The University of Buckingham will virtualise 49 servers, as part of its strategy to increase datacentre capacity while minimising power and cooling requirements.

The time taken to set up a new server at the university has also come down to 10 minutes from two hours, by using XenServer software from supplier Citrix, which will run across the institution’s two data centres.

Rapid deployment and business continuity are key priorities, said Matthew Day, head of IT at the university.

"Our main datacentre was reaching capacity limit, we needed to invest but it was clear that there had to be more we could do than just throw more space, electricity and cooling at the problem," he said.

"And we needed to deploy new systems very quickly, in addition to having a continuity plan in place should a server fail.”