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

VCI Performance Accelerates by 7x with VMware Virtual SAN

ATS Automation, a global manufacturing and factory-automation provider based in Cambridge, Ontario, needed to expand its virtual desktop infrastructure to better support a dispersed workforce of engineers using graphics‑intensive 3D CAD tools (SolidWorks, AutoCAD). Expanding their existing SAN was prohibitively expensive and the environment couldn’t deliver workstation‑level GPU performance, while many remote sites used nonstandard hardware that complicated centralization.

The company deployed VMware Virtual SAN with VMware Horizon on Dell R730 servers equipped with NVIDIA GRID GPUs, supporting about 90 desktops (≈50 concurrent users). The hyper‑converged solution delivered 7x higher IOPS (≈26,396 avg) and reduced latency to ~1.34 ms, enabled reliable workstation‑level VDI for CAD, was one‑fifth the cost of a comparable Nutanix option, and allowed fast provisioning that freed IT to focus on strategic projects.

ATS Automation

Drew Kemp

Senior Systems Administrator