Nationwide To Save Millions With Server Virtualisation

The Nationwide Building Society, working with IT services provider Unisys, has managed to virtualise more than 500 servers as part of its “Data Centre Transformation Programme”.

So far, it has reduced the number of its servers by a ratio of 12 to 1. If this ratio continues, Nationwide will have reduced its 500 server fleet down to just 42 servers.

This, it said, had “significantly” reduced power and cooling usage, which will help it save more than £8 million over the course of the programme. Other cost savings are expected to come from the removal of old hardware, improvements in service continuity, the simplification of disaster recovery, and increased hardware utilisation.

“Unisys has confirmed our belief in virtualisation and the business benefits it brings,” said Peter Stafford, Nationwide’s IT Director. “This data centre programme will provide Nationwide with a world-class server infrastructure – allowing us to respond to changing business needs more quickly and efficiently.”

The cost saving benefits associated with server virtualisation are well known within business circles. Indeed, last year, Enterprise Strategy Group estimated that eighty percent of organisations have already adopted some form of virtualisation.

It found that server consolidation could yield a saving of £2 million over three years for an organisation running 250 dual-core servers (roughly equivalent to £2,600 per server per year).

This cost saving to Nationwide will be important considering the pressure nowadays to “green” the data centre, as well as the looming CRC (carbon reduction commitment) regulations.

Earlier this week, IT services provider Morse identified what it believes are a number of serious flaws with the government’s CRC regulations.