Lenovo launches Edge AI for IoT environments

  • December 20, 2021
  • William Payne

Lenovo has added an AI platform to its line-up of edge servers. The ThinkEdge SE450 server is designed to provide real-time machine learning and analytics for a range of edge computing and IoT applications, including smart cities, retail, healthcare, infrastructure, and manufacturing.

The ThinkEdge SE450 is built on the 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor with Intel Deep Learning Boost technologies, featuring all-flash storage for running AI and analytics at the edge. It has been verified by Intel as an Intel Select Solution for vRAN.

The new server is installed remotely and managed with Lenovo Open Cloud Automation (LOC-A) and configured with Lenovo XClarity Orchestrator software.

The server is designed to support multiple AI workloads and has a quieter go-anywhere form factor, featuring a shorter depth that allows it to be installed in space constrained locations. It is purpose-built for vertically specific edge environments, with a ruggedised design to withstand a wider operating temperature, as well as high dust, shock and vibration for harsh settings. The system is an NVIDIA-Certified Edge system and incorporates NVIDIA GPUs for industrial AI at the edge applications.

The ThinkEdge SE450 is the culmination of multiple prototypes, with live trials running real workloads in telecommunication, retail and smart city settings. Lenovo describes the ThinkEdge SE450 server as designed specifically for enabling a vast ecosystem of partners and as a hybrid infrastructure extension for on-premise cloud currently supporting Microsoft, NVIDIA, Red Hat and VMware technologies.

“As companies of all sizes continue to work on solving real-world challenges, they require powerful infrastructure solutions to help generate faster insights that inform competitive business strategies, directly at edge sites,” said Charles Ferland, Vice President and General Manager, Edge Computing and Communication Service Providers at Lenovo ISG. “With the ThinkEdge SE450 server and in collaboration with our broad ecosystem of partners, Lenovo is delivering on the promise of AI at the edge, whether it’s enabling greater connectivity for smart cities to detect and respond to traffic accidents or addressing predictive maintenance needs on the manufacturing line.”

“Expanding our cloud to on-premise enables faster data processing while adding resiliency, performance and enhanced user experiences. As an early testing partner, our current deployment of Lenovo’s ThinkEdge SE450 server is hosting a 5G network delivered on edge sites and introducing new edge applications to enterprises,” said Khaled Al Suwaidi, Vice President Fixed and Mobile Core at Etisalat. “It gives us a compact, ruggedised platform with the necessary performance to host our telecom infrastructure and deliver applications, such as e-learning, to users.”

“Our collaboration with Lenovo helps enterprises across many sectors drive business value through network transformation and edge computing,” said Jeni Panhorst, Vice President and General Manager of the Network & Edge Platforms Division at Intel. “Resilient and flexible edge servers built with 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors provide enhanced performance enabling the delivery of innovative AI-driven services where customers will expect them.”