The Sacramento Public Library’s server infrastructure consisted of 25 stand-alone servers in support of services and operations. The equipment was housed in a dedicated facility, with dedicated HVAC, electrical power and Uninterruptible Power Supply systems.

Facing an investment of approximately $125,000 for new hardware, and a total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of about $890,000 over a five-year period, Information Technology staff explored new cost saving alternatives.

Information Technology staff focused their efforts in the selection of smaller, energy efficient hardware platforms based upon Server Virtualization. Virtualization allows multiple server environments, such as Microsoft Server Operating Systems and software applications, to be housed on a single piece of physical hardware.

The Server Virtualization project was completed over the course of nine months. Twenty five stand alone servers were reduced to 4 servers. Reducing servers yielded lower electrical and A/C costs, as well as ongoing server replacement costs. Further, under a Virtual Environment, the system can easily be expanded or replicated, saving staff time required in the procurement, installation and configuration of a new server.

This environment allows enables efficiencies in data storage capacity and centralized backup platforms for fast and reliable retrieval of archived data files.