Valmiera City Council provides public services to almost 30.000 inhabitants and combines 32 institutions including schools, kindergardens and public service institutions.

“Proxmox VE has become the main server virtualization platform for the Valmiera City Council,” says Janis Berzins, Head of the council’s IT department. “We started to test Proxmox VE in 2010 to find out if this environment would fit our needs and now, four years later, we use it as primary virtualization solution."

Proxmox helps keep virtualization simple and organized and it provides an astonishing snapshot backup solution. - Janis Berzins

"At the moment we have 12 physical servers running Proxmox VE with approximately 120 virtual servers. Proxmox helps keep virtualization simple and organized and it provides an astonishing snapshot backup solution. By using Proxmox VE we have managed to save money that we can invest in hardware and better network solutions."

Valmiera City Council provides public services to almost 30.000 inhabitants and combines 32 institutions including schools, kindergardens and public service institutions. "The council’s IT department is challenged with a huge IT environment," Janis explains. "We take care of more than 1.000 workstations and have to provide many different services. And this is where Proxmox VE comes into play: It is so easy to use, that it can be done by one system administrator at our IT department."

"After all, in public administration, it’s our duty to keep costs low without influence on the quality of services. It always seems easier to choose a commercial product and contract someone to get the work done for you."

On top of that, for us as public administration, it is really important that we demonstrate responsible use of taxpayers’ money by choosing open-source solutions. - Janis Berzins

"But with Proxmox VE you can get these two factors together: It is a low-cost solution, it does neither affect quality nor security and it’s easy to use so you can handle it yourself. On top of that, for us as public administration, it is really important that we demonstrate responsible use of taxpayers’ money by choosing open-source solutions.”

Janis Berzins
Head of IT department, Valmiera City Council