Atlantis Computing Eliminates Storage for VDI

Atlantis Computing, Inc. announced the release of ILIO Diskless VDI, a solution to eliminate storage for Citrix and VMware virtual desktop images.

It enables customers to reduce VDI CAPEX to under $200 per desktop and eliminates all storage related CAPEX and OPEX, while at the same time providing a stellar user experience with desktop boot times of 12 seconds.

In November 2011, PAETEC Communications, with over 4,000 employees (now a Windstream company), purchased ILIO Diskless VDI and the Cisco UCS Blade System with Extended Memory Technology (EMT) for their Citrix XenDesktop VDI deployment.

"We chose the Atlantis ILIO solution as well as the Cisco UCS B230 M2 blades because together they gave us the best possible combination of performance, low upfront CAPEX, and lowest possible OPEX," said Steve Bell, Infrastructure Systems Architect, PAETEC Communications. "As a result of Atlantis ILIO and Cisco UCS, our virtual desktop solution costs less than a workstation or laptop, provides a better user experience, and was able to reduce or eliminate our storage, network, power, cooling, and rack space CAPEX and OPEX costs more so than any other VDI offering. From a storage perspective, we wanted to eliminate the reliance of VDI on SAN/NAS storage while at the same time not sacrificing and perhaps even improving overall user experience. We considered local SSDs as well as PCI based RAM drives, but these solutions by themselves either drove up VDI costs, reduced the number of virtual desktops, or proved to be inferior to Atlantis ILIO optimization capabilities. We found the perfect solution with Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI combined with Cisco UCS, which will make it possible to eliminate all disk-based storage and run upwards of 160 Citrix XenDesktop virtual desktops on each blade."

PAETEC is deploying 160 virtual desktops per Cisco B230 M2 blade using the ILIO software virtual appliance in combination with Citrix XenDesktop. With ILIO optimization, PAETEC will be able to deploy up to 6,400 virtual desktops in a single rack of Cisco UCS blade servers without the need to purchase any disk-based storage, SSDs, or PCI based RAM drives for VDI.

"Many VDI deployments have been put on the shelf or stalled because of the high cost of storage which can eat up to 80 percent of the total VDI budget," said Deni Connor, principal analyst, Storage Strategies NOW. "Storage optimization solutions like Atlantis break that choke hold by enabling the deployment of VDI with much less storage, or by eliminating disk-based storage all together."

ILIO Diskless VDI software works with all virtual desktop solutions to eliminate the use of storage for non-persistent virtual desktop deployments, while boosting performance. With existing VDI solutions, virtual desktop images are stored on either shared SAN/NAS storage or local SAS/SSD disks, which are costly, have limited IOPS for VDI workloads and can have short lifespans/warranties. ILIO Diskless VDI is a software that performs NTFS traffic processing and inline deduplication of images to run all desktops from local server memory. There are no more disks to fail and no rack space, power and cooling required for storage. Diskless VDI results in response times that are faster than even the most expensive local SSD drives (MLC or SLC) and reduces the cost of a virtual desktop below that of a physical PC.

"This is the first time that anyone can deploy VDI with no storage for virtual desktop images," said Bernard Harguindeguy, President and CEO, Atlantis Computing. "In addition, when users experience a virtual desktop powered by Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI, they are immediately won over by super-fast boot times and applications that launch near-instantly."

ILIO Diskless VDI Benefits:

• Performance – Improves all aspects of desktop performance including boot, login, application launches, patching and anti-virus scanning.
• Lower Cost – Using ILIO and Cisco UCS Extended Memory, customers will drive down the cost per desktop from both a CAPEX and OPEX perspective: CAPEX – The upfront cost per desktop can be decreased to under $200 per desktop including the server hardware, Atlantis ILIO license and storage; OPEX – Diskless VDI architectures mean that IT organizations can lower operating expenses by eliminating rack space for SAN/NAS storage, lower power consumption and cooling costs, and eliminate the operational expenses of maintaining disk-based storage including replacing failed disks.
• Increased Lifespan – Memory does not suffer from the lifespan issues SSDs have when dealing with write-intensive VDI workloads. Diskless VDI architectures have lower operational costs as disk failure and replacement have been completely eliminated.

ILIO Diskless VDI is available through Atlantis Computing and its solution partners.