The renewed and lasting importance of VDI

Digital transformation isn’t new, but it was profoundly accelerated in 2020 when the pandemic materialized and the vast majority of us started working remotely.

Urgent New Demands

Practically overnight, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) became vitally important. Not just for basic email and file sharing, but for advanced levels of learning, creating, and communicating. That meant delivering larger workloads with greater protection for a wider array of users. And it demanded a unique combination of performance, flexibility, and integration with other systems.

Bournemouth University, for example, needed a VDI solution that could be rapidly deployed, easily scaled, and effortlessly managed – all while supporting a diversity of applications and requirements. With a focus on media, design, and research, roughly half of the university’s users needed graphics acceleration.

Meeting The Challenge

The combination of Cisco HyperFlex, NVIDIA T4-16 GPUs, and NVIDIA vGPU licensing checked all the boxes. With the industry’s best GPUs from NVIDIA and the high performance, low cost, and simplified management of HyperFlex, educational institutions like Bournemouth can provide a consistent, exceptional experience for their users – no matter where they are or what device they’re using – while reducing ongoing costs and improving operational efficiency and flexibility.

“A hyperconverged solution from a trusted partner was the best approach for moving forward with speed and scale,” said Matt Hall, Deputy IT Director at Bournemouth University. “Other vendor solutions came with significantly higher implementation risks and complexities.”

Cisco Cost Saving Solutions = a VDI Future

TCO and ROI were also important considerations. ESG models have shown Cisco solutions can provide a 13-35% lower average monthly cost per VDI desktop than the equivalent cloud-based VDI solutions over a three-year period. And according to IDC, the business benefits of using Cisco solutions for virtualized desktops, applications, and workstations are clear:

• 382% five-year ROI
• 8-month payback
• 47% reduction in operational costs
• 99% less unplanned downtime
• 52% faster deployments

“From a technology adoption standpoint, it seemed like VDI was becoming less relevant, but the pandemic certainly changed all of that,” Hall said.

“Instead of VDI being an afterthought, we now

view it as a stepping stone into our future.”

Case Study

To learn more about Bournemouth University’s virtual desktops, you can read all about it in our full customer case study:

Bournemouth University Supercharges Its Virtual Desktops with Cisco HyperFlex

Resources

Customer Stories: Cloud and Compute

Cisco Data Center and Hybrid Cloud Solutions

Bournemouth University – Full Case Study

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