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A constant stream of electronic data is the lifeblood of the shipping industry. Everything from containers to imported cars, logs and cruiseliners is tracked electronically so details can be fed into complex algorithms used to tell stevedores where and when to load or unload goods for maximum efficiency.
Like all similar operations around the world, Ports of Auckland's business would grind to a halt if its computer systems fell over. To minimise the chances of that the port has divvied up its processing power between two data centres which sit 1.8km apart at either end of the business's sprawling CBD operation on the edge of the Waitemata Harbour.
"We figure if we lose one [data centre], we fail-over to the other. If we lose both there is no port, so we go home," jokes Darren Wiseman, the company's IT operations manager.
In reality the port's IT gurus have a sophisticated business continuity and disaster recovery strategy, at the heart of which is a trendy technology concept: virtualisation.
While traditionally each individual server in a data centre has been confined to running one piece of software, virtualisation is about making more efficient use of IT hardware by allowing all types of processing to be shared across servers.
This means the technology can be run at near full capacity, saving the power costs associated with having under-used servers whirring away, and - as is the case with Ports of Auckland - having the option to effortlessly switch processing from one location to another if something goes wrong at either of its sites.
US company VMware has been leading the virtualisation charge for several years. It had a spectacularly successful IPO last year but - despite continuing to report phenomenal growth - its share price slumped last month, mainly due to fears other technology heavyweights, particularly Microsoft, are beginning to muscle in on its territory.
Microsoft's latest shot across VMware's bows was an announcement last month that it was buying virtualisation technology company Calista Technologies. Microsoft has also moved to reduce one of the headaches involved in virtualisation by simplifying licensing agreements for its software that is run in a virtualised environment. (Software has traditionally been priced on the number of machines it will run on within a business but this formula gets convoluted when things are virtualised.)
Ed Havlik, the Australasian head of Avocent Corporation, a company specialising in technology to manage data centre infrastructure, says the arrival of competitors in virtualisation will shake up the market.
But VMware's Australasian managing director, Paul Harapin, is unfazed by Microsoft's moves. "What Microsoft is trying to do is get to a level of what we had back in 2001," he says.
A significant number of businesses seem to be facing a blow-out in their data processing and storage requirements. This has led to "server sprawl", with IT managers forced to buy more and more hardware to meet demands, plus pay for the electricity to run and cool the equipment.
Virtualisation is a great solution to the sprawl problem, says Havlik, because it can often mean only one server is needed to do what would previously have required five.
However, "companies need to think through their whole strategy before jumping into the deep end and realise there are pitfalls". Businesses need to be aware that by loading more processing onto a smaller number of servers they may face an increased risk of data loss if a server fails.
But Harapin says VMware's ability to constantly monitor the state of the network it is operating across, and switch processing loads accordingly, means the failure of an individual server does not disrupt the network.
Wiseman said at Ports of Auckland, where the virtualised environment is based around VMware's technology, a faulty server could be removed without affecting business.
