CASE STUDY
@ cohodata
Florida Atlantic University implements
Scale-Out Storage for Power VDI environment
Industry
Higher Education
Business Needs
Florida Atlantic University was looking
for a cost effective, high performance
solution with simplified datastore
management for their performance
hungry VMware Horizon View virtual
desktop environment.
Solution
Coho DataStream 1000h
VMware Horizon View 5.2.1
Teradici PCoIP Remote Workstations
Delivering High Performance VDI with 3D graphics to Engineering
Faculty and Students
When the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) looked
to replace their high performance physical desktops and workstations with VMware Horizon View
virtual desktops, they faced a challenge in finding a VDI storage solution that could stand up to the
task of delivering 300 (non-persistent virtual desktops) displaying 3D graphical modeling and high
performance desktop applications to 200 concurrent users.
Business Needs: High Performance + Simplified Management
The legacy storage solution initially chosen for their VMware Horizon View deployment was unable
to cope with the demands of the high end VDI deployment running intensive 3D graphics
applications. High latency caused desktop sessions to become unusable. They required a different
cost effective storage solution to deliver seamless integration, simplicity and location independence
that would also be cost-effective.
The Solution: Coho DataStream 1000h
The solution, to the latency issues that was proposed by support for their legacy storage solution
was to replace their drives with faster, but much more expensive, SLC SSD drives. The Coho
DataStream 1000h was able to solve the latency issues with a hybrid flash and disk solution that
enabled them to stay within the desired budget.
Benefits
“
• Eliminate performance
bottlenecks caused by high
latency storage
We literally had it up and running
in 15 minutes. It could not have been
any easier. It was amazing.
• Rapid Deployment : Plug & Play In
15 minutes
- James Mauser, Computer Applications Coordinator at Florida
Atlantic University
”
• Simplified Data Store
Management
• Reduced TCO
• Responsive Customer Support
Deploying the DataStream
After mounting the Coho DataStream 1000h in the rack, it took only 15 minutes to get up and
running and ready to go. In contrast, evaluating some of the previous storage products took up to 3
full days to install, even with the onsite help from the vendor engineers.
CASE STUDY
Key Benefits
FAU saw an immediate resolution to their virtual desktop latency issues after migrating their
workloads over to the Coho DataStream 1000h. The amount of time spent managing their storage
was drastically reduced, and the responsive, knowledgeable assistance from Coho Data customer
support allowed them to quickly overcome technical hurdles and receive needed architectural
guidance. All of these benefits were achieved with a solution that also helped them meet their
financial goals.
High performance
Before deploying the Coho DataStream 1000h the latency issues present with the legacy
storage solution meant that the FAU IT staff needed to monitor the system on a daily basis
to see where the latencies are.
“
We have not hit any latency. It's stunningly
beautiful, let's put it that way, it's amazing
”
- James Mauser, Computer Applications Coordinator
at Florida Atlantic Universit
The DataStream 1000h also gave them the ability to recompose their storage pools to provision
new software or apply patches to their VDI desktop images during business hours without
impacting their users.
Simplified Data Store Management
Having a single NFS datastore to contain their VDI images without having to worry about managing
LUNs and Volumes completely simplified their data store management.
Pooran Rambharose, Senior Systems Administrator at Florida Atlantic University explained, “It is
such a night and day difference from what we were used to before, because we had dozens
of data stores, each with 500 GB worth of space on it, and it was a nightmare to manage.”
“
I have one word to describe how the
DataStream 1000h has changed our storage
deployment, and it's "simplified." It's completely
simplified our data store management. I love
having just one data source.
”
- Pooran Rambharose, Senior Systems Administrator
at Florida Atlantic University
Support
The high performance nature of the VDI solution deployed at FAU placed unique pressures
on the storage solution. IT staff at FAU required knowledgeable technical assistance from their
storage vendor. When dealing with legacy storage vendors they found it would often
take days to get a response or their inquiries would be handled be junior support staff who
lacked deep, technical, knowledge. With Coho Data, they found the support they received
was excellent.
James explains, ”Their technical support response has been fantastic. That's one of the key
reasons that we went ahead and purchased Coho. The support and the people are really
good to work with.”
www.cohodata.com