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The Top Focus Areas for Computing in 2022
By Scott Tease, Vice President and General Manager of HPC at Lenovo ISG
Unpredictability abounds as enterprises head into 2022. However, there are a few certainties: ESG will heavily influence future tech innovations, supercomputing will become more democratized to support the growing rate of innovation, as-a-service will become the ideal consumption model for businesses amid the global chip and supply chain strains and service-oriented industries will find new opportunities to excel in the age of artificial intelligence.
In this article, Lenovo experts share perspectives and insights on key trends we expect to step into the spotlight in the new year.
Sustainability will change the computing game
Today, sustainability, or being eco-conscious, is viewed as a cost-adder or burden. However, in 2022 and beyond, businesses will begin to see sustainability actions as both positive for the bottom line and a must-do to keep up with customer expectations. More customers will include sustainability issues core to their business decision-making process, such as selecting IT infrastructures with the lowest carbon emissions impact. Customers will also ask for and receive more transparency around where their power comes from and where there are options for more “green,” sustainable or renewable power from providers.
Like a wave, the interest in sustainable computing will continue to build quickly. The pandemic has separated us physically, but our IT has worked hard to keep us connected – and IT comes at a power and emission cost that must be dealt with. While we do not expect companies to make massive changes in 2022, we do expect mass movement toward developing and implementing an efficiency or sustainability plan.
– Scott Tease, Vice President and General Manager of HPC at Lenovo ISG
Chip and supply chain challenges lend to ‘as-a-service’ consumption models
The current global chip shortage and supply chain challenge will require businesses to be agile in doing more ‘as-a-service’ consumption and that most of our business partners are evolving to become MSPs to stay relevant for current and new customers.
The pandemic seemed to accelerate customers’ desires to do more ‘as-a-service’ consumption. Then we saw some significant security breaches experienced by ‘cloud’ companies, which caused customers to pause on ‘as-a-service,’ at least from a public cloud standpoint, and increase spending on their own infrastructures to be able to support remote employees and virtual transactions with their customers and suppliers.
Now we have a global chip shortage and supply chain challenge that is testing customers’ agility once again. As a result, they are restarting their “as-a-service” consumption plans but with a local cloud (aka – behind their firewall) spin. This is causing tech companies and business partners to accelerate their own services-led plans.
Most, if not all of our business partners small and large are evolving to become some version of a service provider (managed services in most cases – MSPs) to continue to be relevant and remain sticky with their customers and attract new ones.
– Steve Biondi, Head of Channels and EOM at Lenovo ISG
More access to supercomputing power for research and innovation
The demand for compute cycles is never ending in high performance computing (HPC) as researchers, engineers and visionaries bring ever more complex problems in for analysis. Unlike many enterprise computing tasks that have a finite compute requirement, HPC research and modelling will always consume every cycle it can access whether taking on new problems or by increasing the complexity of the models in use today to bring them closer to reality.
The exascale era brings with it access to truly massive amounts of computing and processing power. As a result, it will allow us to analyze complex problems that were not previously addressable. More importantly, it will put the power of a supercomputer in the hands of more creative researchers and visionaries than ever before. What used to cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, is now available for under $1M, making extreme scale HPC computing available to the masses and delivering an explosion of new ideas, research, findings and insight.
– Scott Tease, Vice President and General Manager of HPC at Lenovo ISG
Rise in AI deployment in service-oriented industries
The persistence of the pandemic will continue to create a greater sense of urgency in bringing AI-enhanced solutions to production, particularly in conversational AI to aid in customer services.
AI deployment in more service-oriented industries will help companies cope with labor shortages throughout 2022, while maintaining positive customer experiences.
– Patrick Moakley, Director of Marketing HPC and AI at Lenovo ISG predicts
2022’s continued transformation across innovation
After adjusting our lens to the realities of the new normal, we see the growing importance of sustainability for customers, the value of extending access to supercomputing resources for the future of research, the benefits of newly unlocked cost savings via as-a-service consumption and the potential of AI in advancing service capabilities to keep pace with ever-changing customer needs. With these trends in mind, adaptability will take on a whole new meaning in the years to come, and businesses will need to be ready.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Scott Tease, Vice President and General Manager of HPC at Lenovo ISG
Scott is the Vice President and General Manager of HPC at Lenovo ISG. He’s been with Lenovo since October 2014 following the acquisition of IBM’s System x team. Prior to this he spent fourteen years as a member of the IBM System x Executive Team.
Scott is responsible for Lenovo’s end to end HPC strategy – focused on leadership in the mid-market and in the TOP500. He was named to the HPC Wire People to Watch in HPC list for 2015.
In addition to his HPC role Scott is also responsible for AI at Lenovo – focusing on enabling clients with the best AI technology available based on open partnership and open source. His goal is to deliver an Open AI portfolio that brings the benefits of this revolutionary computing model to HPC and enterprise clients globally.
In his many roles in open systems architecture, working to improve client’s experience with power, cooling, and high-density servers, Scott has shaped the future of IBM and now Lenovo’s systems.
