UAE Advanced National Research and Education Network Ankabut Deploys Atlantis

Atlantis Computing, Inc., a provider of software-defined storage (SDS), announced that Ankabut, an Advanced National Research and Education Network in UAE, is using the Atlantis VDI solution to deliver VDI-as-a-service to relieve the burden of desktop management.

The Atlantis solution supports 2,500 users whilst reducing login speeds to nines and increasing storage capacity by 80%.

Ankabut plays a vital role in supporting higher education and research throughout the UAE. As part of the Advanced National Research and Education Network, the university provides and maintains a 10Gb/s connectivity backbone and one Gb/s link to 27 different universities. This scale of infrastructure enables Ankabut to connect with other institutions worldwide whilst offering a range of IT services to universities who are undertaking major IT projects.

A university specialising in vocational studies contacted Ankabut when looking to replace 1,600 desktops and laptops. Ankabut suggested a centrally hosted and managed VDI platform and after initially working with Citrix Systems, Inc. to design the VDI environment based on IBM hardware, a local IT partner suggested the SDS solution from Atlantis. A PoC was launched to compare the two where it became clear that the Atlantis solution was better value for money whilst executing performance.

Ankabut deployed the VDI infrastructure to deliver desktop services over a public WAN to 2,500 users at the university, including students, members of the teaching faculty and support staff. By implementing Atlantis software, the university reduced the storage hardware required to maintain the infrastructure by 80%.

Mohammed Mabrouk, infrastructure manager, Ankabut, said: “It became clear that the Atlantis solution was very good value for money. By using Atlantis for our VDI, we reduced our anticipated storage costs by 40-50%. The Atlantis solution made a big difference, it’s helping us to deliver the quality desktop service that we have promised and that the university expects.“

Chris Plant, VP EMEA, Atlantis, said: “Ankabut is an established faculty in the UAE, providing professional support and guidance to education facilities. When managing an IT infrastructure on such a large scale, a solution is needed that is going to increase performance, whilst driving down costs. Our software has done this and has also allowed Anakbut to optimise their storage capacity in a big way. With plans to develop the VDI solution further and roll out its new remote desktop services to 26 other universities, Atlantis has clearly become a key part of Ankabut’s IT growth plan.“

To date, Atlantis has deployed over 120PB of storage for more than 800 customers and one million virtual workspaces and includes the largest virtualisation deployments in the world.