In today’s fast-paced and technology-driven business landscape, companies are continually seeking ways to optimize their computer performance while managing costs effectively. The demand for increased computing power, seamless application performance, and rapid data processing has become paramount as businesses grapple with ever-expanding data sets and resource-intensive applications. At the same time, cost considerations remain at the forefront of decision-making processes, prompting organizations to strike a delicate balance between performance and expenditure. Whether it’s upgrading existing on-premises infrastructure, adopting cloud solutions, or exploring hybrid environments, businesses are on a relentless quest to find the perfect equilibrium between maximizing computer performance and minimizing operational expenses to stay competitive in their respective markets.
Narrowing down a virtual desktop solution can be challenging. Especially when businesses want to get the best performance at the lowest cost. It’s a balancing act and is something we here at Advance2000 consult with our customers on daily: finding the best, most comprehensive solution to meet their business goals.
Here we will discuss a common challenge that is determining which virtual desktop solution has the best performance to meet their user needs while staying on budget.
One of the leading industries seeking out maximized performance is the AEC industry. Using high-compute, resource-intensive applications such as SolidWorks, Autodesk, and Bluebeam requires a quality solution to meet the daily grind of these applications.
Advance2000 has helped several businesses perform side-by-side comparison between virtual desktop offerings. The most common request is to compare Advance2000’s Private Cloud Virtual Desktop offering against Microsoft Azure Public Cloud offering.
The following have been the key take ways of these tests.
50% Performance Difference with Rendering Jobs
We ran a series of tests, across multiple customer environments, which yielded similar results. Advance2000 Private Cloud allows for a tailored solution, specific to the customer, with the outcome of better performance. A lot of this has to do with the control we and the customer both have compared to working through Microsoft Azure with limited access to implement customer specific configurations. This is because Microsoft is a public cloud offering which limits the granular control needed to deliver these tailored solutions.
Mouse Performance
One of users’ biggest pet peeves is the laggy or “jerky” mouse effect that can be experienced while working on a virtual desktop platform. While performing testing it was documented that Advance2000 virtual desktop provided no mouse performance issues. However, inside Microsoft Azure virtual desktop testing there were noticeable mouse performance issues while performing the same testing while working with the architectural desktops & models.
Limited Model Lag
Modeling lag can occur due to several different reasons. Some examples are listed below.
- Files
- Corrupt file
- File Size
- Unresolved external references
- Unneeded named objects, blocks, and or registered apps
- Etc.
- Hardware
- Computer specifications not met to vendor system requirements. RAM, GPU, and CPU.
- Graphics card not certified or is malfunctioning.
- Graphics card driver
- Disk usages & free space
- Etc.
- System Issues
- Poor backend network
- Network drive access issues
- Slow internet connection
- Drawings trying to access network files, external reference, etc. cannot be opened or found.
- Etc.
However, during testing with customers we removed common obstacles to focus purely on the two providers’ virtual desktop performance. During this testing it was discovered Advance2000’s performance was 2X higher than that of Microsoft Azure.
Costs
Cost comparisons here will come down to how a customer uses the product. In our comparison scenarios we collaborated with customers on a cost analysis against our premium support plan pricing vs Microsoft’s standard usage billing.
The average customer’s usage calculated into Microsoft billing model was anywhere from 28%-40% higher than Advance2000’s monthly costs.
Microsoft Azure is based off a usage or metered cost model. Business will get billed for how often machines are used and several additional hidden transaction fees. Advance2000 has a lower overall cost, flat rates, and doesn’t bill for file transfers on storage. Additionally, businesses don’t get billed until projects are completed, minimizing entry costs.
An additional business case to consider is that of the technical staff expertise needed to manage a Microsoft Azure Environment. Advance2000 empowers the business owner and the modern CIO to control costs and reduce risk. Public cloud providers require businesses to have greater IT staff dependency with less control. Meaning, to manage, maintain, and support an environment in Microsoft Azure, a business will need to hire dedicated technical staff, inherently increasing the IT budget cost requirements.
Advanace2000 premium cloud support plans take those extended costs away from the customer to reallocate that money towards technology to further meet and improve their technical goals. This allows the company to focus on business while Advance2000 focuses on their IT.
At the end of all the testing’s performed, through multiple customers, it was determined that Advance2000’s Private Cloud Virtual Desktop solution provides greater performance and greater value versus a comparable Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop.
- On average was twice the speed.
- No mouse performance loss.
- Limited Model Lag
- Less Cost
- Metered Usage Cost vs Fixed Monthly Cost
Schedule a consult and demo today with Advance2000. Let us show you the value of our products and how we compare against the public cloud providers today!