Resellers welcome Nvidia's new vGPU at vForum Sydney

Graphics processor vendor NVIDIA has released GRID 2.0 in Australia, catching the attention of VDI providers by doubling the user density per server.

The NVIDIA GRID product enables GPU acceleration to be shared among virtual desktops, and is used by solutions providers for customers with graphics-heavy applications.

The vendor announced that version 2.0 doubles the user capacity per server to 128, doubles the application performance, plus adds support for blades and Linux.

The new technology was on show at VMware's vForum conference in Sydney yesterday. As well as demonstrating at its own exhibition stand, the technology could be seen at NVIDIA partner stands.

Darryl Crossley, technical lead of Sydney-based IT provider BEarena, brought on stage a customer from the construction industry that had already benefitted from NVIDIA GRID and VMware's VDI product Horizon View.

"NVIDIA has announced GRID 2.0 and we're going to do that upgrade in the next 12 months. That'll be a significant improvement to our users," said Matt Day, IT manager for Langs Building Supplies.

"Mistakes in our industry cost a lot of money," said the Day. "VDI and VMware Horizon View allow us to bypass all the problems."

Another partner trialling the technology is Melbourne-based Cloud Solutions Group. Director Josh Rubens told CRN: "My guys are doing some testing with it. It should help accelerate graphics-centric VDI adoption as [NVIDIA] are touting 2x graphics processing capability per card. 

"This should make the business case more attractive as you could get double the amount of users onto each VDI host," said Rubens.

Cloud Solutions Group was an early driver of the first generation of NVIDIA Grid cards, including a high-profile deployment that allowed architecture firm Hassell to do graphics-intensive CAD work from remote parts of the country working on files hosted Amazon Web Services.

BEarena and Cloud Solutions Group both appeared in the 2014 CRN Fast50, at No.11 and No.32, respectively.

NVIDIA ANZ country manager Mark Patane said that GRID 2.0 is supported on 125 different server models – including those from Cisco, Dell, HP and Lenovo – and paid tribute to its technology and distribution partners that helped bring the product to fruition.

"NVIDIA has worked closely with Citrix and VMware as well as trusted distribution channels in Avnet in Australia and PB Tech in New Zealand to bring a rich graphics experience to end-users on the industry’s leading virtualisation platforms," he said.