News > OVEE slashes power use with virtual servers

OVEE has reduced the power consumption and increased the performance of its servers, by introducing virtualisation.

Since its inception OVEE has been introducing 'virtual server' technology to its operations, firstly to meet its internal needs and, most recently, for customers. This technique creates multiple 'virtual server' environments that more efficiently share the resources of available physical servers.

"Virtualisation makes a far more efficient use of servers and eliminates single points of failure, especially as we have spread the physical servers and data storage across its two major data centres. If one of the physical servers fails or a data centre is compromised, then the system immediately transfers the load to other servers or the other data centre with minimal disruption."

"There's also a 'green dividend' from this investment because with server virtualisation we draw half the power and require less air-conditioning, compared to the physical servers we are retiring."

OVEE has deployed Dell servers running a combination of VMWare and XenServer, delivering about 30 virtual servers for its internal and customer web-serving requirements. Currently hosting around 1500 customer websites, ranging from simple, single-page presences to sophisticated database-driven ecommerce sites. The new platform has been engineered for scalability.

All data on customer websites is backed up on a 24-hour or 12-hour cycle, depending on the plan selected. Each plan is available for either Windows or Unix-based websites.