Graphics power on demand: Plastic Omnium Lighting Systems designs innovative automotive lighting systems with Azure Virtual Desktop and reduces costs by 32 percent

The challenge: Meet the variable demands placed on GPU capacity with an eye to cost efficiency 

The Lighting division of Plastic Omnium specializes in innovative automotive lighting systems for both the immediate vehicle environment and the interior. This includes the option to project information, graphics, and videos not only around the outside but also inside the vehicle—on the dashboard or headlining. The lighting solutions provided by Plastic Omnium take a vehicle’s exterior and interior to the next level, both functionally and visually—literal “highlights” that can be individually configured according to requirements. 

Around three-quarters of all the projects of the Lighting division at Plastic Omnium are currently in the development stage. This is where computer-aided design (CAD) comes in. CAD applications are used to simulate extremely large GPU workloads, which puts a lot of pressure on the IT infrastructure. “It could well be that a virtual machine that still performs well today no longer meets the requirements in just a week’s time,” says Christopher Grader, Head of IT Core Services at Plastic Omnium. “In this case, we have just a short space of time in which to free up more processing power so our colleagues can continue developing.” But the previous solution, which was also cloud-based, lacked this flexibility. It wasn’t easy to adjust capacity as needed without incurring high costs or coming up against licensing hurdles. 

Time was also a significant factor. “If it’s going to take us a full six months to develop the capacity we need for a new project, we might miss out on certain contracts in the first place,” Grader says. “So we decided to take a different route and work with Microsoft’s cloud solutions.” This led Plastic Omnium to introduce Azure Virtual Desktop.

The solution: Maximum flexibility and cost control thanks to Azure Virtual Desktop

Plastic Omnium started out with cloud-based solutions and currently does around 95 percent of its work in the cloud. But, as Grader knows: “There are clouds and there are clouds. Nowadays, an IT infrastructure has to be tailored specifically to a company’s needs while also being easily adaptable.” Grader believes that Microsoft Azure represents the perfect solution here due to its high level of flexibility.

Today, Plastic Omnium efficiently connects workloads from different applications using Azure Virtual Desktop. And the performance of the virtual machine responds flexibly to the workloads actually in progress. If a project increases its number of CAD simulations—and thus requires more computing power—additional capacity can be added in Azure for however long is needed. By the same token, it can also be reduced when workloads are lighter. Extra charges are incurred only if additional capacity is actually used. “This means we can avoid costs that we were previously forced to accept,” Grader says. Moreover, Azure offers seamless ways of integrating simple applications, for example that allow external staff to access the IT infrastructure at Plastic Omnium. 

With just a few clicks, the Plastic Omnium IT team conveniently provides its developers with virtual machines—without having to invest in new workstations that would take a lot of time and money to set up. A browser is all that’s needed to use the virtual desktop—regardless of operating system or device. While searching for the best solution, Plastic Omnium also wanted to strengthen its existing customer relationships. “We tested various options together and simulated a series of relevant use cases,” Grader says. “We received positive feedback across the board. The system even performs well in countries with restrictive firewalls.”

Initial concerns quickly disappeared: “One user was skeptical about the idea of a virtual machine to begin with. When we introduced it, he shared his screen with me and his CAD program was running exceptionally smoothly. He was instantly won over by its performance.” With Azure Virtual Desktop, Plastic Omnium’s Lighting team now has exactly the kind of flexible cloud infrastructure that allows its team to concentrate entirely on developing innovative lighting technologies and solutions. 

“The Microsoft system is simply excellent. Azure is currently the best solution out there for our requirements.” And it even helps reduce costs. Plastic Omnium has seen a 32 percent drop in outgoings—all thanks to the simple scalability and high flexibility of Azure Virtual Desktop.