The FAA is nearly finished with a modernization project that relies heavily on virtual machines to process messages for the National Airspace Data Interchange Network, segmenting data for federal and civil air traffic and bringing legacy functionality and newer IP systems under one umbrella.

DailyTech reports that the project allows the agency to replace decades-old mainframes with quad-core Xeon servers from Stratus Technologies. Fitting, right?

And while evolving technology is all well and good, other efficiencies are being gained by the approach:

Virtualization also is helping the system with its upgrade needs. States Mr. Mcneill, “It’s travel to a facility for a hardware installation, power modification, training — it’s very costly and time-consuming to have to do all that. Now with this common server using virtualization, we can have a template for an operating system and provision a new service in days, requiring no facility upgrade or travel.”

And as one eagle-eyed commenter points out, the tally for the entire project is $860,000. Money well spent indeed.

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