Lloyd's Register is in the process of migrating to
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, so that it can support its mobile
and remote workers better and eliminate 20 Unix
servers.
The organisation, which provides risk assessment services for
sea transport, chose Microsoft over Linux and Unix three years ago,
and said it has reduced its IT operating spend by up to 35% through
server consolidation.
Now it is planning to develop applications that use the
Microsoft .net framework, particularly to improve support for
mobile users: 40% of its 5,500 staff are classified as mobile, and
operate from 234 offices in 120 countries.
Over the past three years, it has consolidated 76 Unix servers
onto 56 machines that run Windows Exchange Server 2000. Before the
migration, Lloyd's Register's infrastructure included Windows NT
Server 4.0, Novell NetWare 3 and 4, HP OpenMail, HP-UX and
Linux.
"I inherited a fragmented infrastructure," said Stephen Hand,
group IT director. "Each part of the organisation had put together
its own IT system." So the company ran a feasibility study to
compare Windows with Linux and Unix, and decided to consolidate its
servers on the Windows platform.
"Reduction of total cost of 0wnership (TCO) has been a theme for
us," said Hand. "The business case rests on a 30%-35% reduction in
IT operating spend. It went from around £24m a year in 2002-3 to
£16m in 2005, on a like-for-like basis," he said.
Among the organisation's selection criteria were TCO, the
ability for a third party to host the infrastructure, multi-lingual
support, global availability of skills and a roadmap for the
future.
"We went for Windows Server 2003 and that was not the outcome we
had expected," Hand said. "There was not a huge difference in TCO
between Unix and Microsoft. Of key importance was interoperability
from the back end to the desktop."
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