More Case Studies: Companies in Norway and Switzerland Choose Microsoft Over VMware, Saving Money and Improving Efficiencies

Happy New Year to all my readers.  In keeper with the positive tone I’ve been on recently, I wanted to again highlight more case studies about Microsoft Virtualization.  We recently published two case studies that exemplify the cost savings, scalability, and flexibility benefits that customers consistently realize with Microsoft virtualization.  Both highlight the capabilities of Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

OTRUM is a Norwegian company that provides interactive television solutions to the hospitality industry. Although it had been using VMware, it needed a virtualization solution that was more affordable, easy to set up and scale, and simple to manage. After learning that Hyper-V was included in OTRUM’s licenses for Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, it implemented the technology, along with System Center products. By switching from VMware, OTRUM immediately saved more than NOK 50,000 (U.S.$8,775) in license fees, and will save another U.S.$20,000 over three years on VMware support costs. And, by managing its data centers from a central console, the company simplified administration of its physical and virtual server environments, saving about 20 hours per month in management time.

“Hyper-V works better than VMware. It’s easier to set up and, with System Center Virtual Machine Manager, I have a single console for managing the whole virtual environment, including one remaining VMware host… Running several servers on the same physical machine is more cost-effective. But having Hyper-V virtualization software included with our Windows Server licenses meant even greater savings.”

Mercuri Urval, a Switzerland-based international personnel and management consultancy, realized similar benefits. While the company was using virtualization technologies from VMware and Citrix, it needed to develop a new server infrastructure that would provide better performance, flexibility, and ease of use, while being cost-effective. With Windows Server 2008 Datacenter and Hyper-V, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager, it can now add new virtual servers or migrate existing ones in just minutes, and activate test environments easily to test updates or new software installations.

Because Windows Server 2008 Datacenter can accommodate an unlimited number of virtual servers on each physical server, Mercuri Urval saved U.S.$48,000 on Citrix licenses, and saw an additional 35 percent cost reduction by eliminating VMware licenses and its external terminal solution.

“With Windows Server 2008 Datacenter, we developed a simple, clear, cost-effective, and scalable solution that provides our employees access to information regardless of place and time. And with the flexibility provided by Hyper-V, we can develop our IT gradually, without disrupting daily business.”

  
Edwin Yuen
Senior Technical Product Manager – Virtualization