Enterprise energy cost reduction without impacting on business.
Computers are one of the fastest growing electrical loads in the business world. Each year, more and more computers are purchased and put to use. But it’s not just the number of computers that is driving energy consumption upward. The way that we use computers also adds to the increasing energy burden.
Research reveals that most personal desktop computers are not being used most of the time that they are running, and many personal computers worldwide are needlessly left running continuously.
Intelligent and balanced energy management is mandatory from the ecologic and financial point of view for every serious enterprise today.
With a growing number of computerized working placed, as well as rising costs for energy, the cost of power is increasing dramatically. Other cost centers are also impacted indirectly - an example is air conditioning – just to reduce the additional heat produced by computers.
Following an article from The Register, IT-Analysts.com discovered that energy costs could be reduced by up to 80% if PCs were simply shut down after work ends and during weekends.
[...Short-term efforts are focused on energy saving with regard to computer installations. At a simple housekeeping level, switching computers off at night and over weekends results in energy and cost savings of 70% to 80%. Similarly, switching off monitors when at lunch, or during periods of absence, can halve the energy consumption....]
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/27/scrutinising_pc_energy_use/
A simple calculation shows that an enterprise with 40,000 PCs could easily save more than one million USD per year just by better management of the power used by its PCs.
Real-life Example
This example shows a company with 500 PCs - 250 were managed using Auto Shutdown Manager, while the other 250 PCs were not. This is an analysis of a 12-month period.
Many PCs were left on after business hours and at weekends, as indicated by the blue chart. Auto Shutdown Manager reduced this by 47%, as shown by the green chart.
In numbers:
For the 250 PCs that were managed, the company reduced the power costs from 27,830 Euros to 14,656 Euros.
This means a saving of approximately 30,000€ or 40.000 USD for all 500 PCs per annum without changing the hardware or users’ behavior. Measured on the average Return on Sales of 3%, this saving is equal to 1,330,000 USD in revenue.
Furthermore, many IT tasks became easier due to built-in features, such as the automatic saving of open documents before shutting down, remote shutdown, remote wakeup, an enterprise-wide WoL Scheduler, and central power management for all PCs. Another key aspect is the improved security level because all unused PCs are now shut down automatically.
Results on the unmanaged site:
Results on the managed site:
Return on Investment (ROI) in less than five months
On average, the purchase of Auto Shutdown Manager pays off within four to five months. This number depends on the configuration and the types of PCs.
The ROI can be even higher on servers or high-end PCs - on average, between two and three months.
Key accounts, as well as enterprises, are choosing Auto Shutdown Manager to reduce their energy costs - with the added benefit of greater security than ever before.
New Case Study: US School District Wakes Up 8500 PCs on 47 campuses
Case Study: UC Berkeley Energy Star
Product presentation
Project "Green Soda" at Berkeley University in California: