‪#‎Dell‬ Moves The Needle On ‪#‎VDI‬ With New ‪#‎GRID‬ ‪#‎GPU‬-Powered Appliance

Today at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California, Dell unveiled its new Precision Appliance for Wyse, powered by Nvidia's Quadro and GRID GPU technology. The company also announced the availability of the Dell Engineered Solution for VMware EVO:Rail, Horizon Edition as well as an updated Dell XC Web-Scale Converged Appliance, powered by Nutanix.

The Precision appliance comes in a 2U rack, utilizing Dell's Precision Rack R7910 workstation and VMware's Horizon virtualization software. The virtual workstation uses PCoIP and has been ISV certified, which simply means that Dell worked with the independent software vendors (ISVs) to ensure users get the same experience that they would on a traditional workstation.

Customers have the option of enabling two GPU modes at the time of initial configuration:

A dedicated GPU mode, which uses a direct agent and requires no broker;
And a shared GPU mode, which leverages Horizon 6 as the broker.
The dedicated GPU mode allows for three users per appliance, while the shared GPU mode can be configured for four or eight users on a single appliance.

Dell's new Precision Appliance for Wyse is built for high-end graphics-intensive workloads, ideal for design shops, engineering firms, and entertainment companies, as well as dispersed, global teams. By utilizing desktop virtualization, companies can securely collaborate without having to send and resend data and applications.

"Now you can enable super high-end power users who are doing things like 3D solid modeling, simulation, and CAD/CAM," Dan O'Farrell, Dell's Sr. Director or Product Marketing at Dell Cloud Client Computing told Tom's IT Pro in an interview. "These are users who, two years ago, you couldn't even consider for VDI. But due to certain leaps and bounds in technology, this is a very viable use case today."

The solution offers a way for organizations to deploy and scale their VDI environments without having to compromise on performance. IT can set security policies and ensure needs-based access to data and applications, without having to worry about data-in-flight.

"Organizations today have an increased need for mobility and collaboration, and need to provide secure access to apps and data for their employees wherever they are, whether that's at a desktop or an exploration worksite," said Steve Lalla, VP and GM of Dell's Cloud Client Computing division.

However, Dell's Precision Appliance for Wyse is just one of the company's options for VDI. Dell has partnered with Nutanix to offer an updated XC appliance, which has been shrunk in half down to 1U. The XC appliance uses Nutanix's software defined storage architecture, which makes it easier to more predictably scale a VDI environment, for up to 150 workers in a single 1U rack. The company is also working closely with VMware, introducing an EVO:Rail-based solution that is built specifically for VDI. It leverages VMware SAN (VSAN) technology embedded inside the single enclosure in a 2U rack and utilizes Horizon View for virtualization.

"The reason we're offering both flavors, the VMware EVO:Rail version and the Nutanix XC appliance, is that this is what Dell is all about; we're offering choice," said O'Farrell. "If you're a VMware shop, thinking all things VMware, and you want to build out an appliance-based VDI approach you'll likely choose the EVO:Rail appliance. If you're running other brokers or if you're looking beyond VMware, then you can choose the XC appliance."

The Dell Precision Appliance for Wyse will be available in May, but it can be demoed at GTC this week. The Dell Engineered Solution for VMware EVO:Rail and the new Dell XC Web-Scale Appliance will be available later this month. Pricing has not been announced at this time.