Sedgemoor council upgrades infrastructure

Upgraded Windows will improve environmental friendliness and address compatability issues

Microsoft's next server OS will be released in early 2008

Sedgemoor District Council is planning to rationalise its technology estate and go greener with the upgrade of its server operating system from Windows 2003 to Windows 2008.

The move is in line with a projected desktop refresh from Windows 2000 to Windows Vista and from Office 2000 to Office 2007, which will take place with council approval next year.

Sedgemoor information systems manager Craig Wilkins says the upgrade will create a more efficient infrastructure, help reduce power consumption, and resolve compatibility issues.

"Upgrades of third-party software are no longer supported by our IT infrastructure so we can rationalise our servers and move to greener servers installed with the 2008 operating system," he said.

Windows Server 2008 will be released to manufacturing in the first quarter of 2008. It has virtualisastion capabilities which the council is keen to explore.

‘Moving to 2008 will enable us to reduce our power consumption. We are looking at energy smart hardware to cut power consumption for the upgrade,’ said Wilkins.

By upgrading the desktop operating system and applications suite, the council will improve compatibility.

‘The current client-side environment will only support Internet Explorer 6 and is unable to support Internet Explorer 7 which is compatible with Windows XP or Windows Vista,’ said Wilkins.

‘The majority of our citizens use Windows XP or Vista, which is causing concern around compatibility with some of the software provided by the council - hence the need to move to a more modern infrastructure,’ he said.

Public sector organizations face the same issues as their private sector counterparts when considering major software upgrades, according to Ovum government practice director Eric Woods.

"There are no of a rush to Vista by the public sector - some are going that way because it suits their investment cycle, but there is a generally cautious approach for the rest," he said.