Case Study: ATS Automation achieves 7x VDI performance and one-fifth the cost with VMware vSAN

ATS Automation Accelerates VDI Performance by 7x with VMware Virtual SAN at One-Fifth the Cost of Competing Solution

ATS Automation, a global manufacturer based in Cambridge, Ontario, needed to expand and improve its VDI to better support a remote workforce of engineers running graphics‑intensive 3D CAD tools, while avoiding the high cost of SAN upgrades and standardizing disparate remote sites. To meet these challenges, ATS Automation evaluated hyper‑converged options and selected VMware vSAN (together with VMware Horizon) for a cost‑effective, software‑defined storage foundation.

VMware vSAN was deployed on Dell R730 servers with NVIDIA GRID GPUs to support VMware Horizon, delivering workstation‑level VDI performance: a 7x increase in IOPS (26,396 average), latency cut almost 5x to ~1.34 ms, and an initial rollout supporting ~90 desktops (about 50 active users), all at roughly one‑fifth the cost of comparable Nutanix solutions. The quick, simple deployment with VMware vSAN simplified provisioning, freed the small IT team for strategic projects, and enabled ATS Automation to scale capacity further.

ATS Automation

Drew Kemp

Senior Systems Administrator