Geology meets technology: MOL uses Cisco UCS to take 3D visualization to the next level

BUDAPEST, Hungary – May 2, 2018: The MOL Group, a multinational oil and gas company with operations in more than 30 countries, has deployed Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS®) technology as the foundation for its innovative 3D remote visualization infrastructure. MOL is at the forefront of innovation when it comes to digitizing its business, and is using cutting-edge technologies, be it for research, production or retail.

The Cisco UCS infrastructure serves the company’s newest geoscience application, Landmark DecisionSpace Geosciences 10ep (DSG). Geoscience applications are used in the oil and gas industry for finding, mapping and modelling oil and gas reservoirs beneath the earth’s surface.

The new release of the Landmark DecisionSpace Geosciences application provides integrated working processes, cross team collaboration, better data management and an enriched user experience. At the same time, it requires a solid data center and network foundation to support a seamless software user experience. The basic principle of 3D remote virtualization is similar to those of central server and thin client technologies. However, it requires powerful graphics cards, Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), so that the server can deliver fast and high-quality 3D desktop outputs. These are streamed to users’ displays via simple software clients.

Given the project budget and time constraints, MOL determined that the best approach was to build a new 3D remote visualization infrastructure to replace the legacy 2D infrastructure. MOL chose to build a best-of-breed infrastructure based on Linux Terminal Server, using 3D graphics, high performance Cisco® servers and specialized 3D remote desktop virtualization software (NICE DCV).

“We could have chosen a pre-packed solution, but we didn’t do so. We were searching for a partner who has the technological competence and would accompany us on our journey to bring the best potential from our systems,” said Jagtar Singh, E&P IT Infrastructure Architect, MOL Group. For the infrastructure upgrade to support the Landmark geoscience application, MOL decided to build a best of breed solution with Cisco UCS, Nvidia and Dimension Data.

Designed specifically for virtualization, Cisco UCS technology is the backbone of the solution. Cisco UCS combines servers with networking and storage access into a single unified system. Advantages of Cisco UCS include simplicity, few components and cables, and low energy consumption. Most companies choosing this platform face the same challenges as MOL: growing amount of data and size of servers, combined with the need to lower operational costs and ensure scalability. Cisco UCS provides a solid basis for future developments, including helping enable easy interoperability between different platforms (desktops, thin clients, mobile phones and tablets) or WAN connection independent from the place of work.