NVIDIA Tesla M10 For GRID Brings GPU-Accelerated Desktop Virtualization To The Enterprise
NVIDIA today introduced a new graphics card option for its GRID virtual desktop platform. It's the Tesla M10 and it's intended to make it more affordable for businesses to deliver virtualized desktops to all of their employees through a subscription model that starts at just $2 per user, per month (when signing up with a 3-year plan).
The pitch from NVIDIA is that business applications have grown beyond simple documents and spreadsheets where 2D acceleration was sufficient. Modern applications, including Outlook, Office 2016, web browsers, Adobe Photoshop, and even Windows 10 can all take advantage of GPU acceleration. It's a trend that's not going to change, and that's where the Tesla M10 comes into play.
NVIDIA says the Tesla M10 offers the highest user density in the industry. More specifically, it supports 64 desktops per board and 128 desktops per server, making it cost effective for enterprises to roll out virtualized desktops to all of their employees without having the accounting department scrambling to figure out how to pay for it all.
"High-performing knowledge workers require high-performing business applications for maximum productivity. That requires GPU acceleration," said Jim McHugh, vice president and general manager of the NVIDIA GRID business at NVIDIA. "With the highest user density in the industry, NVIDIA GRID with the Tesla M10 makes it easy and affordable for businesses to virtualize every application for knowledge workers with no compromise in performance."
The Tesla M10 is a mid-level Maxwell solution with four GPUs. It has 2,560 CUDA cores (640 per GPU) along with 32GB of GDDR5 memory, enough to stream apps to 64 virtualized desktops. That's also enough power to support 28 H.264 Full HD 1080p streams running at 30 frames per second.
"While the need for advanced GPU technology has commonly been associated with the usage of 3D applications, as enterprises make the move to software like Windows 10, Office 365, and other SaaS and web apps, IT departments will increasingly seek the benefits of GPU acceleration to provide everyday business tools to all of their users," said Robert Young, research director, IT Service Management and Client Virtualization Software at IDC.
Whether or not enterprises buy into the notion that 3D acceleration is needed across the board for today's applications and software suites remains to be seen. To that end, NVIDiA hopes to remove cost as a barrier. Tapping into virtualized apps on GRID is $2 per user, per month, while access to GRID virtual PCs run $6 per month, also per user.
NVIDIA points out that GRID is the industry standard for graphics virtualization and is supported by every enterprise OEM, and offers full compatibility with every PC application. The new GRID software is available now, while the Tesla M10 GPU option will roll out in August.
