Server consolidation and the use of virtualisation technology in a new twin datacenter environment have helped the Government of the Isle of Man to improve efficiencies, enhance security and reduce downtime.
The Isle of Man Government relied on Unisys processes, expertise, partnerships and technology to enable top-down change in support of a desired transition to a real-time infrastructure. The resilient, secure and scalable solution allows the government to lower the cost of service delivery while enabling a more agile response to new requirements. In this way, the Government not only satisfies the needs of local residents, but is attractive to new investments through its business-friendly operations.
Brian Osborn, production services manager for IoMG, explains: "By 2002, we were suffering from server sprawl - adding about one new server a week. Without additional resources, the situation was becoming unmanageable. We needed to streamline our data centre and create a real-time infrastructure - and we needed help to do it quickly and cost-effectively.
This effort - dubbed the Host Mann project - tapped into Unisys expertise to build a modern infrastructure capable of supporting critical transformation. "We chose Unisys because they brought a structured approach, a clear understanding of the technology and they stood out above the competition, comments Paterson.
He adds: "By using existing resources to handle growth, we've avoided significant costs. We now support greater levels of service with fewer operating systems - and we're saving money in datacenter operations. As we move to consolidation, we are seeing realisable savings, with Unisys playing a key role in helping us drive down both our management and unit costs for technology. With our new infrastructure, we are also coping with continuous growth in our user base and in the number and complexity of application services we deliver, without incurring any additional IT operational costs.