Converged Infrastructure
FlexPod for 3D Graphics Visualization
FlexPod for 3D Graphics Virtualization with NVIDIA Quadro Virtual Datacenter Workstation (Quadro vDWS) addresses the critical need for secure, remote access to advanced 3D geology and geophysics applications and data for geographically dispersed, cross-disciplinary teams to improve collaboration and accelerate decision making.
FlexPod for 3D Graphics Virtualization with NVIDIA Quadro Virtual Datacenter Workstation (Quadro vDWS) addresses the critical need for secure, remote access to advanced 3D geology and geophysics applications and data for geographically dispersed, cross-disciplinary teams to improve collaboration and accelerate decision making.
By combining validated technologies from industry leaders in data management, networking, desktop virtualization, and graphics, Quadro vDWS delivers a complete virtual desktop solution with the proven 3D visualization capabilities your organization needs today and the ability to scale rapidly to address future requirements. The solution supports the primary desktop virtualization technologies provided by VMware, Citrix, Microsoft, and Red Hat, and can use a variety of network protocols to deliver high-intensity graphics. In environments where multiple high-resolution monitors are needed at the desktop and low-bandwidth networks are in place, this combination provides top performance and an excellent end-user experience.
Features and Benefits
The capabilities that set FlexPod for 3D Graphics Visualization apart.
Key Benefits
Extended 3D Visualization
Extends 3D visualization to engineers, geoscientists, and other workers wherever they are — local, remote office, in the field
Integrated Solution
Integrated solution that incorporates advanced technologies from NetApp, Cisco, and NVIDIA, coupled with industry-leading desktop virtualization and graphics transport providers
Fast and Easy to Deploy
Fast and easy to deploy, offering a single point of contact for support
Lower TCO
Lowers TCO by eliminating the need for desktop workstations that are decentralized, expensive, and difficult to maintain, enabling more effective, dynamic, and scalable resource sharing
Data Center Security
Keeps valuable assets — data and infrastructure — inside the data center, where they are protected and secure
Improved User Experience
Improves the user experience by increasing performance and enabling multiuser collaboration
Quadro vDWS Solution Capabilities
Eliminates Infrastructure Challenges
Eliminates the infrastructure challenges created by ever-growing datasets
Improves Collaboration
Improves collaboration within the organization
Available Where Needed
Makes visualization available where and when it's needed, including on mobile devices—without local data copies
Secure Sharing
Allows users to share the results of visualization across organizational boundaries while keeping valuable datasets secure
Centralized Management
Centralized management and allocation of resources improves business continuity and disaster recovery
Proven FlexPod Technology
Flexible Shared Infrastructure
FlexPod from NetApp and Cisco is a proven data center solution that offers a flexible, shared infrastructure that easily scales to support your growing workload demands without impacting performance. FlexPod provides reliable delivery of secure business applications with world-class speed. The solution offers 89% less planned downtime, 100+ record-breaking benchmarks, and 56% faster time to market for new applications.
NetApp FAS and AFF Hardware
NetApp FAS and AFF hardware reduces overall storage costs while delivering the necessary I/O performance for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) in conjunction with demanding industry applications. FAS and AFF support both all-flash and hybrid storage configurations to create an optimal storage platform for users' visualization needs.
Cisco UCS
Cisco UCS unites computing, networking, storage connectivity, and virtualization in a single cohesive system that meets the unique demands of desktop virtualization. Cisco UCS rack and blade servers feature extended memory for faster rendering, bigger datasets, more desktops per server, and low latency.
Cisco UCS Integration
Cisco UCS integrates computing resources with Cisco Nexus switches and a unified I/O fabric, which identifies and handles different types of network traffic, including storage I/O, streamed desktop traffic, management, and access to geological and geophysical applications.
NVIDIA Quadro Virtual Datacenter Workstation
Workstation Power in Data Center
Quadro vDWS technology delivers the rendering and processing power of a standalone workstation to the data center while adding the efficiency and flexibility of virtualization. This technology allows multiple users to share the graphics processing power of a single GPU, thereby broadening the accessibility of advanced subsurface visualization.
Responsive Experience on Any Device
For users, Quadro vDWS provides a highly responsive experience for demanding 3D graphics applications on any device, even tablets. The NVIDIA Tesla family of GPUs used in the FlexPod for 3D Graphics Virtualization solution features the most powerful rendering and computation power available.
Instant Access to Workspaces
Geoscientists and engineers can access their workspaces, data, and applications instantly and seamlessly without the need for heavy-duty workstations. Collaborators can view and manipulate the same images, eliminating potential points of confusion and miscommunication and saving valuable time.
Achieve Deeper Insight in Less Time
Effective Decision Making
Collaboration is the key to effective decision making. Removing data silos and being able to visualize diverse datasets independent of location helps close information gaps between domains to improve the safety, speed, and accuracy of operational decisions. Remote visualization can enable collaboration between remotely located experts to expedite decisions. It can also reduce the personnel required at the field location, thereby reducing health, safety, and environmental risks; decreasing costs; and simplifying logistics.
Centralized Data
FlexPod for 3D Graphics Visualization enables you to centralize important datasets in one or a few locations and make the results of visualization available wherever they're needed. Centralizing data simplifies data integration between systems and accelerates workflows across functions (geoscience and engineering). Geoscientists, engineers, and business decision makers can see important results in near real time, without the bottlenecks that result from transferring huge datasets over network connections.
Remote Field Support
FlexPod for 3D Graphics Visualization helps you to support and communicate with remote field operators and address the visualization and collaboration needs of geoscientists and engineers around the world. As a result, end users of all types have better access to information for deeper insight and faster decision making.
Improve Data Security and Quality
Centralized Data Mitigation
Dataset copies are not only time consuming; when data is copied and made available from multiple sources, data quality issues arise. Every copy is an opportunity for data to be corrupted, lost, or compromised by prying eyes. Centralizing data helps mitigate these issues, improves data quality, and reduces risks that can cost you millions of dollars annually.
Protected Data and IP
With FlexPod for 3D Graphics Visualization, your valuable data and IP remains in your data center, protected and secure. When you have to ensure compliance with national data export restrictions and in-country content laws, remote visualization facilitates analysis and collaboration that would otherwise be difficult or impossible.
Storage Efficiency and Cloud Options
Because data is stored on NetApp AFF and FAS storage, the solution also provides the tools to help you effectively manage and protect your data while increasing storage efficiency with deduplication, compression, and cloning technologies. Disaster recovery and business continuance options let you easily address specific data protection and data availability objectives. If you are exploring moving applications to the cloud, NetApp offers several options for storage in the cloud: NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP in AWS, Azure, and Google, and NetApp storage in IBM. NetApp can quickly and efficiently move data between cloud environments while preserving storage efficiencies like deduplication, compression, and compaction, thereby reducing overall costs for data movement.
Fully Tested
Tested with Leading Applications
FlexPod for 3D Graphics Virtualization with NVIDIA Quadro vDWS has been tested with geology and geophysics applications and datasets from leading providers such as Schlumberger, Halliburton, IHS Markit, and Paradigm, so you can be confident that the solution will work seamlessly with the applications you rely on.
Simplify Operations and Lower Costs
Eliminates Workstation Expense
Graphics-intensive applications have traditionally required specialized workstation hardware for best performance. Workstations are typically procured to meet peak performance needs, representing an expensive nonsharable resource that has to be deployed and managed outside the data center. As datasets grow in size and complexity, these workstations require more computing and visualization power, more local storage, and faster network connections to move data, which can mean frequent and expensive upgrades.
Efficient Shared Resource
FlexPod for 3D Graphics Visualization eliminates the expense and complexity of dedicated workstations, replacing them with a much more efficient and scalable shared resource capable of supporting workers wherever they are. The solution delivers higher resource utilization for greater return on investment. Because almost everything resides in the data center, this solution is much more reliable than workstations in dispersed locations, where power loss and other events can interrupt work and cause data loss.
Scalable Architecture
The FlexPod architecture is designed to scale easily as your needs change and grow. Need more storage? You can easily scale FlexPod storage capacity and performance. Need more compute horsepower? Simply add more UCS servers.
Stand Up New Infrastructure in Less Time
Rapid Deployment
No matter how carefully you plan, unforeseen needs can result in a requirement for more compute infrastructure in a hurry. Whether it's in an existing data center or a remote location, the integrated and tested design of FlexPod for 3D Graphics Visualization means that you can have a new infrastructure up and running in less time with less effort, providing a distinct competitive advantage when time is of the essence.
Open Delivery Ecosystem
Solution Delivery Partners
Select from a broad network of solution delivery partners to implement FlexPod. These partners understand your business requirements and are certified and trained on FlexPod, as well as complementary technologies, to deliver a complete enterprise or private cloud solution that fits your business needs.
Expert Guidance
Thrive with expert-led storage guidance
Get tailored advice on how FlexPod for 3D Graphics Visualization fits your environment — from sizing and deployment to long-term optimization.
Technical Specifications
Exhaustive hardware and software metrics extracted directly from official documentation.
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StorageNetApp AFF and FAS
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ComputeCisco UCS
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NetworkCisco Nexus Switches
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GraphicsNVIDIA GRID / NVIDIA Tesla family of GPUs
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VirtualizationNVIDIA Quadro Virtual Datacenter Workstation (Quadro vDWS)
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Hypervisor SupportVMware, Citrix, Microsoft, Red Hat
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Connection BrokerSupported
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Storage TypeAll-flash and hybrid storage configurations
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Storage EfficiencyDeduplication, compression, and cloning technologies
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Cloud OptionsNetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP in AWS, Azure, and Google, and NetApp storage in IBM
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Planned Downtime Reduction89% less planned downtime
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Benchmarks100+ record-breaking benchmarks
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Time to Market56% faster time to market for new applications
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Application ProvidersSchlumberger, Halliburton, IHS Markit, and Paradigm
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Application TypesGeology and geophysics applications and datasets
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Unified I/O FabricStorage I/O, streamed desktop traffic, management, and access to geological and geophysical applications
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