Healthcare is another strong segment for server virtualization and Virtual Iron. Healthcare providers are continually looking for ways to reduce unnecessary expense. At the same time, technology has become an increasingly integral part of the healthcare process – from patient care, to records management, to the digitization of patient data. All this puts immense pressure on healthcare providers’ IT systems and data centers.

Northern Berkshire Health (NBH) in Western Massachusetts is a great example of a provider that has leveraged server virtualization to address these challenges. The hospital is streamlining its IT infrastructure, consolidating its server footprint and reducing its power, cooling and space requirements with server virtualization. Equally important, NBH has significantly reduced the complexity of its environment.

One of the most visible and symbolic reminders of the impact of server virtualization at NBH: a three-tier, 8’ x 8’ tower of 30 rack mount servers has been reduced to a 2’ x 8” blade system with just four blades. As evidence of the total business impact: NBH has reduced its IT budget by 10% each of the last two years. At the same time, it has increased its computing capacity by 20% each year. Server virtualization has played a key role here. NBH is also using Virtual Iron to simplify its back-up and disaster recovery infrastructure. Using a combination of server virtualization and a Storage Area Network (SAN), NBH get’s all the security of tape without giving up any accessibility.

For more details on NBH’s server virtualization implementation, click here.