Case study: Grappling with server and storage virtualisation

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council is rolling out a virtualisation strategy to reduce the council's power bills and deliver applications quicker.

The council has created up to 45 virtual machines, with around 50 traditional servers still running, and is half way through its five-year strategy, which combines server and storage virtualisation.

Steve Clark, senior server support for Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, told silicon.com the council runs eight to 10 virtual servers from one physical server, effectively producing a 90 per cent power saving. The virtualised environment is also saving the council time. Because the system has the capacity to expand and increase the number of servers it can hold, the council does not need to spec out and install a new server every time a new application is added to the infrastructure.