In the world of finance, trading requires fast decisions and reaction speed is of the essence. So when Bellevue Group started to feel the ping of performance degradation in its VDI environment it knew it had to find a solution. Researchers in the trading department work with sophisticated spreadsheet models and they need to crunch those numbers fast.

Bellevue needed a solution that would deliver virtual desktops and applications with top-of-line performance to keep its users happy and its business humming. From an IT perspective, Bellevue wanted a solution that would scale to accommodate future growth, all the while being easy to manage and integrating well into its current infrastructure.

Bellevue was already using Cisco UCS for its core banking applications and was familiar with UCS superior management platform. The IT team was also looking to move the company's VDI environment to Windows 10.

After taking a close look at HyperFlex, Bellevue found that it met all its performance requirements and was well suited for its VDI installation supporting the trading floor. One of the main appeals was the simplicity of the solution with compute, storage and networking all integrated in an easy to deploy appliance without the need to connect to external storage.

As Bellevue was redesigning its VDI solution, it took the opportunity to migrate its desktop environment to Windows 10. The IT team deployed a combination of virtual desktops with Citrix XenDesktop and streaming applications with Citrix XenApp and Microsoft AppV. One of the key benefits for the IT department is the ability to use the same tool, UCS Manager, to administer both its UCS and HyperFlex environments.

Last week, we announced new capabilities for HyperFlex, which will bring even more simplicity, more performance and more efficiency to more workloads. In less than a year, HyperFlex has enjoyed tremendous success with over 1,100 customers, validating Cisco's portfolio approach of offering the flexibility to choose the best infrastructure to suit specific user needs.

Here is how you can find out more about our VDI solutions for HyperFlex:

• Read the Bellevue Group case study
• Register for the first live edition of TechWiseTV on March 22: More Apps, More Simplicity, The New HyperFlex
• Register for our webinar with Citrix on hyperconvergence and VDI on March 23; if you can't make it that day we'll have a repeat episode on March 28
• Check out Citrix's three part series: Hands-on with HyperFlex -Part1; Part2; Part3

Continue the conversation on Twitter: @FrancoiseBRees