iSERV Ontario to provide utility computing service

iSERV Ontario, the provincial government’s IT infrastructure services provider, is turning to utility computing services designed to offer access-on-demand to servers, desktops and applications via virtualized machines.

iSERV, or the Office of the Corporate Chief Service Delivery headed by Blair Smith, has been looking at implementing a utility data centre model for the past 18 months and began installing a system of Web portals in December and January.

The portals enable a user to order a custom-configured server or desktop and then download the virtualized machine, or master image, from a back-end farm of blades that is maintained by a service provider.

iSERV Ontario is responsible for managing infrastructure service delivery, including the mainframe, servers, desktop management and procurement, for the government’s 30 ministries across Ontario.

The utility system integration was set up and implemented in partnership with Commerx Computer Systems Inc., a Mississauga, Ont.-based services provider that offers specialized virtual LAN switching technology.

...

Commerx joins Toronto-based Charon Systems, Nexxlink Technologies of Montreal and ERP specialist CSB Systems of Winnipeg in [contributing to?] Bell Business Solutions.

The unit runs a Virtual CIO program that aims to offer utility-type infrastructure services, software as a service, hosted security and disaster recovery, as well as managed telecommunications, according to Robert Courteau, president and CEO of Bell Business Solutions.

...

To support between 1,000 and 1,500 virtual machines, the back-end might consist of a full rack of 96 dual-core blades, 100 terabytes of disk in a storage area network, SAN cards, and a network switching layer like HP’s ProCurve or Cisco.

...

The pilot project with Bell will start with 10 blades, 40TB of disk and Cisco switching gear housed at the Charon data centre in Calgary, according to Levinsky. The partners are initially aiming at 10 Ontario customers and 10 from Quebec. Bell hopes to go live with the system in April and officially launch the service in July, says Courteau, with possible expansion to its Montreal data centre.

from Network World Canada - Government taps utility - February 17, 2006
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The Commerx site also has more info

Bell Canada has teamed up with Commerx to bring on-demand, Express Servers, to the Canadian marketplace. These Virtual Intel Servers give customers an alternative to purchasing expensive new hardware and can be self-provisioned in minutes. Available within secure MPLS or I-VPN networks, this new service will change the way companies think about computing resources.

from their PDF announcement Pilot Program for Virtual Servers on Demand dated January 16, 2006

“The average Windows based server is running at less than 15% capacity,” according to Stuart Levinsky, President of Commerx Computer Systems Inc. “Our customers are tired of purchasing hundreds of new Intel Servers every year simply because existing leases are expiring. CIO’s in Canada have already identified that they use only a fraction of their existing computing horsepower and they’d like a viable alternative to more hardware. Hosted, secure, virtual servers on-demand from Bell will be ideal for disaster recovery environments as well as fixed length development projects.” Network centric applications like Windows Active Directory and SharePoint are also ideal initial candidates for hosting on virtual servers. This service will change the way organizations plan and manage their IT environments.”