With reports circulating that Lenovo and IBM (NYSE: IBM) could close that $2.3 billion x86 server deal as soon as next month, executives of the two companies on Thursday outlined post-closing strategy at an industry forum.
And they are setting huge goals: Winning $57 billion out of a total enterprise storage and server market valued at some $84 billion, according to ChannelPro.
“How to capture this opportunity is based on how well partners understand dynamics of play in the IT industry and the changes in the industry,” said Adalio Sanchez, general manager of IBM’s x86 group. “[Ninety] percent of all the data in the world is less than two years old and in the next five years – that will triple. There are endless ways where the channel can connect to businesses.”
The U.S. and Chinese governments have already approved Lenovo’s deal, which will involve some 2,000 IBM employees in RTP transferring to the world’s top PC manufacturer.
x86 officials, including the IBM group’s top leadership that is based in RTP, have appeared jointly at meetings – including Lenovo’s recent “kickoff” for the 2015 business year in Raleigh.
But at the Canalys Channels Forum, executives were very specific – especially in talking about the importance of channel partners to drive server sales in an extremely competitive global market.
Lenovo added that the search is on for more partners at an event in London.
“There is an opportunity for channel growth and we are planning to make sure that there is a seamless approach to the [unified Lenovo and IBM server channels] and we have over 2,000 partners and are growing 30% year-on-year,” Darren Phelps, Lenovo’s U.K. director of channel sales, told news website MicroScope.
Industry publication ChannelPro, which had a reporter at the Canalys event, described the combined business as Lenovo System X.
Lenovo has continued to develop and release its own servers, and IBM is adding new products as well. Yet they obviously have been plotting strategy and cooperation since the deal was announced in January as Lenovo leased additional office space in the Park to accommodate the IBMers.
Sanchez, who is switching to Lenovo, told the forum that channel partners should expect a wider portfolio of products as well as “scalability” in meeting product demand.
“For the x86 business to succeed, resellers need product innovation and that doesn’t mean adding industry standards and packaging it to ship to customers. They need to optimize the workload and build it at tremendous scale,” Sanchez said.
“Lenovo brings System X scalability and allows it to compete in the marketplace, coupled with the 700 professionals we have using it and the capabilities in the data center.”
Lenovo has a widely recognized, efficient supply chain and distribution system that now reaches worldwide.
Despite the merger, the companies said channel partners will be dealing with familiar faces. Lenovo has committed publicly to hiring all the some 7,000 IBMers associated with x86.
Francois Bornibus, a top European-Middle East-Africa market executive at Lenovo, is bullish on what the x86 deal means.
“What we also want to do is shake up the enterprise market. We want to do something different to get share in this market and IBM’s System X will allow us to do that,” he said, according to ChannelPro.
