Nokia joined forces with Lenovo to create data centre networking and automation services for enterprises and service providers to support their storage and transit needs across AI, machine learning (ML) and other compute intensive workloads.

The partnership involves Lenovo’s ThinkSystem AI enabled portfolio of servers and storage with No’skia Data Centre network portfolio, which includes data centre fabric, IP routing and DDoS security offerings along with its event-driven automation platform.

They stated the combined platform will help meet the processing and network requirements for modern workloads.

The vendors noted that as AI models are trained, “data centres for inferencing will be needed where AI clusters are networked both within and between the data centres at the edge”.

They stated the integration of their technologies with a validated blueprint architecture enables automation of AI and ML and compute-intensive workloads with improved observability and programmability.

Nokia and Lenovo also heralded the built-in security measures of their respective portfolios to detect and thwart threats in real-time. They also stated their energy-efficient designs reduce power consumption and operational costs while promoting sustainability.

A representative told Mobile World Live the companies’ focus is on building infrastructure capable of handling high-performance AI and ML workloads, which can include generative AI use cases.

They have some initial joint customers using Lenovo’s compute processing and storage offerings with Nokia’s DC Fabric switches that they hope to announce soon.

The representative said the companies plan a trial in Q1 2025 and availability in Q2

Charles Ferland, VP edge and communications service providers at Lenovo, stated the combined offering “meets the needs of telecommunications and enterprise sectors, enabling them to deploy AI clouds and manage their data efficiently”.