Ordnance survey's IT department is
planning to cut itspower consumptionby transferring
large image files from its power-hungry storage area networks
(Sans) to removable disks.
"The IT department is one of the big users of energy, and we
have to reduce this and be aware of new technologies and their
power consumption," said Dave Lipsey, infrastructure manager at
Ordnance Survey.
The company is using
BridgeHead Software's automated policy-based archiving product
HT Filestore to automate the migration of data from the San to
ultra-dense optical discs
"The way to cut down on power consumption is by using devices
and technology that do not use power. Instead of having lots of
spinning disks in a datacentre, we have ultra-dense optical discs,
which do not consume power until accessed and have a 50-year
lifespan," said Lipsey.
The company plans to reduce power consumption further by
extending its server
virtualisation strategy. Ordnance Survey already runs 50
virtual servers on a cluster of three physical servers, but it
plans to put all of its 200 Windows servers into a virtualised
environment. "This is obviously a huge saver, and has been very
successful so far," he said.
The agency has plans for a new headquarters about a mile away
from its current building in Southampton, which is under
consideration by the planning authorities.
Ordnance survey, which had a turnover of more than £100m last
year, makes 90% of this from data-related sales. These sales
include geographical data going to government planning departments,
satellite navigation and GIS systems as well as the emergency
services.
Ordnance survey also plans a new
ID management system to simplify and secure access and will
adopt voice over IP
across the headquarters.