Toyota Motor Corp has adopted the cloud platform of Nutanix, a leader in the private cloud, hybrid, and multi-cloud computing, to build a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment. The new VDI can run 3D CAD software, delivering a new way of working for Toyota’s Engineering Design Group.
Interestingly the automobile manufacturer with approximately 360,000 employees worldwide was quick to announce its commitment to work style reform in 2016 and has introduced a work-from-home programme for about 13,000 employees. However, there were varying degrees of adoption among different departments.
The Engineering Design Group, for instance, was unable to support a remote-work model for all employees. Therefore, team members had to work from their physical workstations in the office whenever working on design projects using 3D CAD software. Besides, the DX Promotion Division was facing challenges with workstation maintenance and procurement costs.
To shift gears and solve the issue, Toyota decided to leverage hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) to build a VDI environment that can support high-performance applications and run 3D CAD software.
The Nutanix cloud platform supported Virtual Graphics Processing Unit (vGPU) functions required to render 3D graphics in HCI virtual environments.
The Nutanix cloud platform enabled a VDI environment for approximately 1,000-devices and was up and running far ahead of the automaker’s initial schedule to expand its VDI environment. Employees in the Engineering Design Group also said the move enabled them to work in a new way, and this became even more important when they were forced to work from home due to the spread of COVID-19 but were able to continue performing design work without interruptions.