Healthcare provider chooses high performing VDI solution

Michel Gruppe AG, one of Switzerland’s most advanced healthcare providers, manages a private clinic, a mental healthcare facility, and three other medical institutions in the Berner Overland region. The company is known for its quality of service, which translates to higher demand from staff to work quickly and effectively. Immediate access to patient files is crucial.

Michel Gruppe AG had opted for a full VDI solution to improve its IT infrastructure in 2013. However, the company’s existing SAN storage was unable to meet the VDI’s system requirement, managing to only support up to 150 workstations before performance would rapidly decline. IT staff attempted to increase the number of users but this resulted in making the system almost unusable. A solution was needed that would save the initial investment in VDI and deliver faster performance to all workstations.

Working with its partner ActiveIT, Atlantis Computing was able to offer its software-defined storage solution, Atlantis USX, with an HPE all-flash array to replace Michel Gruppe’s old HDD solution. The deployment process was extremely fast, with the new solution taking over from the old system in just 15 minutes. Atlantis USX can integrate and operate in RAM, ensuring high-speed performance for all virtual desktops. The new solution with Atlantis now underpins 380 users and shows no signs of slowing down.

Markus Durrer, IT manager, Michel Gruppe AG said, “Prior to this deployment, it would take our employees approximately 10-15 minutes to boot up their computer and log in. Additionally, opening an Excel spreadsheet or printing a single page could take another 5-10 minutes each time. Using the Atlantis software as part of the VDI deployment has helped to reduce this to just over 30 seconds. These time savings significantly impact the entire organisation, helping us be more efficient than ever. We believe that we can reach up to 450 users in our existing set up and we plan to expand our footprint even further with no concerns about performance thanks to Atlantis.”

Chris Plant, Atlantis Computing EMEA vice president said,  “We are thrilled to be able to help boost the productivity of such an important establishment. The Atlantis software has made a considerable difference to the IT team, freeing up time that was previously spent firefighting and maintaining old desktops. By delivering a solution through a simple management console means that the IT team saves around one day a week in time now that they no longer have to worry about storage performance issues.”