Lenovo sees strong market for PHL data solutions

LENOVO Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) is hoping to offer its analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and other solutions in the Philippines as businesses digitize, generating more demand for data centers.

Citing the growing need for businesses and public services to be customer-centric, Lenovo believes in the strength of demand for “smarter solutions through technologies like cloud computing, analytics and AI, edge computing, and infrastructure-as-a-service,” Lenovo ISG’s Asia-Pacific President Sumir Bhatia said at a recent media briefing. 

The company said its solutions are being used in the Philippines by corporations, banks, and small and medium businesses (SMBs).

One of these is TruScale, a data center solution that modernizes applications to address data storage issues.

Mr. Bhatia said: “The Philippines was one of the first countries to adopt TruScale, with our example being a local premier financial institution that upgraded their data environment.”

Lenovo Asia-Pacific said there is great interest in the service, and it plans to use it as a springboard for expanding its smart infrastructure offerings.

“We are talking to more banks and conglomerates, and the government as of now is almost on board,” said Clark Popple, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group country manager.

“In fact, eight out of 10 of our customers ask about TruScale.” 

The company also sees the Philippines as an attractive market post-pandemic, especially with private and public spending on the rise.

“We’ve seen infrastructure being invested in… from tourism to the medical industry. The market is growing and that makes it very attractive. We want to make sure that we are also helping, using smarter technology to solve humanity’s greatest challenges,” Mr. Bhatia said.

Lenovo’s growth strategy includes investing more in research and development (R&D). Of the 75,000 Lenovo employees globally, one in five are R&D specialists.

Its partnerships with emergent technology companies in the region also help it get to more customers, who are now more aware of the importance of digital transformation.

Kumar Mitra, Lenovo Central & Asia-Pacific regional general manager, said: “The Philippines is such a huge opportunity market for us from a growth perspective as we think the greatest sector that will grow here will be data center reorganization. The Philippines is investing in data center modernization and edge-based computing use cases.”

On selling to Filipino businesses of all sizes, Mr. Popple added: “We approach customers directly with our partners and talk about these solutions that laymen don’t hear of.”

“There is competition but we are bullish in the market, so we’re trying to capture as many customers as we can bring into the market,” he said. — Brontë H. Lacsamana