While finance directors in the housing sector may not have a deep understanding of what an IT server actually does, they are more than likely to know how much it costs to buy, run and maintain a server, and by how much it will depreciate.
What they probably don’t know is that nearly all servers are running at only 7 per cent of their capacity. So next time you walk past that expensive temperature-controlled room full of server racks, spare a thought for the cost of keeping it running at such low efficiency. However this scenario is rapidly being consigned to the past. Using virtualisation technology, housing associations can maximise efficiency by consolidating those servers and realise significant financial savings at the same time.
Virtualisation allows IT managers to run fewer servers at greater capacity while at the same time creating simpler and more reliable data protection, and faster and more reliable disaster recovery systems.
The annual cost to run and maintain 30 servers, including depreciation, is around £45,600. But to run a virtualised version of the same system costs just 10 per cent of that, a saving of £41,000 every year, before you include the elimination of expensive out-of-hours routine system maintenance, reduced administration costs, re-utilisation of office space, and a sizeable reduction in cooling requirements.
Alan Quinn, managing director, Castle Computer Services, said, “Companies are recognising that virtualisation can deliver massive cost savings and environmental benefits, while at the same time improving business continuity and IT resilience.”
As well as the financial gains, there are tangible environmental benefits that come with server consolidation. Applying virtualisation solutions to the above example is the equivalent of saving 197,964 kWh of power, removing the carbon output of 84 cars and planting 268 trees every year.
To calculate the savings for your own organisation, visit www.expertsinvirtualisation.com and use Castle’s power savings calculator.
