BT has signed a new agreement with Norfolk County Council (NCC) Children’s Services to provide a virtual data centre (VDC) service.
BT said that VDC will help NCC Children’s Services to manage their ICT (Information and communication technologies) overheads by moving applications, storage and security into the cloud.
The VDC service removes need for physical hardware and frees up resources, enabling learning services to be provided to around 100,000 pupils and students in about 400 schools across Norfolk.
The new data centre will also allow NCC Children’s Services to add and remove applications easily, and move to a model which requires no up-front capital expenditure.
In addition, with the new virtualisation technology, NCC Children’s Services will reduce physical space and power requirements in data centre, resulting in a reduction in carbon emissions.
BT managing director of local, regional and devolved government Chris Ainslie said, the new VDC service will free up more time for NCC Children’s Services to concentrate on their core services.
"Having a real time click-to-build and buy facility will give them flexibility and result in repeated cost savings and efficiencies," Ainslie said.
