Case Study: ESSEC Business School achieves 10:1 data reduction and faster virtual desktops with Pure Storage

ESSEC, the Pioneering Spirit Applied to Desktop Virtualization with Pure Storage

ESSEC, a leading international business school, needed to modernize its IT as it moved administrative and student workstations from aging PCs (Windows XP) to virtual desktops on Windows 7. An internal audit identified a requirement for high‑performance storage (about 18 TB of fast drives) but ESSEC’s existing spinning‑disk array lacked deduplication and compression and was a severe performance bottleneck for VDI.

With integrator AntemetA’s help, ESSEC deployed Pure Storage FlashArray all‑flash systems and virtualized 1,200 desktops (600 + 600 across two arrays). The all‑flash solution delivered a 10:1 data reduction, cutting required capacity from an estimated 40 TB of HDDs to 4 TB of flash, sped up provisioning and self‑service resets, recovered 3 TB of storage, simplified administration, improved user satisfaction, and avoided nearly three years’ worth of budgeted hardware spend.

ESSEC Business School

Olivier Le Mao

Systems Manager