At a glance
The challenge
Ageing private cloud infrastructure nearing end of service life
Need to improve performance and user experience
Increasing competition from public cloud alternatives
Requirement for a flexible, cost-effective investment model
The solution
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR675 V3 servers
AMD EPYC 9475F processors
Lenovo XClarity Pro management software
Lenovo Global Financial Services flexible payment model
The results
CPU utilisation dropped by 70%
RAM usage decreased by 10%
Applications running three times faster
60FPS benchmark on Citrix Windows 11 VDI
Overnight switchover with zero customer impact
About CMTG
Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Perth, CMTG is one of Australia’s leading integrated IT infrastructure providers. The business owns and operates a sovereign private cloud platform across two enterprise-grade Western Australian data centres, delivering private cloud hosting, managed IT services, cybersecurity, and strategic consulting to organisations across Australia.
Central to CMTG’s platform is a resilient, available, and immutable managed private cloud supporting virtual machines, backups, and a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure solution for clients whose teams need full workstation performance from any device. As a Lenovo Data Centre Gold Partner and long-standing Lenovo customer, CMTG has built its infrastructure on Lenovo ThinkSystem servers for more than a decade.
The challenge
For almost three decades, CMTG has provided cutting-edge IT solutions to small and mid-sized businesses across Australia. The company’s private cloud platform, built on Lenovo servers with a VMware and Citrix virtualisation layer, was reaching the end of its service life. Faced with competition from Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop and a market increasingly expecting high-performance cloud delivery, CMTG needed to make a strategic investment to stay ahead.
The requirements were clear. CMTG needed hardware that would deliver a significantly better end-user experience, particularly for clients running graphics-intensive and compute-heavy workloads. It needed a cost-effective, flexible financial model that would allow the business to modernise at scale without upfront capital pressure. And it needed a platform that would position CMTG for the emerging AI workload market, where sovereign, high-performance compute would become a genuine differentiator.
"We want to make sure we're ahead of the game and keep our tech up to date with the very latest and most powerful chips, to give our customers a secure, high-performing, and reliable landing space for their workloads for their efficiency and competitive advantage."
Carl Filpo
Managing Director, CMTG
The solution: Standing firm with a trusted partner
After conducting an in-depth market review, CMTG chose to upgrade its private cloud infrastructure with Lenovo ThinkSystem SR675 V3 servers powered by AMD EPYC 9475F processors. The decision was anchored in two things: an established relationship with Lenovo built on years of hardware reliability, and the performance profile of the AMD EPYC architecture for virtualised and graphics-intensive workloads.
As a Lenovo Gold Partner, CMTG had years of reliability from Lenovo hardware and the confidence to trust the vendor again for a critical infrastructure upgrade.
"Lenovo is a rock-solid brand, and we've rarely had any failures on our ThinkSystem infrastructure over the years. That said, it's reassuring to have the servers backed by Lenovo Premier Support for Data Centres, as the rapid response time for on-site parts means we can get things back on track fast."
Stephen Doney
Vendor and Client Relationship Manager, CMTG
The selection of AMD EPYC processors was informed by a recommendation from Citrix, who run AMD on their own platform.
"The trigger point for moving to AMD EPYC processors was a reference from Citrix, who use AMD to run their own platform. They showed us that it would give us the performance to be at the forefront of the cloud space."
Carl Filpo
Managing Director, CMTG
Using Lenovo XClarity Pro infrastructure management software, the CMTG team streamlined and automated deployment and migration workflows. The result was a complete infrastructure switchover completed overnight without any impact on customers.
The results
The impact of the upgrade was immediate and measurable. The morning after the overnight switchover, CMTG began receiving calls from clients asking what had changed.
"Moving to Lenovo ThinkSystem SR675 V3 servers powered by AMD EPYC processors is night and day as far as performance is concerned, both for us and our customers. The morning after we completed the switchover, we had customers calling us to ask: 'what did you do? Our applications are so fast!' with one customer saying that one particular report has gone from taking several minutes to a few seconds."
Carl Filpo
Managing Director, CMTG
The performance improvements were verified across the platform. CPU utilisation dropped by 70 per cent and RAM usage decreased by 10 per cent, enabling more efficient operations with fewer resources. For clients running CAD applications on CMTG’s VDI platform, the faster clock speed of the AMD EPYC processors delivers smoother operations even on devices not typically equipped for graphics-intensive workloads.
Running benchmarks using Citrix Windows 11 VDI, CMTG achieved a solid 60 frames per second, reaching the upper limit allowed by the Citrix platform. SQL Server report generation improved by three times. Application execution times dropped across the board.
By adopting a flexible, cost-effective financial model through Lenovo Global Financial Services, CMTG was able to align technology investment with business value, modernising at scale without upfront capital pressure.
What this means for CMTG clients
The infrastructure upgrade directly improves the experience of every organisation hosted on CMTG’s sovereign WA platform. Applications run faster. Virtual desktops perform at a higher level. CAD, simulation, and data-intensive workloads that previously required physical workstations can now be delivered through CMTG’s DaaS platform with no performance compromise.
For engineering firms, design businesses, and organisations with distributed teams, the combination of Lenovo ThinkSystem SR675 V3 servers, AMD EPYC compute, and Citrix delivery via CMTG’s sovereign WA platform means full workstation performance from any device, from any location, on infrastructure that stays in Australia under Australian jurisdiction.
CMTG's sovereign private cloud, now powered by Lenovo ThinkSystem SR675 V3 servers and AMD EPYC 9475F processors, delivers enterprise-grade compute performance to every managed client. The same platform that achieved 60 FPS on Citrix VDI benchmarks and a 70 per cent reduction in CPU utilisation is available to CMTG clients today.
Looking ahead: AI workloads on sovereign WA infrastructure
The infrastructure refresh was not just about improving today’s performance. It was about building the platform CMTG’s clients will need over the next decade. The AMD EPYC architecture and the expanded compute headroom created by the upgrade lay the groundwork for sovereign AI workload delivery on CMTG’s WA platform.
For organisations evaluating AI tools and platforms, data sovereignty is an increasingly important consideration. Sensitive business data processed through a foreign-hosted AI service may not remain within Australian jurisdiction. CMTG’s sovereign platform, now with the compute capability to support AI workloads, provides a path for organisations to adopt AI without compromising their data governance position.
"By upgrading our infrastructure, we can provision virtual desktops with a superior end-user experience and at a lower cost, improving customer retention and growth."
Nick Hughes
vCIO and Technology Strategist, CMTG
Read the full Lenovo case study
The full Lenovo case study, including detailed technical specifications and the complete CMTG and Lenovo partnership story, is available directly from Lenovo.
To learn more about CMTG’s private cloud platform or Desktop as a Service capability, get in touch with the team.
