Nationwide seeking cost savings through virtualisation

A UK building society hopes to save £8 million by fully embracing server virtualisation.

Nationwide, which has assets in excess of £179 billion and over 13 million customers, is currently working to virtualise 500 servers with financial savings in mind.

The ongoing project is geared at reducing the need for major capital expenditure on IT, with reduced operational and energy costs also high on the list of benefits.

Savings are to be made by removing old hardware, improving service continuity, simplifying disaster recovery and increasing hardware utilisation through virtualisation, Nationwide said.

Peter Stafford, Nationwide's IT Director, said virtual private servers and related technology bring a number of business benefits.

"This data centre programme will provide Nationwide with a world-class server infrastructure - allowing us to respond to changing business needs more quickly and efficiently," he stated.

Earlier this week, TMCNet senior editor Erin Harrison highlighted the potential for virtual private servers to limit data centre costs.

Written by Tim Dunton