Case Study: Tamkang University slashes deployment time and TCO while enabling mobile access with VMware Virtual SAN and Horizon

Tamkang University Software Cloud Enhanced with New GPU Functions and VMware Virtual SAN

Tamkang University’s Office of Information Services launched the Tamkang Software Cloud in 2013 to improve campus software utilization and meet growing demand for mobile access to licensed applications. The challenge was to give faculty and students secure, up-to-date software on any device while scaling to thousands of users, supporting heavier engineering and future 3D workloads, and keeping storage and operational costs under control.

Tamkang partnered with VMware to deploy Horizon View (GPU-enabled) for virtual desktops, vSphere with VMware Virtual SAN for software‑defined storage, and vCenter Operations for automated management. The Phase I environment ran 200 virtual desktops across five Xeon servers and has since attracted nearly 6,000 registered users and ~50,000 logins (by June 2014). Results include faster provisioning (from two weeks to one day), reduced host count and IDC/power costs, lower TCO for storage, and decreased manpower while improving reliability; Phase II will add engineering apps (AutoCAD, Pro/E) to benefit 4,000–5,000 students.

Tamkang University

Hwang Ming-ta

Professor & Head of Office of Information Services