University Hospitals of Leicester Turns to Atlantis Computing, Centralis and IBM for Integrated Desktop Virtualization Solution

LONDON and ARMONK, N.Y., Nov. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL), one of the biggest National Health Service trusts in the United Kingdom, deployed an integrated desktop virtualization (VDI) solution to increase the performance of the centralized desktops for more than 14,000 doctors, nurses and administrative staff.

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Experiencing declining desktop virtualization performance, an aging fleet of PCs and increasing infrastructure management costs, UHL relied upon IBM Business Partners Atlantis Computing™ and Centralis with IBM to design and implement a new IT infrastructure based on IBM PureFlex Systems and Atlantis ILIO storage optimization software. UHL also chose the VMware Horizon™ Suite to further transform its desktop computing environment.

The integrated implementation is currently in the first phase of deployment and has already reduced UHL's capital expenditures (CAPEX) cost per desktop by 50 percent. System boot-up time is now under five seconds, compared to the previous 15 minutes. Log-in time has been reduced to less than 10 seconds. Both improvements are helping to increase staff productivity and allowing UHL's doctors and nurses to see more patients and spending more time with patients while providing better care. UHL estimates it will save millions of pounds in operational, management and data center costs over the lifetime of the project.

"In addition to significantly cutting our operational costs, the improved security and centralized control of our desktop transformation allows us to more easily prove compliance with National Health Service governance directives," said Dave Rose, Head of Design authority, UHL. "Furthermore, the improved performance realized with our new desktop virtualization implementation is allowing our doctors to spend less time waiting to access their devices and more time with their patients, thus improving the care we provide."

The UHL VDI solution consists of:

• Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI™ software to allow the use of local server RAM as storage for the virtual desktops, dramatically lowering cost and improving desktop performance;
• IBM PureFlex System to combine compute, storage and management into a single infrastructure to optimize and automate the deployment and maintenance of workloads;
• VMware Horizon View™ stateless and persistent virtual desktops to provide the security and control of centralized desktops and deliver increased performance and simplified management; VMware Horizon Mirage™ to centrally manage physical desktops used by junior clinicians; and VMware Horizon Workspace™ to provide secure access to and control of data on any device while reducing infrastructure management costs.

"Migrating from a complex legacy IT environment onto a new architecture is all about risk management," said Bernard Harguindeguy, CEO of Atlantis Computing. "Choosing proven technologies with hundreds of deployments allows customers like UHL to deploy with confidence, while reducing the overall cost per desktop dramatically."

"NHS Trusts rely on IT to deliver effective healthcare and IT is under pressure to cut cost while improving performance, access and user experience," said Peter Wilkins, CTO, Centralis. "We passionately believe in the benefits of virtualized desktops and have worked with UHL to deliver industry-leading performance, great user experience and significant cost savings through a VDI solution optimized for health care users."

Since being launched in April 2012, more than 8,000 clients from 100 countries have selected IBM PureSystems, which offer clients an alternative to current enterprise computing models, where multiple and disparate systems require significant resources to set up and maintain. The PureFlex System enables organizations to more efficiently create and manage an infrastructure. PureApplication Systems help organizations reduce the cost and complexity of rapidly deploying and managing applications. PureData Systems are tuned for cloud computing and can consolidate more than 100 databases on a single system. In addition to the common web application patterns supported by PureApplication System, the combination of both PureData and PureApplication Systems can be used for end to end transaction workloads.

About University Hospitals of Leicester

University Hospitals of Leicester is one of the biggest and busiest National Health Service trusts in the country, incorporating the Leicester General, Glenfield and Royal Infirmary hospitals.  With more than 12,000 staff providing a range of services primarily for the one million residents of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, UHL's nationally and internationally-renowned specialty treatment and services in cardio-respiratory diseases, cancer and renal disorders reach a further two to three million patients from the rest of the country.  For more information, click here.

About Centralis

Centralis is one of the UK's leading independent IT consultancies, specializing in delivering applications securely to their point of use. Formed in 1996, Centralis' mission is to help customers reduce cost and improve business agility through innovative, award-winning solutions backed by top-level partnership with industry leading vendors, including Citrix, Microsoft and VMware. Centralis provides consultancy, support, managed services and resale of selected products. Strong technical skills and commitment to delivering on time and to budget has led to long-term business partnerships with many customers across the private and public sectors. Centralis remains independent and wholly owned by employee shareholders. For further information, click here. Follow Centralis on Twitter @Centralis_UK.

About Atlantis Computing

Atlantis Computing addresses the challenges of storage-intensive applications in private and public clouds: performance, cost, disaster recovery, and the ability to scale-out on demand. Atlantis ILIO software complements virtualization solutions from Citrix, Microsoft and VMware to optimize the use of data center storage by virtualized desktops and servers, automate large scale deployment and management, and lower implementation risks. Atlantis Computing is privately held and funded by Adams Street Partners, Cisco Systems, El Dorado Ventures and Partech International, with headquarters in Mountain View, California and offices in Europe. For more information, click here or follow us on Twitter @AtlantisILIO. 

About IBM

For more about IBM, visit here.  For more information on IBM PureSystems, visit here.

Atlantis Computing, Atlantis ILIO and Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI, In-Memory VDI, Atlantis ILIO for XenApp, Atlantis ILIO FlexCloud and Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI are trademarks of Atlantis Computing, Inc.  All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, PureSystems, PureFlex, Power Systems, System x, PureApplication, PureData, Storwize, Smarter Planet and the planet icon are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. For a current list of IBM trademarks, please see www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.

VMware, Horizon Suite, Horizon Workspace, Horizon View and Horizon Mirage are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. The use of the word "partner" or "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

All other company, product or service names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of others.

Media Contacts:

Francine U. Fiano
IBM Media Relations – STG
914-766-4434
[email protected]

Peter Woods
Centralis Marketing Manager
07918 748417
[email protected]

Federica Monsone / Katie Lewis
A₃ Communications for Atlantis Computing
+44 (0) 1252 875 203
[email protected] 
[email protected]

SOURCE IBM