About IBM Smart Business Desktop Cloud (SBDC)

IBM Smart Business Desktop cloud computing services helps you provide "anytime, anywhere" access to virtual desktops, applications and information.

For organizations that need to provide simplified, secure access to information and reduce IT cost, complexity and energy consumption, IBM offers desktop virtualization solutions using cloud computing that centralize a distributed client environment, help safeguard data and applications, and help increase business flexibility. IBM desktop virtualization solutions help reduce the cost of desktop hardware and management, and integrate hardware, software and services. With comprehensive services including assessment and planning, design and implementation, managed services, and a subscription-based hosting service, IBM SBCD can address your organization's unique needs.

The Cloud Desktop Storage and Performance Challenge

Cloud-based desktops execute on hypervisors in a compute cloud and generate IO traffic to a storage cloud. The latency between the compute cloud and the storage cloud is a critical factor in achieving a high performance virtual desktop experience. Today’s operating systems and applications are designed to operate with a low latency dedicated local disk for every desktop. For example, the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems is dependent on performing IO intensive tasks such as file layout optimization, background defragmentation, antivirus scanning and virtual memory paging. However, in a cloud desktop environment, these tasks result in placing a heavy tax on the storage cloud as each user, application and desktop compete for limited IO throughput (measured in input/output per second-IOPS). Without adequate storage capacity, throughput (IOPS) and low latency, virtual desktops take longer to boot and applications respond sluggishly.

Atlantis ILIO: Cutting Storage Costs and Boosting Performance for the Cloud

Atlantis ILIO is a critical component of the IBM Smart Business Desktop Cloud that reduces storage costs and complexity and boosts desktop performance. By leveraging the Atlantis ILIO best-in-class Input/Output (IO) virtualization technology, IBM can provide customers with a cloud-based desktop computing solution that delivers the performance that users demand and the storage cost reductions that are required to deliver cloud-based computing at a lower cost that physical PCs.  

Atlantis ILIO: A Critical Component of IBM SBDC

Atlantis ILIO is deployed in the IBM SBDC Element rack to offload IO traffic and deduplicate shared desktop components on-the-fly before they hit the IBM storage cloud. The Atlantis ILIO appliance is available as part of the three IBM SBDC implementation strategies:
•    Assessment and Planning Services — Your first step to client virtualization. This assessment workshop helps determine support challenges and provides a high-level architecture roadmap. It also includes a report that highlights findings, gaps, opportunities and a business case.
•    Project Based Services — A dedicated solution that is built to your specifications by developing use cases that are representative of your end user community. Delivered to your end users from your site or an IBM data center.
•    Managed Services — Pre-designed, standardized service that provides a reliable, repeatable, and cost effective solution. Based on usage-based pricing with a monthly pricing charge that includes an option for you to adjust your expenditures to match the changes in your business requirements.