In a unique initiative with Castle Computer Services, Cairn Housing Association is creating opportunities for other Housing Associations to make IT savings and Business Continuity improvements for other Housing Associations by hosting data on its own Castle virtualised servers while at the same time generating extra income for Cairn Housing.
Cairn is already hosting data for Abbeyfield Housing Association and expects to add several more associations this year.
Rory Gaffney, Head of IT, Cairn Housing Association, said:
“We have worked closely with Castle to achieve significant efficiencies since introducing VMware virtual servers in 2007. We have moved from thirteen servers to three, running over twenty virtual machines from three physical hosts. As a result, power costs have also been dramatically reduced because there aren’t so many servers to power and keep cool.
“The flexibility and robustness of the virtual environment means that we can offer secure hosting services to other associations at competitive rates.
It’s a win/win situation because the income is offset against our own IT costs and the other associations benefit from high value, high quality, secure hosting at an affordable price. We are selling our I.T. infrastructure capacity and expertise that we have developed with Castle over the years.
Andrew Cruickshank, Castle Computer Services, said:
“We have worked closely with Cairn since their original move to virtualising their servers in 2007 and they have maximised the opportunities for efficiencies that come with a virtualised system and furthermore generated an income.”
Cairn Housing Association serves a wide variety of communities throughout Scotland and has over 3,000 homes under management. In 2007, Cairn appointed Castle to design and implement a VMware virtual solution to improve performance, reliability and efficiency of its IT infrastructure.
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