Pivot3 announces graphics acceleration options for VDI Environments

Pivot3 has announced a set of graphics acceleration offerings for its vSTAC R2S desktop virtualization (VDI) solutions suite. The three-tier offerings, designed for the complexities of virtualized environments, deliver a richer graphics experience for desktops running on vSTAC R2S and vSTAC R2S P Cubed appliances.
These partner-certified and tested graphics acceleration offerings deliver a streamlined user experience by maximizing graphics operations and display times. By incorporating powerful performance and graphics processing offload cards, users with advanced multimedia, workstation, or graphics-intensive application needs are assured maximum desktop density.

“Desktop administrators need to provide a PC-equivalent or better desktop experience to users, especially Power Users, to gain the most benefit from VDI environments,” said Olivier Thierry, CMO, Pivot3. “With additional offload graphics computing power and performance, Pivot3 vSTAC R2S appliances can now support users in need of graphics intensive application support. In addition, the ability for us to offer this feature set on the same appliance allows customers maximum flexibility and affordability, allowing users to add what they need to their existing configurations without moving to a different family of products.”

NVIDIA GRID technology delivers the ability to offload graphics processing from the central processing unit (CPU) to the graphics processing unit (GPU) in virtualized environments, allowing the data center manager to deliver graphics-rich experiences to users.

“NVIDIA GRID enables graphics-rich applications to have workstation-class performance and reliability from any location on almost any device,” said Justin Boitano, GM NVIDIA GRID Business. “When combined with our GRID solution, the VDI infrastructure delivered by Pivot3 allows organizations to take their VDI deployments to an entirely new level, and deliver rich media and graphic applications with exceptional performance.”

The Teradici® PCoIP® Hardware Accelerator (APEX 2800) reduces CPU overhead by offloading the most active 100 virtual displays to ensure its capabilities are used where most needed. In the process, the server consolidation ratio increases up to 2x.

“One of our primary goals is to deliver the same rich graphics experience in virtualized environments that today’s users are accustomed to with physical workstations,” said Olivier Favre, Director of Product Management, Teradici. “When paired with a GPU in VMware® Horizon View™ environments, the Teradici PCoIP Hardware Accelerator offloads screen compression cycles from the CPU to ensure uncompromised visual computing performance, dynamically across all users. We’re excited to extend our partnership with Pivot3, to improve scalability and drive more benefits to customers around the globe.”

Pivot3 currently offers three graphics acceleration options:
· Tera: Software-based graphics rendering with a Teradici PCoIP Hardware Accelerator to enhance VMware Horizon View performance by ensuring a consistent remote user experience.
· K1: Hardware GPU virtualization to provide Power User PC-like performance and graphics experience for the maximum number of concurrent users. This option includes a passively cooled NVIDIA GRID K1 with four NVIDIA Kepler architecture-based GPUs and 16GB of memory. Add a Teradici PCoIP Hardware Accelerator to extend the full GPU experience to remote users.
· K2: Hardware GPU virtualization to deliver maximum performance for users of graphics-intensive applications. This version includes an active-cooled NVIDIA GRID K2 with two higher-end Kepler GPUs and 8GB of memory and an upgraded 1100W power supply. Add a Teradici PCoIP Hardware Accelerator to increase up to 80% frames per seconds delivered to the endpoint for best remote user experience.
Pivot3 also offers a variety of professional services options to assist customers with these options including:
· Onsite: Offers access to senior level Pivot3 engineers to perform onsite advanced installation services of the vSTAC R2S and P Cubed Appliance(s) and graphic acceleration options as laid out in the design at the time of the sale. The duration is determined through pre-sales engagement to ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to the project.
· Remote: In situations where the size of the deployment is appropriate, Pivot3 offers remote advanced installation services of the vSTAC R2S and P Cubed Appliance(s) and graphic acceleration options as laid out in the design at the time of the solution sale. The duration of installation is determined through pre-sales engagement ensuring that sufficient resources are allocated to the project.

Pivot3 vSTAC® products are purpose-built converged storage appliances that deliver simplicity, scalability and savings to VMware Horizon Suite deployments. The appliances simplify system operation and management by eliminating any need for SAN expertise. Today, the Pivot3 vSTAC R2S is the only converged storage appliance purpose-built for Horizon Suite that ships from the factory pre-configured and ready-to-deploy.