VMWARE DELIVERS DIRECT SAVINGS FOR THORNTONS
A review of critical systems at Thorntons, one of Scotland’s largest regional law firms,prompted the business to examine ways of achieving more efficient use of hardware,without compromise to service delivery or business continuity.The firm chose VMware,delivered by Castle, as the solution.
Sarah Blair, Director of IT at Thorntons, was familiar with virtualisation and felt that it offered genuine benefits in terms of consolidation of nineteen servers to only three and the associated power savings. She said:
“We were at the point where hardware servers were reaching the end of their life and decided to review our critical systems, rather than simply replacing hardware. Up to that point we had been trialling virtualisation in a very controlled environment, using it for development and testing, so were familiar with the principles and potential that might come from consolidation.
“Having already invested in three potential host servers, it was important that VMware could be implemented on existing hardware, maximising our original investment, rather than buying new servers.
“One of the most immediately noticeable benefits was to the bottom line. Within the first five months we identified a direct saving of around £2,500 in power costs associated with running fewer servers. In addition,we are benefiting from much greater flexibility in the system that allows for moving things around and testing and patching. That means also that we have in place robust provision for disaster recovery.
“The team at Castle were very flexible and while our approach to using existing hardware was probably unusual, they worked really closely with us to ensure that the implementation went to plan.
”Thorntons offers clients high quality,cost-effective and practical,partner-led advice from its offices in Dundee, Perth, Arbroath, Forfar and Edinburgh. Founded in 1857 by Sir Thomas Thornton, the practice has grown to become one of Scotland’sleading regional law firms with 29 partners and more than 270 staff.
Contact usFor more information pleasecontact Castle ComputerServices on 0845 230 1314or email info@castle-cs.com
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