Lenovo's new goal: to be No. 1 in servers and storage

The global head of Lenovo's Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) told Nikkei Asia that the world's largest PC maker has set its sights on No. 1 in servers, storage devices and other data center hardware.

"Our medium-term goal is to become the world's largest infrastructure provider," said Kirk Skaugen, executive vice president of Lenovo Group, in a recent interview.

In this area, Lenovo is aggressively competing for global market share with US rivals Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

The Infrastructure Solutions Group's April-June revenue rose 14 percent from a year earlier to $2 billion, while Lenovo's overall revenue was almost flat at $16.9 billion due to slowing demand for PCs.

The company said it had record revenue in the quarter from sales of server and storage products. Scogan noted that Lenovo sold its devices to major cloud computing service providers, businesses and institutions. "We sell appliances to eight of the top ten public clouds in the world," he said.

The executive mentioned that Lenovo aims to expand further into edge computing by combining servers, PCs and smart devices. He also mentioned artificial intelligence and supercomputing as promising markets.

Lenovo now has more than 30 production bases around the world and operates in 180 markets.

Scogan said Lenovo's diverse product lineup and myriad manufacturing sites have helped the company weather supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19. "During the shutdown caused by the epidemic, we can flexibly use our factories, from Mexico to Hungary to Brazil, to India, to Taiwan."