KODAK Virtual Operating Environment Reduces Costs

ROCHESTER, N.Y.—Kodak, through a strategic partnership with VMware, is launching its first Virtual Operating Environment option for KODAK Unified Workflow Solutions. This new feature enables significant cost savings, increased efficiency and failover protection by hosting multiple "virtual" servers simultaneously on a single physical server.

Commercial printers, package printers, publishers, and others today are looking for ways to reduce costs while adding server capacity and simplifying IT management. With the Virtual Operating Environment option, servers hosting the KODAK PRINERGY CONNECT Workflow and KODAK INSITE Prepress Portal System can be managed and expanded more efficiently. Users can even minimize downtime by subscribing to an option that employs redundant virtual servers.

“The power of virtualization is something we started looking at a couple of years ago,” said Rick Walch, IT director for Colortek in St. Louis. “The KODAK Virtual Operating Environment enables us to scale our business to deliver growth while enhancing our operations from both a management and business continuity standpoint. The technology is seamless to our clients, but it is something that has clearly given us a competitive advantage.” Colortek’s 60 employees provide premedia services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to a variety of clients from its two modern production facilities.

In a typical Virtual Operating Environment configuration, a single physical server hosts two PRINERGY CONNECT Workflows (a primary and secondary server) and an INSITE Prepress Portal System, thereby providing a KODAK Unified Workflow Solution in one-third the physical space with one-third the energy consumption for server power and cooling. License fees are similarly reduced, and maintenance and operations are more manageable because there are fewer servers to install, support, and upgrade.

“We’re confident the KODAK Virtual Operating Environment option can help printers further reduce their capital and operating costs without affecting the level of service they provide their customers; in fact, the Virtual Operating Environment can even increase IT reliability with simplified redundancy options,” noted Jon Bracken, general manager, Unified Workflow Solutions, Business Solutions and Services Group, Kodak. “By eliminating some of the physical servers, printers can significantly reduce the space, power, and IT management required to house and run their infrastructure.”

The Virtual Operating Environment technology is made possible through Kodak’s strategic partnership with VMware. VMware’s suite of virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions addresses a range of information technology problems that include cost and operational inefficiencies, business continuity, software lifecycle management and desktop management.

“Embedding industry-leading VMware technology can help partners increase the value their solutions provide to customers,” said Bernie Mills, senior director, Embedded OEM Alliances, VMware. “By partnering with VMware, Kodak can also decrease costs while increasing capacity, simplifying management and improving business agility.”