinkServer RD540 and RD640 are will be available beginning in November 4th starting at $1,599.