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Thesaurus helps Royal London remove three double-decker buses worth of CO2 a year from server infrastructure
Date: Wednesday 25 November 2009
Author: PHILIP ALSOP
Enterprise data storage expert, Thesaurus, helps savings and insurance specialist, Royal London Group, reduce its carbon emissions and energy costs with a £300,000+ mainframe server replacement, utilising IBM's z10 technology.
As a result of the z10 Business Class (BC) mainframe server installation by Thesaurus, Royal London is set to benefit from:
- A saving of 36.285 tonnes of CO2 emissions, the same weight as three fully laden double-decker buses, or the equivalent CO2 emissions produced for 8 semi-detached houses per year
- An electricity reduction of 69,379.2 kWh per annum
- Savings of £130,000 per annum in energy and software costs
Taking the leap
In order to achieve significant reductions in energy costs and carbon emissions, Thesaurus installed IBM's z10 BC (Business Class) server technology into Royal London's datacentre located in Wilmslow in Cheshire. The IBM z10 BC is nearly 40 per cent faster, has over 50 per cent more total capacity and nearly four times the maximum memory compared to its predecessor, the IBM z9 BC. In comparison to the Royal London's legacy system, this meant the z10 BC easily met the increased performance required, jumping almost ten years of technology.
The z10 system will save Royal London Group money through reduced software and energy costs, savings which can then be passed on to policyholders. It will offer the green benefit of reduced CO2 emissions and will also future proof the server infrastructure. This is because the z10 technology has improved scalability to support any increases or decreases in operations without requiring additional monthly costs in extra hardware, software or human capital. This is achieved by an increased performance of the individual core processor as well as an increased number of cores per server.
As the installation represented a quantum leap in technology for Royal London, Thesaurus ensured that its IT team was fully supported throughout the project. Following the installation, two expert programmers from Thesaurus were on site for three days to refine and optimise the system so it performed to the best of its ability. Thesaurus also supplied thorough training for the relevant IT staff at Royal London, so that they knew the system's exact capabilities.
Tom Hardicre, Technical Services Manager at Royal London Group, explains, "Thesaurus accommodated our working patterns and was very flexible in its approach to training, as it eased it in to our workload, carrying out four separate shifts instead of one large session."
The achievements
Since going live in June, Royal London has already seen a significant reduction in costs associated with its server infrastructure. Tom Hardicre says, "Taking into account the savings we have already achieved, we stand to save over 36 tonnes of CO2 and over 69,000 KwH for the year. These reductions will then equate to around a £130,000 saving every year, in energy and software costs, savings which we can then pass on to our policyholders. Our Financial Director required a break-even point showing ROI within two years on this project and with the reduced software and energy costs, Thesaurus is set to achieve this for us in 18 months."
Tom Hardicre continues, "Co-operation and understanding were key when working on such a large scale and important project as this. We really felt that the Thesaurus team listened to what we needed and supplied it to the letter. They understood that the technology shift for us was massive and, as such, provided effective expert support and training."
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