Businesses will be able to put VCE Vblock 2 through its paces after Computacenter deploys its first Virtual Computing Environment ‘Vblock 2′ in the UK and EMEA.

The packaged virtualised datacentre solution was implemented at Computacenter’s unique testing facility, the Solutions Centre, at the beginning of April.

Based on EMC vMax data storage, EMC Ionix datacentre automation software, VMware server virtualisation, Cisco UCS universal servers, and Cisco 10GB Ethernet and virtualised networking solutions, VCE Vblock 2 is designed to deliver a fully optimised datacentre infrastructure.

Neill Burton, Datacentre Solutions Director at Computacenter, comments: “By maximising datacentre virtualisation disciplines, VCE Vblock 2 enables organisations to achieve greater cost savings and business agility. The solution also provides the flexible IT foundations needed to implement private clouds and shared services.”

Validate business impact and benefit

Computacenter’s deployment of VCE Vblock 2 provides organisations with a unique opportunity to validate these benefits and an integrated approach to creating a virtualised datacentre (VDC).

Matthew Yeager, Data Storage and Protection Practice Leader at Computacenter, comments: “The VCE Customer Demonstration Suite at the Solutions Centre will enable organisations to see VCE Vblock 2 in action and understand how it could benefit their business. A traditional datacentre approach and architecture increases costs and complexity while making service level agreements difficult to meet. By implementing an optimised environment based on a VDC solution, such as VCE Vblock 2, organisations can overcome these challenges and make IT more repeatable and flexible.”

VCE Vblock 2 can support up to 6,000 virtual machines and is a joint initiative between EMC, VMware and Cisco, who formed the Virtual Computing Environment coalition at the end of 2009.

VCE Vblock 2 is one of five vendor-backed VDC solutions that Computacenter can help customers evaluate, implement and manage.

“A VDC infrastructure is essential for alleviating the energy, resource and space constraints facing today’s datacentres,” comments Burton. “The Solutions Centre enables businesses to test and proof new datacentre systems and strategies prior to making any investment.”

The Solutions Centre is a multi-vendor testing facility comprises of eight secure and scalable proof of concept labs. The centre brings together more than 200 devices from 15-plus vendors.

Book a demo at the Customer Demonstration Suite in Hatfield.

To find out more about Computacenter’s VCE Vblock 2 evaluation services, email us at Optimised.Environment@computacenter.com.