Omnix International, a leading regional technology service provider and integrator in the Middle East, and regional distributor of Autodesk products, has announced its strategic partnership with Hewlett Packard (HP) – a move that is expected to boost the performance of Autodesk design solutions in the Middle East and help architects, engineers and designers maximise their productivity. The agreement is also expected to bolster HP’s market share for customized workstations for the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) market by 15 per cent in the Middle East by the end of 2010. The announcement was made during the opening of HP’s first Workstation Performance Center at the Dubai offices of Omnix International, where design professionals can now try out the latest cutting-edge design solutions in the performance centre by using the ‘HP Z series Workstations’.
Loaded with the latest version of Autodesk’s revolutionary ‘Autocad’, ‘Revit’, ‘3DS Max’ and ‘Maya’ solutions and packed with the latest ‘Intel Xeon Nehalem’ processor technology, the ‘HP Z series Workstations’ deliver an unprecedented leap in performance for CAD engineers and designers, who can benefit from the latest 3D built-in technologies. Key features of the award-winning workstations include Dual/Quad/Six Cores Xeon processors that boost rendering performance of 3D models by up to 60 per cent, and new tool-less chassis and state-of-the-art modular system to make upgrades and serviceability smooth and quick.
“Autodesk and HP have partnered to provide unparalleled design solutions to our customers in the building, manufacturing and media and entertainment industries. In the increasingly competitive global economy, design innovation has become even more critical - and together we are uniquely positioned to give our customers the solutions they need to compete,” said Chris Bradshaw, Chief Marketing Officer, Autodesk.
Scalable up to Dual Processor, 192GB RAM and 8GB internal storage, the workstations also incorporate the professional line of Graphic Cards from Nvidia Quadro and ATI FirePro, which allow users to smoothly navigate, rotate and zoom through their 3D model while keeping the clear and crisp lines and colours. The ‘HP Z series Workstations’ also feature an advanced design created in collaboration with a design team from BMW, which provides an optimized airflow and acoustic to keep the workstation cool and quiet.
“Autodesk has standardized on HP workstations, which makes us their number one hardware partner. We are proud to partner with them and launch the new demo centre and ‘HP Z series Workstations’ to provide Middle East design and architecture professionals an opportunity to experience first hand the reliability, stability, and scalable performance of Autodesk software. Our goal is to provide an excellent user experience through high-technology design, optimum serviceability, performance and scalability, and we believe that we have achieved this through these innovative workstations,” added Yan Bergeron, Work Station – Thin Clients – POS, Area Country Manager, HP Middle East.
Being one of the few selected ‘HP Certified Workstation Specialist’ in the region, Omnix will join the ‘HP Business Partner Program’ and provide the complete range of HP workstation solutions to their CAD customers. As part of the strategic agreement, HP will provide engineering assistance during software development process and product rollout, test and certifications of HP workstation hardware, and optimisation of drivers for Autodesk applications. Leveraging its partnership with Omnix, which currently has 80 percent market share in the AEC market for Autodesk design solutions, the manufacturer is planning to open five more HP performance centres in the Middle East by the end of 2010.
“Architects, engineers and designers are increasing the level of details and integrating multiple layers of information in their models. Usually, they complain that opening these large files take several minutes and often ‘freeze’ and ‘crash’ their system when they are using traditional desktops, which results in decreased productivity, missed deadlines and additional costs. Through this partnership between HP and Autodesk, both can leverage their combined knowledge and provide an optimized hardware and software solution to the CAD community and empower Autodesk applications to run as intended and deliver a great user experience,” concluded Dr. Jayant Deshpande, Director - CAE, Omnix International.
