Lenovo to acquire Infinidat to expand its storage folio

“This is a win-win for both companies. Lenovo fills a big void in its storage portfolio, while Infinidat is able to leverage a hardware design and manufacturing machine,” Matt Kimball, principal analyst at Moor Strategy and Insights, wrote on LinkedIn.

Lenovo is expected to quickly train its sites on Infinidat’s storage software IP and look to where it can leverage this more broadly, Kimball explained, adding that “if Lenovo’s channels are properly leveraged, we can see real disruption in the enterprise storage market.”

Early focus on the enterprise storage market

According to analysts, Lenovo has been hyper-focused on the enterprise storage market since it acquired IBM’s x86 server business for about $2.3 billion in 2014.

Another landmark deal for the company, targeted at competing more aggressively with Dell and HPE — the dominant players in the enterprise storage market, came in 2018 in the form of a partnership with NetApp, under which it also developed a joint venture in China to co-develop a new range of ThinkSystem Infrastructure that imbibes NetApp’s data management expertise.