Case Study: City of Alexandria achieves high-performance virtual desktops and $650K savings with NetApp EF-Series

A Flash-Enabled Hub for High-Performance Civic Training and Engineering

The City of Alexandria, Louisiana, moved roughly half of its 895 computer users to VMware virtual desktops to improve access to training materials at its regional police academy and to support civil engineers running CAD/CAM applications. Users experienced slow logins, storage-driven performance bottlenecks on spinning drives, time-consuming reimaging, and rising costs from frequent workstation refreshes.

Working with partner CMA Technology Solutions, the city deployed a NetApp EF560 all‑flash array (and NetApp E‑Series for police data) with NVIDIA GRID K2 acceleration to remove storage bottlenecks and maximize virtual desktop performance. The result: 10–25% better CAD performance versus dedicated workstations, faster logins and easier IT management, mobile field access for engineers, and projected savings of over $650,000 across 10 years.

City of Alexandria

Greg Able

Information Systems Manager