Independent Scottish co-operative Scotmid is poised to complete a project to virtualise its server infrastructure to support its growth plans.
The retailer, which has a£378 million turnover, is 90 per cent of the way through the project it began 15 months ago with IBM.
Previously, each of the business applications it uses were running on separate server and data storage hardware. For the project, it has invested in IBM servers and storage that can support multiple applications, allowing it to consolidate its infrastructure.
Scotmid has embarked on a three-year programme to refurbish and expand its store estate and has invested in a replacement business intelligence system.
The new infrastructure has improved computing performance and flexibility to support both these initiatives.
Scotmid head of IT Scott Kerr told Retail Week that the project would reduce the cost of introducing new systems. He explained: “It is not reducing our current costs, although we expect some savings in terms of power consumption, but there will be cost reductions in the future as we won’t need to buy new hardware for
every application.”
He added that the new infrastructure will also give the business much greater resilience. The virtualisation project will allow it to set up a disaster recovery site at one of its warehouses with office and computer
room space.
The budget is in place to begin this project next year, which would include mirroring its IT systems at the site and equipping it for priority staff to work there if a major event occurred.
The company’s ledger and payroll applications are yet to be migrated to the new servers. Kerr said that he would like to get the payroll server moved before peak trading, but could wait until January rather than try to rush it in the run-up to Christmas.
Previously, each of the business applications it uses were running on separate server and data storage hardware. For the project, it has invested in IBM servers and storage that can support multiple applications, allowing it to consolidate its infrastructure.
Scotmid has embarked on a three-year programme to refurbish and expand its store estate and has invested in a replacement business intelligence system.
The new infrastructure has improved computing performance and flexibility to support both these initiatives.
Scotmid head of IT Scott Kerr told Retail Week that the project would reduce the cost of introducing new systems. He explained: “It is not reducing our current costs, although we expect some savings in terms of power consumption, but there will be cost reductions in the future as we won’t need to buy new hardware for
every application.”
He added that the new infrastructure will also give the business much greater resilience. The virtualisation project will allow it to set up a disaster recovery site at one of its warehouses with office and computer
room space.
The budget is in place to begin this project next year, which would include mirroring its IT systems at the site and equipping it for priority staff to work there if a major event occurred.
The company’s ledger and payroll applications are yet to be migrated to the new servers. Kerr said that he would like to get the payroll server moved before peak trading, but could wait until January rather than try to rush it in the run-up to Christmas.
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