SACRAMENTO, CA — In September 2010, former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 2408 into law, launching an effort to consolidate the state's data centers and save the cash-strapped government hundreds of millions of dollars per year through increased energy efficiency.
Just over six months after that law went on the books, the state has already cut its energy use by enough to power 2,000 homes for a year.
The savings put the state well on its way to achieving the targets set out in AB 2408, of cutting the energy used by ICT equipment by 20 percent by July 1, 2011, and by 30 percent by July 1, 2012.
PC power management technologies and data center consolidation were the two key strategies that the state's Green IT Workgroup used for its Phase One efforts. Through widespread adoption of PC power management, the state expects to save 10 million kilowatt-hours of energy use annually.
And earlier this year, California's Office of Technology Services closed its Cannery data center, which eliminated 75,000 square feet of computing space and will save 12.5 million kWh of energy savings annually.
Together, the efforts will cut nearly 14,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
The next steps in the state's green IT work will focus on data collection around energy use and implementing power management for office equipment like printers, copiers, scanners and multi-function devices.
California last year signed up with Verdiem to use that company's Surveyor PC power management software for its green IT efforts. Verdiem last week unveiled a Mac version of its software, further expanding its reach.
The state is far from the only organization to mine the cash savings from IT energy efficiency. At a power management summit in 2009, Verizon showed how it saves $5 million a year in energy costs through power management software, while rival AT&T previously laid out its $13 million in annual savings from PC power management.
We at 1E are very proud that
We at 1E are very proud that our customers (Verizon and AT&T) are able to achieve the utmost in savings from PC Power Management for both PC and Mac.
PC power management is
PC power management is necessary, but not sufficient. Like most business enterprises, we have prohibited the use of agents on any device because of the management overhead and disruption to our desktops. We have also found that over 80% of the power consumed by our IT enterprise network/systems is attributed to connected systems other than PC's or Macs, so we find this PC agent approach falls far short of solving the problem. We recently began using a network based system that measures and controls the energy consumption of all devices. It works really well and we don't need to put agents all over our network.
I would be interested in
I would be interested in hearing more about this solution, as to how comprehensive it is, and if you are actually getting full management and top savings over power consumption. I think you also hit a good topic, by indicating that PC power mgmt is necessary, but not sufficient. PC Power mgmt is just single piece of obtaining overall efficiency and cost savings in the organization. There are a huge number of areas within most organizations where even more savings and even more efficiency can be gleaned. Those companies and vendors that focus entirely on PC Power mgmt are missing the big picture. 1E's mission is to identify all of those areas where waste might exist and provide solutions for each one. So, while 1E is known as the market leader in PC Power mgmt, we actually offer a number of additional solutions where you can save even more for the business. We help turn the IT org from a cost center into a cost savings center which improves the overall business - without the disruption you mention.