Tearing A Page From Dell's Playbook

Lenovo, a Chinese PC vendor that rocketed to worldwide IT fame with its 2004 purchase of IBM's PC business, followed by its early 2014 acquisition of IBM's x86-based server business, really wants to get into the data center. But a low-margin PC and server business does not a data center player make.

Dell figured that out about 15 years ago when it first entered in a deal to resell EMC storage, gaining its first foothold in the enterprise. That reseller agreement eventually died as Dell made a few acquisitions, but with Dell's acquisition this year of EMC, the company is now a top provider of data center infrastructure solutions.

Lenovo knows it needs to have a viable storage strategy to make its mark in the data center, and it's already on the way with a new partnership to bring its servers together with storage arrays from all-flash storage and hybrid storage vendor Nimble Storage.

But this is only a first step. Lenovo's storage plans are much larger. To find out, turn the page.