Softdrive offers next-generation workstations with OCI Compute and NVIDIA A10

Softdrive’s Cloud PC is redefining the future of business computers. The company developed proprietary remote desktop technology and GPU virtualization that streams a powerful virtual desktop to any device. Within minutes, an organization can upgrade its average PCs and stream the latest high-performing GPU workstations located in Oracle data centers, with a user experience that feels like employees are working on their local computer. Softdrive’s solutions are especially appropriate for organizations within the architectural, engineering, and construction industries, in addition to gaming, interactive media, motion picture and video production industries.

In the past, VDI and virtualization technologies were hindered by the perception that cloud PC providers offered poor customer service and mediocre performance at a high price. Consequently, Softdrive developed its product with three key requirements in mind. First, users must feel like its Cloud PC is local while having incredibly powerful performance. Second, the service has to be able to stream anywhere in the world and run on almost any device. And finally, Cloud PCs must be cost-effective for the businesses.

To deliver an amazing user experience combined with a low financial barrier to entry, Softdrive needed a cloud infrastructure provider that could provide high-performance bare metal at a price that was acceptable to customers. The company also required high levels of support and collaboration to optimize its technologies while also helping to bolster business development.

Softdrive continuously evaluated cloud platforms as it developed and refined its services. First and foremost, the Oracle team provided deep technical support along with experience in helping young companies like Softdrive grow. Oracle’s partnership with NVIDIA was also a key factor in the company’s decision to move forward with Oracle. NVIDIA’s A10 GPUs offered the latest ray tracing and AI technologies (NVIDIA RTX) to help support Softdrive’s ideal customer profile: companies in industries that require high performance for 3D and 4D modeling, interactive media, postproduction, and animation activities. And only OCI could provide these services at a price-to-performance ratio that would be cost effective for Softdrive’s customers. 

NVIDIA’s latest A10 graphics cards offered in OCI Compute GPU instances gave Softdrive the hardware performance and scalability to rapidly provision resources to meet demand and bring new customers live quickly. Once a customer orders the services, it can provision the Cloud PCs almost instantly. Softdrive’s leadership estimated that delivering these services on other cloud platforms would potentially double the company’s costs. For example, OCI’s egress fees are significantly lower for customers who need to transfer data out of the cloud.

Softdrive has been able to serve its clients globally, including within the key markets of India, Japan, and the UK, because the A10 servers on OCI are uniquely available across Oracle’s vast and expanding network of cloud data centers. Customers can connect to their own company’s data storage via Oracle FastConnect, which provides dedicated, private, and high-bandwidth connections and is ideal for enterprise organizations with storage devices on other cloud platforms. Uniquely, OCI allowed Softdrive to also offer site-to-site VPN connections. Clients can use Softdrive’s storage, courtesy of Oracle Block Volumes, which offers reliable, high-performance, and low-cost block storage. Softdrive employees and their customers also benefited from the enterprise-grade security that comes standard within OCI, and API management is easy with OCI API Gateway.

Using NVIDIA A10 GPUs, the company’s end users experienced dramatic improvements in application performance. Plus, Softdrive can deliver its services to satisfy not just the needs of power users but also the business requirements of its customers’ operations, finance, and IT departments.