Many public entities are offering businesses tax incentives and rebates for energy efficient initiatives. California public utility companies have one of the nation's most progressive programs promoting energy efficiency and clean energy. A regional utility company in Northern California has created a customized incentive program for business energy efficiency retrofit projects involving the installation of high-efficiency equipment or systems called the Non-Residential Retrofit or NRR Rebate Program. The City of Walnut Creek recently received the rebate for its virtualization project that qualified for the NRR program.

Walnut Creek awarded INX a contract to design and implement a multiphase virtualization solution that included a server consolidation effort, a backup and recovery solution, and a virtual desktop initiative. INX was awarded the competitively bid contract based on its ability to offer a comprehensive virtualization project that could meet the city's business objectives. The project leverages virtualization technology from VMware to create efficiencies in data management thereby decreasing the amount of servers required and increasing the reliability of application and data delivery. The virtualization technology also enables the city to eliminate traditional desktop computers and replace them with low energy consuming terminals. The applications move to the data center where they are centrally managed and deployed, which drives down costs, while enhancing the user computing experience. The project encompasses all city entities and employees including the Police Department.

Laura Peabody, Walnut Creek CIO, stated, "The INX team has been a tremendous help with the server, storage and backup project as well as in assisting my staff to learn the new environment. The technology is a better use of the taxpayers' money on so many levels, and we are pleased to qualify for the utility program by reducing electricity consumption." In order to qualify for the rebate, the City of Walnut Creek had to submit a project application. The utility company had to inspect and approve the project prior to the removal of the existing equipment and the installation of new systems.

"We are pleased that City of Walnut Creek selected INX to architect and implement its virtualization project," said Steve Kaplan, INX Vice President of Data Center Virtualization.