Panasonic Toughpad Helps Create Virtual Machine in Minutes from Summit of Mount Kilimanjaro
Mount Kilimanjaro is not only the highest peak on the African continent, it is also the tallest free-standing mountain in the world at an incredible 19,336 feet. Climbers around the globe travel here to test their skills at the mountain famed for its high altitude, difficult terrain and extreme temperatures.
It was here that Richard Munro, VMware CTO for vCloud Air EMEA, recently put the rugged, 5-inch Panasonic Toughpad FZ-X1 handheld tablet through its paces when he took the device to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro to prove that a true hybrid cloud can enable enterprise IT delivery from any location.
After making the difficult climb up the highest African peak, Munro used the Toughpad FZ-X1 tablet, a BGAN Explorer 700 global satellite system and VMware vCloud® AirTM to establish a working virtual machine in minutes at the summit.
“I was keen to show customers that with a true hybrid cloud not only can you deliver enterprise IT in the public cloud and from one of the most extreme environments on Earth, but you can also do things in minutes that would take a traditional IT department months to do on-premises,” Munro said.
“The scale of the technology challenge we overcame to make this happen from such a remote and challenging location was huge. However the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-X1 tablet was absolutely outstanding – powerful, flexible and extremely durable,” he said. “Despite the adverse conditions I still had about 70 percent battery left at the end of the week. How Panasonic have made all of that into such a light compact device I have no idea.”
VMware vCloud Air is a public cloud platform built on the trusted foundation of vSphere®, that includes infrastructure, disaster recovery, and various applications as service offerings. vCloud Air allows organizations to easily extend their workloads into the cloud. Existing onsite virtual machines (VMs) can be migrated to the public cloud or start up new application virtual machines directly in the cloud. Virtual Machines and other business-critical workloads can be migrated back and forth to the location of the user’s choice, all with the secure and capable foundation of vSphere.
For the demonstration, Munro knew it was essential to have a device that operates in difficult conditions. Mobile workers may not climb Mount Kilimanjaro every day, but they often operate in rugged outdoor locations and can be faced with extreme weather conditions. They need a rugged tablet or computer that can work when and where they do. Devices need to withstand drops, dust and water while offering a battery that can sustain workers’ full shifts. Features like glove-touch screens and sunlight viewablity can make all the difference in successful and efficient operation in the field.
Learn more about Panasonic’s enterprise-grade rugged computers.
