John Lewis streamlines in-store tech

Department store John Lewis has been using Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 to pilot a new approach for managing its in-store tech.

The company has been trialling an approach which allows its tech team to more efficiently manage staff access to services on its network.

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Each of the 250 John Lewis and Waitrose stores has a domain controller - all requiring a dedicated server - which employees use to access various network applications.

The company has been piloting Windows Server 2008 based on read-only domain controllers in its Waitrose store in Wokingham.

Speaking at the Windows Server 2008 launch in London this week, John Lewis PC infrastructure manager, Crispin Hobbs, said: "Because it's a read-only domain controller we can share it - it doesn't have to be on its own dedicated server. We can put it on a server with other things. We reckon we can throw away 250 servers."

He added: "We want to reduce the number of servers, cut costs and support business growth."

John Lewis plans to roll out read-only domain controllers to all of its stores by the end of 2009, replacing domain controllers based on Windows Server 2003.

And with the company planning to double sales in the next 10 years without expanding the IT team, cutting server numbers is critical. "It's about streamlining our new branch opening. It's about manageability," said Hobbs.

Another benefit is that the IT team have to spend less time managing the system due to the reduced number of severs and can work on other tasks.

Hobbs added the failover system is slightly "clunky" at the moment due to the large number of bridgeheads in the network but by cutting the number of servers the tech team can streamline the process.

Hobbs said: "In terms of business continuity it's a big improvement."