16 Mar 2009

Supermarket adopts virtualisation to cut costs

A major retailer has employed virtualisation technology to improve the cost-efficiency of its data centres.

Retailer Tesco has employed sector specialist Citrix to virtualise 1,500 of its servers with XenServer technology, including 80 using the Xenapp model.

The aim of the collaboration was to create a more flexible IT infrastructure, claims Nick Folkes, IT director at the chain.

He comments: "The virtualised RTS [real time sales] environment uses less than half of the energy of the physical bare metal equivalents, which supports our CO2 targets and means we have already saved a significant amount on our electricity bills."

Mr Folkes adds that consolidation benefits have been significant, with RTS capacity increasing by 75 per cent.

The technology provides high performance levels for 64-bit heavy duty models, which was a major factor in the company choosing Citrix, he concludes.

Kerry Bailey, senior vice president of global solutions at IT specialist Verizon business, recently said virtualisation offers businesses a means of increasing performance and efficiency.