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Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council Virtualises Storage and Servers with EqualLogic and VMware

EqualLogic PS Series SAN provides flexible, scalable platform for virtual data centre

LONDON, U.K. 18 June 2007 — EqualLogic®, the leading provider of enterprise-class iSCSI storage area network (SAN) solutions, today announced that Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has implemented a storage virtualisation platform based on EqualLogic’s PS Series arrays. This installation supports the Council’s overall virtualisation strategy and will play a crucial role in helping the Council’s 650 employees deliver faster, more efficient services to more than 122,000 residents living in the Borough.

“Virtualisation has delivered a series of fundamental advantages to the Council both in terms of hardware savings and overall running costs,” said Steve Askey, ICT Business Continuity Manager, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council. “These benefits have been so significant that we are now taking a ‘virtual-first’ policy when it comes to rolling out new or updated versions of applications for our employees to use. Over time we will virtualise as much of our infrastructure as is possible, and this will help us reduce our operating expenditure considerably.”

The Council runs a virtualised data centre infrastructure based on VMware Infrastructure 3 and a PS Series SAN composed of PS300E and PS100E storage arrays. The Council has so far created 35 virtual machines, running on six physical servers, to support a range of applications. Alongside the virtual machine images, the EqualLogic SAN currently hosts Newcastle-under-Lyme’s mail archive and supports its document imaging systems. By combining server and storage virtualisation, the Council has reduced the volume of equipment in its data centre, reducing its carbon footprint while simplifying storage administration.

“Our storage needs have continued to expand over time, and we required a system that would scale up alongside our data requirements,” added Clark. “The EqualLogic arrays provide us with an integrated pool of storage that automatically balances the application workload to deliver the best levels of performance. All the management features we need are included within the overall cost of the array, rather than requiring separate licenses. This approach combined with the PS Series’ fully virtual architecture made it the natural choice when it came to supporting our server virtualisation project.”

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council first installed a PS100E following advice from its services partner Nviron Limited. This was recently augmented by the addition of a PS300E, bringing the volume of storage that is available up to 6.6 terabytes of raw capacity. In total, the Council has around 2.2 terabytes of data currently stored on the SAN, and this amount is growing steadily.

“Councils across the UK have a requirement for flexible, scalable storage that can serve as a foundation for overall virtualisation initiatives; EqualLogic’s SAN solutions meet these requirements while delivering higher value and more efficient processes than traditional methods of storage,” said Nick Dunn, UK sales director for EqualLogic. “By combining VMware VI3 and a PS Series SAN, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council now has a virtualised infrastructure platform in place that can dynamically grow to meet the demands of its staff and citizens.”

About EqualLogic
EqualLogic® makes data storage systems that radically simplify the way mid-size and large businesses store and protect information. EqualLogic’s award-winning PS Series storage area network (SAN) solution provides sophisticated management capabilities that reduce the time and money IT staff spend on storage. EqualLogic serves thousands of customers in 35 countries from its headquarters in Nashua, New Hampshire, and offices throughout Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit http://www.equallogic.com.


EqualLogic® is a registered trademark of EqualLogic®, Inc. Other marks belong to their respective owners.

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