Enterprise All-Star Award winner Baerlocher USA has a pretty cool server virtualization story to tell. It isn’t about server consolidation (although the company does use the technology for that purpose, too). The coolness factor comes into play because through the smarts of the company’s NAFTA region IT chief, the company was able to put off a $2 million investment in a new production system – ie, the system at the heart of Baerlocher’s manufacturing operations. Baerlocher has copied that production environment, complete with way outdated Windows NT-based servers, onto a VMware infrastructure that cost roughly $45,000. Theoretically, Baerlocher can run the production environment on the virtual infrastructure for the next 10 years, says Oliver Fischer-Samano, IT director. Not that he wants to do that, but having the option is a relief, he adds.
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