Computer-aided design (CAD) environments that rely on graphic-intensive applications such as CATIA, AutoCAD, or SOLIDWORKS traditionally need massive local graphics processing power on every desktop.
But this approach has many disadvantages and poses huge risks.
For example, Vohkus recently did some work with a company employing over 200 highly-experienced design engineers. Each engineer was using an individual workstation with an extremely high specification to allow their CAD software to run efficiently. Any unscheduled downtime of their individual machines affected productivity and was very expensive.
Because active design data was stored locally, any failure would cause immediate disruption to projects. The engineers were largely tied to the same desks, and there was no provision for remote or mobile working which would have enabled productivity increases.
The client asked Vohkus for assistance in deploying a new VDI-based model to centralise data and reduce the dependence and vulnerabilities associated with the existing workstation model. But because of the graphics processing power needed to support the client’s software, a traditional VDI infrastructure would not be able to cope, even with an extremely high level of RAM.
How NVIDIA GRID enabled a VDI solution
NVIDIA is the only vendor with a solution powerful enough to address this scenario, enabling rich multimedia experiences across all devices. NVIDIA GRID™ is the industry's most advanced technology for sharing virtual graphic processing units (vGPUs) across multiple virtual desktop and applications instances.
NVIDIA GRID enables virtualisation to be deployed to those users who have previously been tied to local machines. Essentially a server-based graphics card, the technology ensures complete compatibility – meaning any application that can run in a physical desktop can run in a virtual desktop. GRID ensures resources are consumed according to the needs of each individual user; in the case described above it runs alongside a VMware implementation whereby users are allocated concurrently to GRID so that GRID can manage resource.
Vohkus provided a technical design authority and server specialist to deploy new servers in the client’s data centre ready for GRID, and specialists in virtualisation from Vohkus’s software division specified the configuration and requirements needed to ensure GRID would provide the performance the client needed.
Advantages of NVIDIA GRID
Harness the full power of NVIDIA data centre vGPUs to deliver a superior virtual graphics experience to any device, anywhere. The platform offers the highest levels of performance, flexibility, manageability, and security to create the best level of user experience for any virtual workflow.
NVIDIA is currently the only vendor that offers this high end solution, which offers rich multimedia experiences from any device. Your users could be experiencing access to rich graphics from devices including tablets, mobile devices and even lightweight laptops. NVIDIA GRID technology offloads graphics processing from the CPU to the GPU in virtualised environments, allowing you to deliver rich graphic experiences to more users.
Giving your most graphic intense users access to their necessary CAD software from anywhere, on any device means you can work with industry leading virtualisation solutions including Citrix, Microsoft and VMware.
