Carmel college Case Study

Microsoft Server Product Portfolio Customer Solution Case Study College Virtualises Servers and Saves Thousands of Pounds to Reinvest in IT “With the Microsoft platform, we can integrate systemsCustomer:Carmel CollegeWebsite:www.carmel.ac.uk so all applications work smoothly. We’ve reducedCustomer Size:200Country or Region:United Kingdom operational and staffing costs, equivalent to aroundIndustry:Education £40,000 a year.” Kevin Burke, IT Services Manager, Carmel CollegeCustomer ProfileCarmel College was established in 1987and currently has around 2,000 students Carmel College wanted to reduce IT overheads throughand 200 staff. The college is rated“outstanding” by Ofsted, and is virtualisation. After finding VMwareexpensive and difficult torecognised as one of the United integrate, it decided to virtualise its servers with Hyper-VKingdom’s top sixth-form colleges. technology—part of the Windows Server 2008 R2 operatingSoftware and Services system—to reduce power, cooling, licensing, and maintenance Microsoft Server Product Portfolio − Microsoft System Center Data costs. The solution saves the college an estimated £40,000 a year Protection Manager 2010 in staffing and operational costs, and power and cooling − Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 overheads have been cut by 50 per cent. − Windows Server 2008 R2 Technologies − Hyper-V Business Needs In the 25 years since it was founded, The leadership role is something that Carmel College has gained widespread Carmel College takes seriously. Kevin recognition for the quality of its education Burke, IT Services Manager, Carmel and the academic excellence achieved by College, says: “We operate on a tight its sixth-form students. The college— budget and I look for technologies that located in St. Helens in north-west deliver flexibility and scalability. In England—was a British Educational addition, interoperability and integration Communications and Technology Agency are important because they mean we can (Becta) Technology Exemplar Network build on our existing infrastructure and provider. This means that in addition to extend the value of previous IT spend.” providing an outstanding learningFor more information about other environment, it shares practical know-how As part of the college’s 2011 ITMicrosoft customer successes, please visit: and best practice IT advice with other development strategy, Burke wanted towww.microsoft.com/casestudies institutions in the United Kingdom. cut running costs, increase uptime across

the network, and reduce the time his four- exceptionally simple, yet effective,” says Power and cooling costs are cut by 50person team spent managing routine IT. Burke. per cent. Carmel College has reduced its server estate by 50 per cent, reducingBurke says: “All sectors are facing a tough As part of the Microsoft Campus Licensing power and cooling costs. “We’retime financially, but educational institutions Agreement, Carmel College is entitled to investing savings made through Hyper-find it a challenge to allocate budgets for low-cost licensing for servers. As long as V virtualisation into a virtual desktopextensive infrastructure work. I wanted to the college renews its agreement every infrastructure project. When fullyvirtualise our servers to improve year, servers are licensed with each new deployed, the project will reduce ITperformance and lower administrative, release, without the need to purchase costs even further,” says Burke.licensing, power, and cooling costs.” further servers. “We use six physical hosts Backup is expertly managed. for our Hyper-V stack and purchase 12 Maintenance is carried out duringSolution data centre licences each year,” says Burke. normal business hours withoutCarmel College deployed a solution based disruption to end users. Microsofton Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V Benefits System Center tools help Burke’s teamvirtualisation technology, Microsoft System Carmel College has cut administrative and manage the network, preventingCenter Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 licensing costs significantly, while downtime. He says: “We configured theand Microsoft System Center Data improving the team’s ability to manage the network to provide extra storageProtection Manager 2010. This solution won network. With savings made through capacity where we need it. We’re now infunding from Becta due to the clear strategy Hyper-V virtualisation, the college is a position where we can recover datafor achieving savings through IT planning to cut costs further by virtualising from almost any timeframe in the eventsimplification, while improving the college’s its desktops. of a failure.”network performance. Interoperable environment reduces“We virtualised 10 existing physical servers costs by around £40,000 a year. Withand migrated our VMware servers onto the 80 per cent of the college’s servers nowHyper-V virtualisation platform,” says Burke. virtualised, the Hyper-V environmentThe college’s third-party management has reduced operational overheads atinformation system, which holds all student Carmel College. “With the Microsoftrecords, is now on a virtualised server, along platform, we can integrate systems so allwith the human resources records applications work smoothly. We’vemanagement solution. In 2012, Carmel reduced operational and staffing costs,College is moving its finance application equivalent to around £40,000 a year,into the new environment, virtualising all because of the benefits of the Hyper-Vbusiness-critical servers. environment,” says Burke. New servers are deployed within 30“We’ve got a great team of engineers who minutes. Burke says: “With Hyper-Vare much more familiar with Microsoft templates, we can deploy additionalsolutions than VMware tools, so learning server resources for testing andabout the environment and deploying it production in less than 30 minutes.” Thewas relatively straightforward,” says Burke. college increased student numbers byTo reduce routine maintenance, Burke’s 10 per cent in 2011, and the scalableteam customised backup tasks with System environment means it canCenter Data Protection Manager 2010 to accommodate growth and new userrun automatically in line with the college’s volumes easily.requirements. “Our maintenance set up isThis case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THISSUMMARY.Document published February 2012

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Carmel college Case Study

by Microsoft Education UK on Feb 21, 2012

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