Violin Memory, Inc.,, a leading provider of all-flash storage arrays and appliances delivering application solutions for the enterprise, has seen a considerable rise in the number of companies implementing Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDI) with Violin’s All-Flash Arrays. Recent examples include a 6,000 seat rollout using Citrix XenDesktop at NATS - the UK's leading 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 return on investment 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 very I/O-intensive. The critical challenge is to provide storage with sufficient IOPS performance, scalability and cost effectiveness to ensure success. Citrix XenDesktop coupled with Violin’s revolutionary 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 Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) per virtual desktop. In mid-April Violin announced that its All Flash Array has been validated as part of the Citrix Ready VDI Capacity Program Verified for Citrix XenDesktop.

Eric Herzog, Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Development at Violin Memory, 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 significantly improved quality of service to around 4,500 users.

Ultima Business Solutions, a Violin reseller and one of the UK’s leading IT Infrastructure providers, recommended Violin’s award-winning 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.”