ABS looks to the virtual desktop

June 25, 2009:The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is implementing Expand Networks’ WAN optimisation technology to complete its organisation-wide virtualization strategy of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

Deployed in the data centre as a virtual image on existing VMware ESX Hypervisor, Expand’s Virtual Accelerators will enable the rollout by ABS to migrate employees across the country to VDI.

Accelerating the delivery of traffic over the WAN by over 300%, the implementation is intended to bring users across seven regional offices into virtual proximity of their applications and data centre services.

Bruce Buckham, Servers, Systems and Storage Manager at the ABS explains; “After investing heavily in a server virtualisation project, we are keen to complete our strategy by deploying a virtual desktop infrastructure. However, for the users in the regional offices who will receive their entire desktop over the WAN, we need to accelerate the data transfer to make it a workable experience.”

Leveraging existing virtual infrastructure in the data centre, Expand’s WAN Optimization technology is deployed as a “virtual image”.

Buckham adds, “Without Expand’s Virtual Accelerator, our virtual desktop plans would have stalled. The accelerators will help us realize our virtual investment, and being virtual, they fit perfectly with our strategy.”

The ABS can use VMware’s suite of services to deploy, manage, maintain and assure the Expand Accelerator Image within the existing virtualised infrastructure.

In trials with 45 users in the ABS’ Perth office, the government department achieved data traffic levels of approximately 54MB through the 18MB WAN. The implementation will also enable the replacement of cumbersome local tape backup procedures with a more efficient IBM Tivoli network backup.

Steve O’Brien, Vice President of Expand Networks APAC explains; “A common frustration for many organizations starting down the virtualization path is that once they get to rolling out VDI, they hit a roadblock as their WAN struggles to cope with the application load. Many of these companies are hesitant to bring in new hardware to optimize the data traffic because it goes against their virtual infrastructure plans.

"Our Virtual Accelerator, which is effectively an accelerator ‘image’, avoids the need for additional hardware, while still providing all the benefits of an Expand solution including application acceleration and QoS. The best part is that before a physical appliance can be boxed and labeled for shipment, a virtual appliance can be installed, configured and actively optimizing traffic.”