Lenovo Enters Bargain Server Basement With New ThinkServer Family

It's a fact of life that the consumer-level desktops and notebooks see the bulk of the limelight, but we'd be nowhere without the servers behind the scenes. Those machines that power our Internet interactions, our e-mail hosts and our late-night deathmatch sessions deserve a little credit as well, and Lenovo's new bunch sure looks like they're reaching out for attention. The company famous for their IdeaPad and ThinkPad portable machines have just introduced a bunch of new products in their server line, with its first value line of dual-processor servers, the ThinkServer RD230, RD240 and TD230, being atop the heap.

These new servers start at under $900, but even that bargain bin price tag gets you advanced RAID for data protection, remote management tools, hot swappable hard drives and a DVD writer. Oh, and a chassis that no one will dare mess with. In years past, something of this level would've generally cost much more than just $900, but thanks to the age of the Intel Xeon 5500 and 5600 series processors, the cost savings is being passed along to you. There's room for up to 8 hard drives, dual power supplies and even rack-mount support, with availability targeted for "now" from Lenovo's business partners.

Lenovo Introduces its First Value Line of Dual Processor Servers

ThinkServer Trio Designed to Fit Growing Businesses

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – July 27, 2010: Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) today introduced three new ThinkServers to bring growing businesses, branch offices and managed service providers server technology that fits their performance needs and budgets. With models starting under $900, the ThinkServer RD230, RD240 and TD230 mark Lenovo’s entrance into the value dual processor server market. The trio offers unexpected features for the price, such as remote management, energy saving configurations and advanced data protection.

“These new ThinkServers are changing the model in the value server market,” said Tom Ribble, director, ThinkServer Product Marketing, Lenovo. “Instead of offering customers expensive add-ons, we built in manageability and performance features, like remote management and hot swappable drives, that growing businesses need. And we did this while keeping prices extremely affordable.”

ThinkServer RD230 and RD240 - Maximum Performance at Minimum Cost

The RD230 and RD240 rack servers provide technologies that equip growing businesses to run mission critical applications and allow larger businesses to dedicate specific features to a server. Competitors typically offer these performance and manageability technologies as options to their models, adding several hundred dollars in incremental cost to the price.

The servers include these standard features:
    * Built in advanced RAID for advanced data protection on the RD230
    * Web-enabled remote management tools to enable managed service providers to remotely monitor and manage their clients’ IT systems
    * Hot swappable hard drive storage to eliminate downtime and give IT managers flexibility in assigning data to specific locations
    * A DVD writer for a convenient way to install new applications

The servers also offer the latest Intel® Xeon 5500 and 5600 series processors, helping them run 60 percent faster than legacy servers.  With up to eight hard drives, eight TB of storage and dual power supplies, the slightly larger RD240 rack caters to businesses that need to run high performance database, transaction and other line of business applications.

ThinkServer TD230 – Optimized for Flexibility & Performance

The TD230 tower server gives managed solution providers and businesses the flexibility and performance they need to outfit nearly any work environment. Customers can choose between direct connect or hot swap configurations to fit their needs, as well as among a variety of high performance and high capacity hard drives.

Because towers are usually located under a user’s desk, the TD230 runs “whisper quiet” and even quieter than many desktops. Optimized for energy savings, it features a greater than 90 percent efficient power supply and is the only value two processor server to be designed with the EnergyStar® for Servers 1.0 specification. The TD230 also offers the latest Intel technology to balance powerful performance and energy savings.

Simplifying Service and Management

Lenovo’s server solution provides hardware and software support. ThinkPlus Priority Support provides services such as next business day warranty service, 24x7 hardware and software phone support as well as priority call routing to advanced technicians. For customers who need on-site hardware installation and online training, Lenovo also offers the ThinkPlus Productivity service plan.

Level Platforms certified the new servers for monitoring and management by their Managed Workplace solution. Level Platforms also developed new policy modules for each of the new servers, which are available to managed service providers (MSPs) as part of the policy module library. This certification ensures that MSPs can use the built in ThinkServer management tools and that the servers can be integrated seamlessly into Level Platforms’ solution.

”We welcome the opportunity to add such high performing and cost effective solutions to Managed Workplace’s remote monitoring and management capabilities,” said Ryck Marciniak, director of business development, Level Platforms.  “These new ThinkServers demonstrate Lenovo’s commitment to managed service providers, giving them the ability to integrate the servers into their managed services offerings on day one.”   

Pricing and Availability1

Pricing for models of the ThinkServer RD230, RD240 and TD230 start at $999, $1,399 and $829, respectively. All of the servers will be available immediately through Lenovo business partners.