Virtual move 'saves more money than first thought'

Thomson Reuters' professional division has enjoyed large returns on investment six months after a data centre virtualisation project was completed, it has been reported.

Moving to virtual private servers has allowed the division to slow down its data centre growth and avoid paying out for capital equipment, Computer World UK noted.

Christopher Crowhurst, vice-president of architecture at the Thomson Reuters Professional Division in New York, told the publication that Thomson Reuters is hoping to achieve £640 million in energy efficiency gains by 2011, a large proportion of which will be supported by IT and virtual private servers.

He added that "the connection between the network and the server is simpler".

The group has also re-estimated the expense of the virtualisation project, which was at first projected to cost £182 million over five years.

Danny Guillory, chief executive officer of Innovations International, previously suggested that a move to virtual private servers can lead to savings on energy costs. His firm has saved a fifth of its annual expenses by going virtual, he claimed.

Written by Tim Dunton