Knowledge Is Power – And Power Management Needs Data

That’s servers. What about the desktop? In a lot of cases, they use more power than the servers.
Yes, and there are substantial power savings to be made on the desktop. We have technology in our Landesk management suite, that will power down computers at 6pm if no one is using them, and automatically power them back on 15 minutes before the office opens in the morning – before people come in.

It can also be powered back on when patches are installed. It uses Intel vPRo, but also other features in the system itself. We have an ROI tool that will figure out – according to which models of PC you have – which are best to be powered off, and which should be left on standby. Some machines may be better left on standby, because when you power a machine off completely and power it back up, there is a power-consumption spike.

We’re trying to give immediate return on investment, not technology for technology’s sake. In the US, we’ve had power utilities that offer a rebate of around $12 per seat if you can prove you have these policies in place. We’ve had large organisations get a $400,000 reduction on their power bill per year, and the software doesn’t cost anything like that much.

What I know Avocent best for is KVM switches. What have they got to do with power management?
Well, the core part of Avocent’s business is remote access, and that has a bearing on power, because folks are building data centre where power is cheapest.

You see a lot of people building data centres around the Columbia River valley in Oregon. They’re in the middle of nowhere. It’s hard to find IT staff to manage them – so the need to move where power is cheaper is going to increase the need for remote access.

We’re not just solving a piece of the power problem. We’re trying to give you instrument, measurement, management and planning tools, whether it’s for the desktop or the data centre.