ENS controls costs and scales VDI with Omnissa and Nutanix

Managing hundreds of student devices across six campuses was becoming increasingly complex for Emirates National Schools. As part of its digital transformation journey, and under the leadership of Mr. Ahmad Owaimer, Head of IT Department, the organization chose to implement Omnissa Horizon® on Nutanix AHV hypervisor, enabling a modern, scalable, and resilient digital workspace platform. The school can now enforce consistent policies, deploy applications quickly, and scale its virtual desktop environment with total confidence. Students access reliable learning tools from any location and benefit from a seamless, high-performance, and consistent academic experience across every campus.

Collaborative learning and digital infrastructure

The curriculum is delivered through the International Baccalaureate Organization framework for the Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP), and Diploma Years Programme (DP), alongside American Common Core Standards in English, Math, and Science from K to 12. ENS also offers the College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) courses for grades 11 and 12, and delivers the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Education program for Arabic, Islamic Studies and UAE Social Studies.

With a diverse international staff, advanced facilities, and strong partnerships with parents and the community, ENS fosters a collaborative professional learning environment. The school is committed to high performance, inclusive education, student leadership, and continuous improvement. With a focus on developing students’ character, national identity, and readiness for the modern knowledge economy, ENS aims to inspire students to live purposeful, meaningful lives and make a positive impact on the world. The school uses modern technology to enhance learning and relies on a secure, reliable digital infrastructure to support this ambition every day.

Distributed devices and cross-campus complexity

ENS had originally built its student labs around a traditional 1:1 model. Each student used a dedicated Windows device, which provided flexibility and familiarity in the classroom. But over time, managing hundreds of individual machines became increasingly complex.

Routine tasks, such as ensuring devices remained compliant with school policies, enforcing restricted access, and maintaining consistent security standards, required significant manual effort from the IT team. Even relatively straightforward activities, such as deploying new software for a class, rolling out patches, or applying updates, became time-consuming when performed across so many distributed endpoints.

The IT team also faced persistent risks around data loss and operating system corruption. With each device operating independently, they struggled to maintain consistent configurations across hundreds of independent devices. Failed updates, misconfigurations, or even unexpected user activity could disrupt the student experience and create additional work for administrators.

“The model that once supported flexibility was becoming harder to sustain at scale,” says Ahmad Owaimer, Head of IT Department at ENS. “Keeping every Windows device patched, secure, compliant with school policy, and properly configured for our students required significant manual effort. It was clear we needed a more efficient approach.”

Building a scalable VDI for the future

To address its operational and security challenges, Owaimer and his team adopted Omnissa Horizon® VDI running on the Nutanix AHV hypervisor as part of a joint Omnissa and Nutanix solution.

They chose Horizon because of its strong reputation and its proven capabilities in secure device management, centralized control, and scalability. “Horizon’s ability to support compliance enforcement, patch management, app deployment, and security governance aligned well with our own organizational needs,” says Owaimer. “Combined with Omnissa’s proven reliability and the flexible infrastructure provided by Nutanix, Horizon was the obvious choice.”

The transition itself required careful planning. The migration and integration phases introduced some early challenges for the team as they moved systems to the new architecture. However, working closely with subject matter experts from Nutanix and Omnissa, the ENS team completed troubleshooting, testing, and optimization to successfully complete the rollout.

Today, students access the VDI environment for a wide range of academic activities, from studying and completing assessments to carrying out research and accessing learning apps and resources. “Implementing Horizon has transformed the way we manage student computing,” says Owaimer. “We can enforce policies and deploy apps from a single platform while ensuring students always have a consistent experience.”

Seamless access to learning tools from any campus location

Implementing Horizon on Nutanix has delivered measurable improvements across ENS. Students and end users report a more stable, high-performance digital workspace, thanks to faster login times and improved performance. Students can access the tools they need with minimal disruption, and access required apps at any time and from any campus location.

“Horizon on Nutanix ensures high availability during assessments and academic activities, while enabling us to reduce the number of system crashes and potential data loss,” says Owaimer. “Fewer interruptions and greater reliability allows us to create a better classroom and contribute to improved educational outcomes.”

Simplified IT operations and reduced overhead

For the IT team, the combination of Horizon and Nutanix has simplified the underlying infrastructure used to deliver virtual desktops. The hyperconverged architecture integrates compute, storage, and virtualization into a single platform and has reduced the operational complexity associated with traditional VDI environments.

Administrators can now manage all virtual desktops centrally, which has enabled faster provisioning and deployment of new desktop pools, simplified patching and updates, and improved monitoring and troubleshooting. It creates the scalability that ENS was looking for, without requiring major infrastructure redesign. The environment now provides the scalability ENS needed without requiring major infrastructure redesign.

This streamlined management model gives the IT team tighter control over the environment while reducing the time required for routine operational tasks.

The new architecture has also delivered financial and strategic benefits at an organizational level. ENS has been able to better manage its licensing costs, rationalize infrastructure spending, and improve budget predictability by transitioning to the new platform.

“We have been able to optimize the use of our resources, scale more easily, and implement stronger cost controls,” says Owaimer.

“With Horizon and Nutanix, we now have a sustainable long-term strategy for delivering virtual desktops across our organization,” says Mansoor Ahmed Salim Khan, Unit Head IT Security and Infrastructure at ENS.

A blueprint for VDI success

Proper planning, testing, and stakeholder involvement are critical to a smooth and successful VDI transformation. Owaimer and his team highlight the following lessons learned from the implementation at ENS.

• Define use cases early: To design the right VDI architecture and avoid rework later, clearly define your use cases upfront. In ENS’s case, that meant understanding academic, assessment, and research requirements.
• Prioritize app testing: To prevent user disruption, conduct thorough app compatibility testing and test all critical apps in the VDI environment before full deployment.
• Optimize for scalability: Plan capacity and scalability carefully. Right-sizing compute, storage, and user density will ensure optimal performance.
• Harness expert knowledge: Engage subject matter experts early. Collaboration with vendor and infrastructure experts helps mitigate risks during implementation.
• Focus on cost efficiency: Identify cost optimization opportunities. Evaluate licensing models, infrastructure consolidation, and long-term impact on OpEx to maximize savings.