PC power management is the best thing for your IT estate and budget

Author: Lucjan Zaborowski, Head of Digital, 1E

In fact, we are always looking for the next development and the next utilitarian feature that the manufacturers of these devices bring to us. But, let’s pause from our hyper-connected lives and reflect on something that is real and within all of our reaches – savings caused by power management.

No, this not a utopian concept, but an actual feasible practice that businesses are increasingly benefitting from. According to a CIO report, businesses who are interested in estimating how much they can save from PC power management only have to ask multiply the number of PCs in their organisation with 60 and add a dollar sign before it to receive the amount. So, for a company that has 150 PCs in their IT estate, saving an annual amount of $9,000 is possible. And this figure is only for PCs, so imagine all the money that your business could save by turning off other devices.

An example of success to follow
Bovis Lend Lease is a leading project management and construction company that has its presence across the globe in over 30 countries. Their employee strength is over 8,000 people. They are known to create quality and sustainable property assets for their clients.

As part of their corporate sustainability goals, Bovis Lend Lease wanted to curb their carbon emissions by 20% over a period of three years. They also wanted to reduce their energy use, minimise waste, and adopt green procurement practices.

Bovis Lend Lease partnered with a leading PC power management and solutions providerto meet one third of their energy reduction target in just 10 months. The manufacturer’s solution was deployed on some 3,000 PCs of Bovis Lend Lease in their offices in Europe. This move itself led to a 32% reduction in their set energy reduction targets. In a span of ten months, the solution led them to save 113,030kWh of energy.

Why power management is necessary even today?
A CIO report clearly goes onto highlight that computers and monitors consume half the total electricity in an office. Not deploying a power management solution can be detrimental to not just your already stringent IT budget but also your IT estate.

The money that businesses save can be used to gain a competitive edge in the market, by using that capital in their research and development wing to launch a new product or solution. It goes without saying that using less energy will result in saving more money. Also, businesses need to realise the obvious - the money that can be saved from PC power management, even after accounting the cost of deployment and management of power management software, is just waiting to be saved and used more optimally.

Sumir Karayi, Chief Executive Officer of a leading PC power management solution provider said: “Switching PCs off can make them last longer. If you leave a computer running for too long, software inefficiencies mean it will eventually run out of memory. They are more functional if you reboot them now and again.”

Real results in real-time
Your IT estate will present multiple opportunities to fulfill corporate sustainability goals, but PC power management is a ripe opportunity just waiting to be exploited. Apart from saving money, power management of devices in your IT estate will lead to the following:

• Reduction in cost without expenditure
  Building an IT estate that includes energy-efficient equipment and computing architecture will require you to invest more capital and expand your IT budget. Instead, of making these investments, it is better to use the resources at hand and increase their value by getting a power management solution.
• Identifying the correct pain points
  According to a Forrester report, contrary to popular belief, IT assets that are outside your data centre consume about 10% more energy than the data centrer itself. Though it may vary from organisation to organisation, you can milk you PC environment for more than its worth by simply getting a power management solution into place.
• Elongating the efficiency of your assets
  When you use a power management solution, you enhance the productivity of your assets. Power management leads to optimal battery life, which in turn allows your devices to be optimally configured. This means that security patches and system upgrades will not cause disruption or downtime. Organisations can reap from the many benefits of business as usual.

Misconceptions that need clarity

• Automated management
  For all those who think that power management is a labour intensive operation, be rest assured that it is not. Power management solutions have in-built features that help auto-switch on and auto-switch off the assets that they are deployed on. Automated features further ensure that PCs are shutdown as per geographies and at the local time.
• Business as usual
  Power management solutions do not override the system and its user preferences. So, when your employees leave a file open or do not properly power down their systems, the software will first save all the files and ensure that the person can pick up from where they left off when the system is rebooted in a secure manner. There is no loss of data with power management.
• Measure the metric
  Quality power management software have features that allow their metrics to be measured and customised. So, you know that the security patch that your IT department deployed got installed and all the desired assets are being used properly.

PC power management ensures that you get the most out of your IT budget and hardware productivity. Businesses can also determine usage patterns, energy consumption, and other asset activities. Through power management you also ensure that your systems reboot in a safe and secure manner without any data loss.

Meet your corporate sustainability goals with this low hanging fruit of PC power management.