Ordnance survey's IT department is planning to cut its
power consumption by 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.