Nexus Open Systems Ltd recently completed a successful VMware virtualisation project for Connexions Cornwall and Devon Ltd.

Based in its head office in Launceston, Connexions provide a service for all young people, giving 13-19 year olds information, advice, guidance and practical help in preparing for adult and working life. Their purpose is to help young people engage in learning and work.

In order to support its business activities, Connexions Cornwall & Devon Ltd has a number of ICT based business systems. Nexus Open Systems were able to help Connexions when the organisation decided to investigate a virtualisation solution to improve efficiency and lower business costs.

Nexus initially produced a detailed overview of chosen servers, including specification, utilisation and performance. This analysis then formed the basis of an accurate specification for a VMware hosted infrastructure for server consolidation and resilience using the VMware Enterprise Suite software and tools.

Nexus staff assisted Connexions with the VMware installation and deployment. Nexus Senior Systems Engineer, Graham Gray, configured a VMware ESX server utilising Vmotion (for live virtual machine migrations). The VMware DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) and HA (High Availability) software tools were also configured, enabling Connexions to benefit from automated management of computing resources.

Nexus provide ongoing services to assist Connexions Cornwall and Devon with their virtualised environment and future server consolidation plans.

Ian Crabb, ICT Manager, comments:

"I am very happy with the work that Nexus undertook. The engineer was highly knowledgeable and offered us plenty of advice on the best utilisation of VMware for our environment. We have been able to consolidate servers and a SAN into a virtual infrastructure and will continue to work with Nexus to optimise this investment."