Project Serves Up Cost Saving Solution For Greenhead College

A sixth form college in Huddersfield carried out a project with Business Computing and Network Services (BCNS) that not only improved its server administration but also reduced its electricity bills.

Greenhead College, with more than 1,800 students on AS and A Level courses, already had a support contract with BCNS for its Microsoft, Novell and VMware server software.

The college then asked the Devon based technology company to advise on and install a VMware ESX cluster and storage area network.

“Basically they took three existing servers and connected them to a new shared disk,” explains Greenhead Network Manager Andy Macdonald.

“That enabled virtualisation which helped with administration of the server as well as reducing our electricity bills and probably also any future server hardware requirements.”

The project involved consolidating around 18 physical servers onto the three ESX servers, saving rack space in the overflowing server room and reducing the cooling required and power consumption.

Greenhead rewarded BCNS with renewal of its contract for support work and ongoing technical issues.

Andy, who heads a team of three, adds: “As in-house IT managers, we’re regarded as ‘jacks of all trades’ but we sometimes need specialist knowledge.

“When I hit a problem I need someone to turn to and I would thoroughly recommend BCNS for their high technical competency, good personal relationships, and ability to respond quickly to our needs.

“For the future, I look forward to working with them on a variety of exciting projects which will improve IT provision at the college.”