Atlantis Computing, the leading provider of
Software-Defined Storage (SDS), today announced that Ankabut, an
Advanced National Research and Education Network in the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), is using the Atlantis VDI solution to deliver
VDI-as-a-service to relieve the burden of desktop management. The
Atlantis solution now supports 2,500 users whilst reducing login speeds
to nine seconds 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 organisation provides and maintains a 10 Gbps
connectivity backbone and one Gbps 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 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 high 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, Ankabut reduced the storage hardware required to maintain the
infrastructure by 80%.
Mohammed Mabrouk, infrastructure manager
at 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 Computing 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."
Extra resources: To find out more about Ankabut's work with Atlantis Computing the full case can be found here.