Violin Sees End User Movement to VDI With All-Flash Arrays

Violin Memory, Inc. has seen a rise in the number of companies implementing VDIs with its all-flash arrays.

Recent examples include a 6,000 seat rollout using Citrix XenDesktop at NATS Limited, UK provider of air traffic control services with global presence in over 30 countries, resulting in the largest cloud-based VDI project in the UK’s transport sector.

NATS, which provides safety by ensuring aircraft flying in UK airspace and over the eastern North Atlantic are safely separated, is anticipating a £9 million ROI over four years with its VDI deployment leveraging Violin’s all-flash array solutions.

As highlighted within Violin’s whitepaper, Violin Flash Arrays for Maximum VDI Performance, VDI projects provide a user experience comparable to physical desktops, scale from hundreds to thousands of desktops, and offer a TCO comparable to physical desktops.

VDI is I/O-intensive. The critical challenge is to provide storage with sufficient IO/s performance, scalability and cost effectiveness to ensure success. Citrix XenDesktop coupled with Violin’s all-flash arrays improve boot-up, eliminates boot storms, and application access times by 4X, while scaling to thousands of virtual desktops and delivering the lowest TCO per virtual desktop. In mid-April Violin announced that its all-flash arrays has been validated as part of the Citrix Ready VDI Capacity Program Verified for Citrix XenDesktop.

Eric Herzog, CMO and SVP of business development, Violin, said: “We are witnessing more and more companies turning to flash to meet their VDI requirements, as they recognize the technology delivers better user experience at less infrastructure cost.”

He continues: “We’re pleased to be implementing Citrix XenDesktop environments on such a large scale for companies, such as NATS.”

NATS implemented a multi-million pound project to transfer all of its desktop IT services to a cloud-based infrastructure. By creating a secure, virtual desktop environment the company expects to reduce costs by £9 million over the next four years, shrink its environmental footprint, improve flexibility, meet their demanding SLAs, and deliver a improved QoS to around 4,500 users.

Ultima Business Solutions Limited, a Violin reseller and one of the UK’s leading IT Infrastructure providers, recommended Violin’s all-flash arrays to NATS.

“A key reason for the rapid adoption of VDI is the superior user experience, combined with lower operational costs,” said Toby Butler, account director at Ultima, a Citrix XenDesktop Elite Certified Partner. “Violin is able to deliver a VDI solution with wide-reaching benefits to companies such as NATS. These are primarily very high performance, and unparalleled resiliency at a reduced TCO for our customers.“