The market for server and computer power management software is likely to grow as the cost of energy increases, according to a report by Pike Research. The group believes that by employing such software solutions, companies will save $18.6 billion (£11.8bn) per year by 2015.
PCs and servers account for a large portion of information technology emissions, yet much of their power consumption is wasted. The majority of corporate computers are left on at weekends and as many as 80 per cent are left on overnight so IT departments can apply patches during that time.
Servers use 60 per cent of their maximum power while doing nothing at all and typically only run at around 15 percent utilisation. However PC power management tools are rarely employed because IT departments are not responsible for power costs.
“Using power management settings on a single PC could save 746 kWh of electricity in just a year, which translates into savings of almost $77. Yet, in 2010 only a little over one-fifth of users employed management settings effectively,” said Pike Research senior analyst Eric Woods in a statement.
However as energy prices continue to rise and demand for computing power increases, this is likely to change as savings are central to power management software’s appeal. In 2009 AT&T saved $13m (£8.2m) a year in energy use from power management.
But as a 2009 survey revealed, the majority of businesses were unaware of the benefits of power management technology and that user attitudes were driving the adoption of such schemes, not companies.
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There are quick wins to be made from power management in the enterprise. Microsoft remain behind the curve and even in the most recent OS the policies available are quite crude. In many environments this is simply too basic as different users will have different needs.
There are several commercial power management solutions out there that combine enterprise grade reporting with granular power management control. Whilst not free these products permit the policy to be finely turned thus avoiding any productivity loss and giving the project a bad name.
The leading vendors are probably Data Synergy PowerMAN (www.datasynergy.com) and 1E Nightwatchman (www.1e.co.uk). Both products offer effective reporting together with huge combination of configuration options.
Some words of warning: Perform a baseline before implementing any power management. This is the only way you can be sure what the savings are.