LEOSTREAM. Case Study Remote Access to High-Performance Applications

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1 LEOSTREAM TM ~ Case Study Remote Access to High-Performance Applications Freescale Semiconductor deploys virtual desktop infrastructure solution to provide global engineers with secure access to high-performing applications Large, geographically distributed organizations often have disparate IT infrastructure at multiple locations. This increases hardware, software and management costs, and makes it difficult to support critical applications and end users effectively. These were some of the challenges facing Freescale Semiconductor, a global leader in embedded processing solutions for the automotive, consumer, industrial and networking markets. The following case study outlines how through their partnership with Dell, Freescale Semiconductor replaced 18 data centers with 2 large VDI centers and 3 satellites. With its inclusion of the Leostream Connection Broker and OpenText Exceed ondemand, the Dell VDI securely connects a globally distributed workforce to high-performance applications with an in-office experience.

2 Background To support its operations, and maintain its leadership position in the semiconductor industry, Freescale operates 18 research and engineering facilities globally. Engineers at each of these sites need highly secure access to high-performance-computing infrastructure as well as processor-intensive electronic design automation (EDA) applications, such as Cadence and Synopsys. To protect intellectual property, minimize the design cycle and speed time-to-market for new semiconductor designs and layouts, engineers need secure, in the office application performance, wherever they are based. Until recently, Freescale deployed, maintained and supported separate data centers to deliver EDA applications at each of its 18 global engineering locations. This made it difficult to provide the latest software and services to users around the world and increased overhead and management complexity. To improve security and service quality, and achieve new economies of scale, the company decided to consolidate and centralize its IT infrastructure at just two data center sites. It needed to enable secure, global access to EDA applications via a Linux virtualized desktop infrastructure (VDI). Freescale went to market for a VDI solution that could support its requirements for security, high-performance computing and global access. They asked three of the world s leading IT solution providers, including Dell, to come on-site and build a proof of concept for a VDI that could provide a secure, super-fast application experience for engineers, wherever in the world they work. Ultimately, Freescale choose Dell to deliver their global VDI from end to end. The requirements to provide Linux virtualized desktop, to use a high-performance protocol, and to provide anywhere access lead Dell to include the Leostream Connection Broker in their solution. Solution As the first step in the VDI deployment, Dell helped Freescale select and install the best infrastructure components. These include the latest-generation Dell blade servers, integrated with Violin flash memory arrays. Violin memory provides much lower latency than traditional spinning-disk storage, delivering an exceptionally fast app experience for Freescale global engineers. The Dell environment is also optimized to work with VMware, the feature-rich hypervisor they chose to support their VDI. Customer Profile Freescale Semiconductor, a leader in embedded processing solutions, employs over 18,000 employees in design, research and development, manufacturing, and sales operations in more than 20 countries around the world. Freescale is headquartered in Austin, Texas. Objective Consolidate IT infrastructure from 18 research and engineering facilities into two data centers while providing secure, in-theoffice application performance to a global workforce. Overview Technologies Used: Leostream Connection Broker OpenText Exceed ondemand application access solution VMware virtualization platform, hosting Linux VMs Xangati performance monitoring software Dell PowerEdge Portfolio Benefits Secure, in-the-office application experience for global engineers IT service delivery costs reduced by up to 20 percent Scalable infrastructure helps future-proof operations Faster application performance speeds innovation and time-tomarket Anytime, anywhere working improves work/life balance

3 Freescale chose Dell Networking S4810 High-Performance 10/40 GbE switches to connect its servers and storage. This supports super-fast application performance based on ultra-lowlatency throughput. The result? Super-fast response times with the Dell Networking infrastructure, which are ideal for highperformance computing applications. To ensure that applications are highly secure and able to meet the performance requirements of global engineers, Dell brought together VDI technologies from a team of innovative project partners. OpenText was chosen to provide its Exceed OnDemand solution, which delivers secure, in the office performance for Freescale engineers in remote locations based on ultra-low-latency connectivity, wide area network (WAN) optimization and intelligent caching. At the same time, Leostream added another layer of security, providing vendoragnostic connection broker technology that authenticates end users and gives them secure access to applications and services whenever and wherever they need them. Finally, Xangati technology was deployed to support real-time performance monitoring for the VDI. With Dell coordinating the project, OpenText, Leostream and Xangati worked together seamlessly to integrate their respective technologies and deliver a best-ofbreed solution to meet requirements for application security, performance and global access. Leostream s unique ability to manage Linux desktops made it a natural choice for Freescale. In addition, Leostream s interconnectivity with Microsoft Active Directory eased administration by performing policy assignment based on the user s AD group membership. As Frescale onboards new users, they simply place the users in the correct AD group and Leostream automatically assigns the user to the correct resources. Leostream makes it easy to scale up our environment by providing policy assignment based on the user s Active Directory group membership. In addition, Leostream s rolebased administration allows us to provide support staff with access to the Administrator tools they need to service a user s VM, without allowing them to modify the Connection Broker configuration. Matt Birkner EC Infrastructure Architect Freescale Semiconductor Suggested Resource EBook: Hosted Desktop Solutions with Pixel-Perfect Graphics > Download Now Freescale also takes advantage of Leostream s flexible tools for creating and managing pool and its role-based administration. Freescale uses the Leostream tagging feature to define customized pools of desktops and then defined roles that provided the correct level of management rights (such as rebooting desktops and checking the desktop status) to those desktops to a subset of operators.

4 Results and Benefits With the Dell-powered VDI successfully deployed, Freescale is gradually migrating distributed engineers onto the new platform. For example, when an engineer s workstation reaches the end of its useful life, he or she will be migrated onto the Dell VDI. Freescale currently has about 1,000 engineers around the world who are authorized to access resources through the VDI, and they expect to rise to 3,000 engineers over time, enabling them to eliminate rich-client workstations from the environment altogether. Secure, in the office application experience for global engineers By including Leostream and other partners in the solution, Freescale engineers based at more than 80 locations around the world now enjoy secure, in the office application performance wherever they are working. Freescales global pools of engineers can take advantage of super-computing resources via the Dell VDI. With no need to pass large data sets between desktop endpoints and the data center, performance is excellent even where large geographical distances are involved. Faster application performance speeds innovation and time-to-market Super-fast application performance is speeding the design process at Freescale and helping the company bring new, revenue-generating products to market faster. Because globally distributed engineers now have fast, reliable access to EDA applications via the Dell VDI, the organization has been able to streamline the design process and accelerate the development of new, innovative products. This is helping Freescale to cement its reputation as an industry leader and to gain critical competitive advantage. IT service delivery costs reduced by up to 20 percent With the Dell-powered VDI, Freescale has been able to consolidate its 18 data center locations to just two sites, dramatically reducing infrastructure, management, and power and cooling costs. They have reduced the service delivery overheads by 20 percent by centralizing the infrastructure at just two locations with Dell. In addition, Freescale can make investments to upgrade and update its systems more regularly something that was always a challenge with 18 geographically distributed data centers. Scalable infrastructure future-proofs operations In the past, increased processing requirements or storage requirements for new software releases required Freescale to undertake costly upgrades of desktop infrastructure. Now, however, additional resources can be allocated to virtualized desktops centrally, eliminating the need to replace desktops when new software versions are released. Previously, significant upgrades to EDA applications required Freescale to replace costly desktop workstations. However, the organization can now quickly and easily upgrade two-processor machines to six or eight processor machines with a maximum of 520GB of RAM. This means the latest software releases can be accomodated without ripping and replacing desktop infrastructure. Increased uptime maximizes productivity The centralized, virtualized desktop infrastructure can be upgraded and updated with no disruptions to end-users services. This ensures that EDA applications are constantly available, and that critical design processes are never interrupted or delayed. Desktops can now be patched without kicking users off machines. Ultimately, users never experience frustrating downtime with the Dell VDI and Freescale can be sure that technology issues will never delay critical design or manufacturing work.

5 Anytime, anywhere working improves work/life balance By providing access via Leostream, engineers around the world can now access EDA applications and other business tools on the devices of their choice. This means that Freescale can support a Bring Your Own Device strategy and that engineers can work effectively from anywhere, on any device. If a project is finishing after hours or on the weekend, engineers can log in to their virtualized desktop from their tablet or smartphone, check that everything is going to plan, and continue with what they were doing. This improves the experience for employees and helps to achieve a better work/life balance. Summary Through their partnership with Dell, Freescale Semiconductor replaced 18 data centers with 2 large VDI centers and 3 satellites. With its inclusion of the Leostream Connection Broker and OpenText Exceed ondemand, the Dell VDI securely connects a globally distributed workforce to highperformance applications with an in-office experience. About Leostream Leostream provides critical connection broker technology for delivering hosted desktops, virtual desktops, applications, and other hosted resources to end-users, simply and securely. Free Trial To evaluate the Leostream Connection Broker, please visit leostream.com and click on the homepage link for a free trial. You can purchase the Leostream Connection Broker by contacting Leostream at x710 or by contacting sales@leostream.com. > Free 30 Day Trial 2014 Leostream Corporation. The following are trademarks of Leostream Corporation: Leostream, the Leostream graphical logo. The absence of a product name or logo from this list does not constitute a waiver of the trademark or other intellectual property rights concerning that product, name, or logo by Leostream. Other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Leostream claims no right to use of these marks.