Hybrid flash/disk array startup Nimble Storage has effectively joined Cisco’s server partner channel with a VDI reference architecture promising low-cost VDI serving off its arrays.
The architecture supports 1,000 VDI users, takes up a trivial 3U of rack space, and costs $43,000 – $43 per desktop. That contrasts with a Tintri cost of less than $200/per virtual desktop in a 1,000-user system. I dare say this is not an apples-for-apples comparison with that $/desktop cost disparity though.
The ref architecture is composed of:
- Cisco UCS B-Series Blade server platform including six UCS B230 M2 blades, each with dual-socketed 10-core Intel CPU and 256GB RAM
- One Nimble CS220G-X2 array with twelve 1TB hard disk drives and four 160GB flash SSDs
- Dual, redundant 10GbitE connections between the Nimble array and UCS Fabric Interconnect
- Windows 7 Enterprise virtual desktops with 1.5GB RAM and one CPU per desktop
- VMware View 5.1 with VMware vSphere.
More here….
http://goo.gl/yEuYs
