by Roger Bearpark, Assistant Head of ICT at London Borough of Hillingdon — November 03, 2010
The London Borough of Hillingdon recently earned a place in the final three of the 2010 Gartner Green Data Center Excellence Awards, to be held on Monday November 22nd. It is an accolade we are proud of, and one we feel can help to dispel a myth that is too widely accepted in the storage industry. Contrary to popular belief, virtualisation can be accomplished without the need to learn a whole new skill set, and going green is less about environmental altruism in business, but more about making shrewd cost savings that directly affect your bottom line.
Since virtualising our storage and server footprint through Compellent and VMware, we have:
- Running over 90% of our servers, or 200 virtual machines, on nine physical platforms, including provision for DR, cutting the ICT space we occupy by 65% and power consumption by over 80%
- Saved > £93,000 on our annual energy bill
- Saved the generation of 171 tonnes of carbon emissions each year
- Reduced the 3 year cost per Terabyte of storage by >70%
- Lowered our carbon footprint by 20% over 18 months whilst accommodating the growth required by the organisation
What is more, our deployment was easy, and that is testament to the quality of the people involved. For such results to be achieved, you need to a mix the right technology with the right support, and Compellent has been there with us every step of the way.
Alongside our VMware deployments, Compellent’s support has underpinned what really counts – results. Many companies talk about difficult journeys, struggles and competing priorities with their moves to virtualisation. This story is different. For sure, there is some extraordinary technology inside those cabinets, but it is the people who have been inspired to develop it that count.
Working with a team that has the confidence and ability to make the journey a simple one is what makes green storage a reality. It is the people who have shared our ethos to be innovative and unafraid to do things differently who have ensured we have achieved an environment that Gartner deems worthy of excellence.
Flattering praise indeed; but our current results are not a final destination. They are a stop on the way to greater things, and therein lies the real result for a public sector organisation. What the people from Hillingdon, Compellent and other partners have achieved means that we offer better services at reduced cost to the people that we are here to serve.
Editor’s Note: Roger Bearpark of London Borough of Hillingdon is a Compellent customer and the contributor of this blog post. To learn more about London Borough of Hillingdon and its use of Compellent systems, please read this case study. Mr. Bearpark is one of the three finalists for the 2010 Green Data Center Excellence Award; if you plan on attending the Gartner Data Center & IT Operations Summit on Nov. 22, please come and support him at 17:40 – 18:30 in Park Plaza Westminster Bridge – Westminster B+C.