Storage costs and performance issues have put a lasting crimp on the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) market, but desktop virtualization startup Atlantis Computing says it has found a way to tackle these problems.
On Monday, Atlantis Computing took the wraps off ILIO 2.0, a software virtual appliance that works with Citrix XenDesktop, VMware View, Quest Software and other VDI offerings to cut up to 75 percent from VDI capex. ILIO 2.0 has been available to customers since late last year, but Atlantis is now making it available to its channel partners, according to Bernard Harguindeguy, CEO of Atlantis Computing.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Atlantis Computing uses protocol layer processing in ILIO 2.0 to cut I/O traffic by up to 90 percent and move intensive Windows operations away from storage, which allows for deployment of lower cost SAN and NAS solutions. This is important since capex in VDI environments can run as high as $1000 per user, Harguindeguy said.
But storage isn’t the only obstacle to VDI -- the technology has also been hampered by spotty performance that has irked users and, in some cases, scared organizations away from the technology. Some have even been deploying virtual desktop images without antivirus software to avoid further degrading performance, said Harguindeguy.
Harguindeguy's view is that VDI can be deployed at a lower cost point than physical desktop PCs without sacrificing performance or security. "Virtual desktops are better than normal PCs once they're deployed correctly," he said. "Our main goal is to accelerate the pace of VDI adoption, which has been held back by the user experience."
ILIO 2.0 is easy to install and uses an auto-configuration wizard that sets up the software virtual appliance in less than 10 minutes, Harguindeguy said. It's available now and priced starting at $150 per desktop.
