SMS group

Dr.-Ing. Christian Imiela, manager of Calculations and Structure Analyses at SMS group, expanded on the challenges and why they ultimately turned to OpenText™ Exceed™ TurboX. “In order to prepare finite element calculations, our engineers use MSC Marc and Mentat software, which requires enormous graphical and computational power. More than a decade ago, we decided to move away from personal workstations to a Unix based data center. This meant we needed a powerful remote access solution for our staff to gain access around the globe. After evaluating a number of solutions, we chose OpenText Exceed TurboX, which is very reliable and provides us the remote data center access we need, from anywhere in the world.”

No longer tethered to a fixed workstation, engineers can now suspend a session on their laptop and resume it later when visiting other offices or customer sites. Regardless of the location they find themselves in, SMS engineers can log in to the data center to seamlessly display and work on models.

Dr.-Ing. Markus Finck, manager of Calculations and Structure Analyses at SMS group, explained further: “Working with my colleagues in Mönchengladbach and Düsseldorf, we share one data center. For us, the users, the OpenText Exceed TurboX solution is very easy to use. We simply access a hyperlink and we’re presented with a web user interface. The performance is excellent and works as seamlessly as if I had my own Unix workstation under my desk. The solution provides the flexibility to move to another location, plug in my laptop and show my computational results to colleagues or customers.”

When producing and working on finite element models, reliable performance is imperative for OpenGL 3D to enable interactivity, such as the moving and rotating of models. Exceed TurboX employs ThinX Protocol-technology, which uses several compression engines and a local graphics card on the server to ensure a fast and reliable connection—even over low bandwidth.

“Using OpenText Exceed TurboX, we can share results with our customers in real-time and any changes that are made or work-in-progress can be suspended for later resumption. This means that work is never lost,” added Finck.

Administration is just as straightforward. There is no maintenance once deployed and the costs that were formerly associated with local, dedicated Unix workstations have been eliminated.

“As an administrator, once set up, OpenText Exceed TurboX just works. We have been using the solution for more than a decade now and my colleagues are very happy with the performance and especially the suspend and resume feature. Exceed TurboX provides us with a cost saving and reliable solution—it simply works,” stated Imiela.