Server and storage infrastructure: The ICT environment’s engine room

The Ubuntu Group’s expertise spans all elements of the server and storage infrastructure environment; including the sourcing and configuration of operating systems, applications; and other vital elements of the software environment.

As such, it’s not uncommon for the Ubuntu Group to become intimately involved with its customers’ broader-reaching ICT projects such as the consolidation of server infrastructure using techniques like virtualisation, or the simplification of client-side infrastructure using an approach such as virtual desktop infrastructure or thin-client.

By employing virtualisation in both the server and storage environment, Ubuntu is able to provide solutions that address various customer challenges and requirements, such as:

• reduction of physical server footprints through consolidation
• achieving  higher availability, uptime and disaster recovery solutions
• appropriate tiering of storage
• more efficient usage of energy resources
• simplifying of backup strategies
  
  

The Ubuntu methodology approach to a server or storage virtualisation project allows it to address the needs of customers at different stages of the virtualisation journey.

The methodology entails:

• Collecting and analysing data about server load and applications run
• Uptime and the overall demands placed on the customer’s live IT environment
• Runs for a period of between five and 30 days
  
  

The data collected during the assessment is then used to model a final solution that meets the customer’s true needs and is based on real-world statistics relevant to the clients’ working environment.
Business continuity and disaster recovery is an equally important area of focus and the Ubuntu Group’s solutions address these by the replication of data between multiple sites and the active testing of those measures to ensure contingencies are effective and functioning as per the clients’ business requirements.
Replication of data between two sites is not only vital to the functioning of a disaster recovery plan, but it also aids customers in moving from legacy backup technologies to faster and more efficient solutions.