I guess it would be best to try it out for yourself; nVidia has a free
test drive (only if you are in North America unfortunately, so I can't
try it):
http://test-drive-grid.com/?content=NVIDIABlogPost&medium=Web&source=NVIDIA
Something to keep in mind that EULAs for some products restrict you to
using the licenses only at your physical location.
Best regards,
Vlado
On 7/15/2014 11:46 PM, Angus Davidson wrote:
Subject way out of left field.
Anyone have any experience in Grid Computing / Virtualisation.
Currently we employ the standard 1 person / per workstation rational.
In the longer run its an unsustainable model because we are unable to
push up lab fees to keep up with our required expenditure. Something
will have to give somewhere. Grid hardware is something we might
actually have a shot of getting the university to invest in ;) Its one
of those crazy things.
So we have three main options.
1. We work with a more flexible arrangement and have more people per
workstation
2. We keep the level of hardware to the absolute minimum spec
(dropping our cost per physical seat)
3. We virtualise in a way that allows us to make use far cheaper
workstations, (so basically just a HD receiver) even tablets for
some courses.
We currently run, TV Paint, Autodesk (XSI, Maya), Adobe, Unity3d, The
Foundry (Modo, Nuke) products. Nothing which I can see from the bits I
have followed up on the Nvidia and Citrix Websites so far that would
cause issues.
We are looking at about 120 users that would need access , probably up
to 80 connected at the same time.
Has anyone actually sat in front of a Virualised workstation and been
able to say , can’t really tell the difference ? Or this just really
sucks monkey balls.
Everything always looks fine from the brochures / videos.
Although haven’t as yet seen one with Soft etc rendering in it.
Kind regards
Angus
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