Realizing the benefits of a virtual infrastructure

http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2216657/norwich-union-insures-4001000

Norwich Union decided to use a niche supplier to handle the transition to a virtualised server environment  a move that was “not without its risks”, according to analysts.

The firm consolidated 2,500 ageing servers to fewer than 200 physical boxes running 1,000 virtual machines, a project it rolled out in six weeks.

The insurance giant said budget was not the primary concern during the project, and it was more concerned with keeping the systems running.

Steve Houghton, infrastructure solution architect at Norwich Union IT Solutions, said the firm encountered issues with software drivers and old networking infrastructure that slowed down the deployment.

“Keeping software up-to-date across the server infrastructure had become a complex and time-consuming task,’ he said. Houghton opted to run a nightly conversion timetable of eight physical-to-virtual servers often running workflow and quotation applications which had to be fully functional by the start of business on the following day.

Very cool, check out this article illustrating how Norwich Union used virtualization to aid it’s consolidation project. Moving towards a virtual environment can make provisioning a more on-demand process, reducing the deployment time which can be a real enabler especially in the retail/customer facing environment - being able to bring online another web server to accommodate more capacity, can be the difference between earning revenue and not.  The simple act of refreshing hardware, and consolidating through virtualization can reduce your hardware support costs significantly, a great return on investment.