Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


Virtual SAN Boosts Virtual Desktops at Oregon State U College of Business

Oregon State University's College of Business has improved the performance of its virtual desktop infrastructure with the deployment of VMware Virtual SAN as a new storage tier for the institution's VMware Horizon 6 environment — at one-third the cost of a new storage area network.

"We were facing a few challenges with our VDI environment including high IOPS workloads and we did not have budget for a new traditional SAN," said Alan Sprague, senior system administrator, College of Business at Oregon State University, in a prepared statement. "VMware Virtual SAN ... enabled us to take advantage of the server infrastructure we had already purchased and turn into a platform to increase the performance and stability of the VDI environment without spending more money on a new SAN."

The College of Business has two open-use computer labs running VMware Horizon 6, with a 170-user capacity. Students use the virtual desktop environment to access high IOPS intensive applications such as Adobe Creative Suite, Autodesk AutoCAD and Microsoft Visual Studio. Prior to the implementation of VMware Virtual SAN, the VDI environment suffered from latency issues and occasional loss in service during peak usage.

IT staffers turned to VMware Virtual SAN last year to address the strained VDI setup as well as eliminate manual workarounds, according to a press release. After testing and refining the system in the summer, they completed the implementation of the new storage platform in time for fall class sessions to begin. Now, students and faculty have uninterrupted access to virtual desktops with high performance even during peak load periods. IT reports that login times for classrooms have dropped to a minute or less.

Additional benefits include:

  • Increased IT staff productivity as a result of automatic load balancing and simplified storage management;
  • Predictable, lower cost per desktop; and
  • Easy scalability for VDI and storage environments.

The college is now planning to provide 24/7 student access to the network so that users can access virtual desktops offsite.

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • CIS Sandbox Tutor Eli Blouin at Bentley University imagines a future technology learning partner that supports curiosity, critical thinking, feedback, and personalized learning.

    Student Voices: Technology as a Future Learning Partner

    A data analytics and marketing major at Bentley University and a distinguished lecturer at the university explore the future of "technology learning partners" — technologies that participate in the learning process by asking questions and giving feedback, not just information search results.

  • Abstract energetic glowing lines with particles

    Meta Steps Up Enterprise AI Ambitions with Muse Spark Launch

    Meta has announced the launch of Muse Spark 1.1, a multimodal reasoning model designed for agentic AI, alongside a new Meta Model API that gives developers access to the model for the first time.

  • Businessman using laptop analyzing data and growth graph chart

    AI Budgets in Education Show No Sign of Decline

    The vast majority of education organizations (98%) expect their AI infrastructure budgets to either increase or hold steady over the next year, according to a recent report from cloud storage provider Wasabi.

  • Dana Brunson facilitates a roundtable discussion with research and higher education IT leaders

    Internet2: Closing the Access Gap for Research Cyberinfrastructure

    Internet2's Research Engagement Team brings CIOs and other campus technology leadership together with research computing and data facilitators, forming a community that enables research cyberinfrastructure at institutions of all types and sizes.