Citrix XenServer cuts costs for University of Buckingham

The University of Buckingham has signed Citrix XenServer to virtualise 49 servers and reduce the university's operating costs.

Citrix XenServer has reduced the set -up of a new server from two hours to 10 minutes. It has also cut hardware costs and minimised power and cooling requirements.

XenServer is being used across the university's two data centres in the local area.

"Our main data centre was reaching its capacity limit. We needed to invest, but it was clear that we could do more than just throw more space, electricity and cooling at the problem," said Matthew Day, head of IT at the University of Buckingham.

As well as reducing the number of servers the university needs, Day said reduced set up times for new applications and operations was a major asset of the XenServer platform.

He said, "We can configure the environment very quickly, without any physical hardware being involved. Recently, this meant that we were able to launch a new multimedia lab ready for the start of term.

"Without XenServer, the launch would have been delayed for the students due to having to order physical hardware."