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How to reduce energy costs in IT

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30th Oct 2009
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Jim Docherty explains how businesses can reduce energy usage and save money across their IT departments.

With energy prices likely to rise in the next few months and the government asserting greater pressure on the public and private sector to reduce carbon emissions with the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, power management is climbing the business agenda. One key area where finance teams can look to make immediate savings and long-term improvements is IT.

IT is one of the biggest consumers of electricity within a business and unless policies are in place to reduce use, this is one area that could see a steady increase in consumption. The resources needed to power and deliver on demand services, rich web and multimedia applications are increasing, as are the capabilities required to store and manage the burgeoning amount of data that is being created.

The ‘always-on’ culture that is emerging has little regard for the consequences of accessing those services – both in terms of cost and carbon emissions. Powering desktop computers that are on all the time when you have hundreds, if not thousands, of machines has serious cost and carbon implications. The average desktop uses 111 watts of power when active according to the EnergyStar and US Environmental Protection Agency figures, with monitors responsible for 60% of the energy consumed. So what can be done to combat the energy efficiency challenge of IT deployment?

Front and back end savings

IT breaks down into two main areas: The servers, storage and networking equipment that makes up the back-end infrastructure, and the desktop estate that individuals use every day. The back-end data centre is already being targeted by IT for energy savings; technologies such as virtualisation and blade servers are being used to reduce the number of physical machines required to support the business, as well as cutting the amount of power consumed in the delivery of applications. Advances in server design and cooling systems are also helping organisations to reduce the amount of power that is used.

On the desktop side, technology exists that can control and automate the powering down of large numbers of machines when not in use or at specific times of the day. This is an area where simple steps can really make a big difference to energy bills and emission counts, but most companies do not have a desktop power management strategy in place. This could be down to some pre-conceptions around desktop power management that have to be overcome.

According to a worldwide survey carried out by Dimensional Research, the biggest inhibitor to deploying desktop power management is the IT department requiring late night access to machines for security patching and updates to be applied (43%). The second largest reason was users not wanting their machines to be turned off without their knowledge (34%). Other reasons that were given included the potential impact on productivity from end-users, lack of awareness of solutions and the fact that savings were not represented in the IT budget so there was no impetus to do anything proactive.

Desktop policy

One approach that can reducing power usage at the desktop level is to put a policy in place for users to turn off their machines in the evening when they leave the office. This can encourage power saving activities within the workplace, but unfortunately it means that there is no real way to measure what savings (if any) are being generated.

From a technology perspective, solutions are available that can reduce energy spending while also making sure that policies are followed. The use of Wake-on-LAN, as well as the ability to schedule patching and updates remotely, means that one of the largest objections to desktop power management from the IT department can be discounted. IT departments can also work with user groups to install new working practices and agree that all files should be saved and closed before staff depart for the evening. This change management strategy can also help to educate users on the reasons behind the new policy, getting their buy-in and making the change more likely to stick. It can also tie into other facilities management approaches aimed at saving power.

The amount of power that a desktop uses may seem small compared to the overall energy consumption of a data centre, but the sheer number of desktops that can be involved means that any investment in desktop power management can create significant savings for the company on top of any carbon reduction results.

Jim Docherty is EMEA managing director for KACE.

 

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By cverrier
30th Oct 2009 11:13

Vista and Win7 energy saving

The green credentials of power saving settings shouldn't be underestimated.

Windows XP had the ability to do all sorts of power-saving things, but they were not enabled by default, which meant that most Windows XP computers ended up not utilising them.  Wndows XP also would tend to be hamstrung by the demands of some badly written 3rd-party software that would block some of the power-saving features from activating.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 both have much more sophisticated power-saving measures, and Microsoft changed the defaults to mean that they were ENABLED on new PC's.  3rd-party applications were also prevented from blocking the system from dropping into power-saving mode.

Microsoft wrote a white paper on the subject of how much power (and money, and CO2) can be saved when a significant number of PC's in an office are properly configured to 'sleep' when not in use, and be able to 'wake' up if an IT department needs to push out some updates in the middle of the night.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/pnppwr/powermgmt/VistaEnergyConserv.mspx (PDF Download)

An example it gives..

A typical Pentium 4 PC with a 17" LCD monitor draws about 102.6 watts of power (think about a 100 watt light bulb). 

That same PC and display in a sleep state draws only 5.6 watts, or 97 fewer watts.  If you figure that a PC could be used for active work for 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks per year, that is 2,600 operating hours. With 8,760 hours in a year (365*24), there are actually 6,160 potential idle hours per year (and in big enterprises - those PCs really ARE left on all night).

Since sleep mode uses 97 fewer watts than full power mode, the total savings is 597 kWh per year -- and by the way, the impact is obviously even greater (760 kWh) if you use a CRT monitor since they draw more power than LCDs.

The paper uses an estimate of $0.0931 per kWh from the US Department of Energy, so for a home user with one PC, the savings amounts to $55.63/year (more if the PC is used less than 10 hours a day).  While that is great saving for a home user, think about an enterprise with 10,000 desktops where the potential cost savings would be $556,300/year -- and we haven’t even tried to estimate the reduced Air Conditioning costs from the reduced heat output.

You can argue the specific figures, but there are large savings to be had, regardless.   There are just over a Billion PC's in the world, and if they all utilised power-saving features, you're talking about vast benefits.

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By User deleted
30th Oct 2009 16:09

Delivering Environmentally Sustainable IT

 

 

With the government trying to cut the UK’s carbon emissions by 34% by 2020, there is a realisation that every business needs to consider its carbon footprint.

 

By utilising virtualisation technology across the data centre companies can now dramatically reduce power consumption by reducing the number of physical machines and associated air conditioning.  

 

In addition, the latest thin client devices that are used in a virtual desktop environment require at most 30% of the power of the PCs they replace – and that includes the proportion of server power they require. They are highly recyclable and have a far longer lifespan, reducing the lifetime acquisition and disposal costs.

 

But greener IT is not just about reassessing the IT infrastructure to drive down the carbon impact; it is about working practices. For example, would home or remote working reduce employee travel significantly? Can video conferencing cut down travel to meetings? And can hot-desking significantly reduce the desktop infrastructure?

 

Critically, with the right approach, sustainable business is not just about meeting targets and being seen to be green but actually adopting efficient, well managed processes that deliver quantifiable benefit to the bottom line.

 

Chris de Silva

Managing Director

NEC Philips Unified Solutions

http:///www.nec-philips.co.uk

 

 

 

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