Business in Kuwait City is booming, driven by a cultural shift and regulatory changes. Since 2020, the number of SMEs has surged, especially in fintech and start-ups. However, local IT services struggled to meet the demands of businesses seeking cloud solutions to fuel their digital transformation.
In response, IT firm LEAN, founded in 2019, aimed to disrupt the market by offering cloud services hosted locally, ensuring data sovereignty and compliance with Kuwaiti regulations. To achieve this, LEAN turned to Lenovo for its cutting-edge cloud infrastructure to provide reliable and protected services to local businesses across various sectors, from oil and gas to retail, medical services, and finance.
Building the Right Infrastructure
LEAN needed a cloud infrastructure vendor that could meet its high standards of reliability and support. After evaluating several vendors, LEAN chose Lenovo as the foundation for its cloud infrastructure. The company worked closely with Lenovo experts to design a state-of-the-art cloud system, selecting Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 servers for their performance and reliability.
The cloud solution runs on VMware vCloud Suite, which combines the VMware vSphere hypervisor and vRealize Suite for multi-vendor hybrid cloud management. To ensure long-term support, LEAN chose Lenovo Premier Support for Data Centers, offering 24/7 assistance and agent-free hardware management with Lenovo XClarity.
Lenovo’s Key Role in Success
According to Fajhan Almutairi, CEO & Co-Founder of LEAN, Lenovo stood out for its responsiveness, expertise, and commitment. “The Lenovo team was not just responsive but actively involved in shaping our system design to meet our specific needs. They helped us create a system that perfectly fits our requirements.”
Thibault Dousson, Director of Lenovo’s Solutions and Services Group in META, stated, “We are proud to help innovative businesses like LEAN across the Middle East with reliable infrastructure and expert support. Our collaboration in Kuwait is a testament to Lenovo’s dedication to empowering local businesses and driving digital transformation.”
Minimizing Costs and Maximizing Performance
Since LEAN’s collaboration with Lenovo, the company has seen zero downtime, allowing it to offer performance guarantees to its clients. Lenovo XClarity software, integrated with the VMware stack, has simplified lifecycle management, leading to significant cost savings. Without Lenovo XClarity, LEAN would have needed additional full-time IT staff, a cost-saving of significant proportions.
Almutairi explained, “With Lenovo XClarity, we save on staffing costs, keeping operations running smoothly without hiring extra IT admins.”
A Foundation for Future Growth
LEAN has grown into one of Kuwait’s leading IT services providers, hosting 25 client environments on its cloud infrastructure. The company’s ability to offer Service Level Agreement-backed performance guarantees has strengthened its market position, ensuring high performance and reliability for its clients.
Almutairi concluded, “Lenovo’s support and technology have empowered us to offer SLA-backed performance guarantees, solidifying our commitment to providing the best uptime, reliability, and service quality in the industry.” This collaboration with Lenovo has laid a strong foundation for LEAN’s continued growth and success in Kuwait’s cloud services market.
