1E targets datacentre with its turn-off technology

Power management suite designed to make it easier to turn off under-utilised servers

Desktop power management specialist 1E has revealed it is developing an energy management suite for the datacentre that it aims to release before the end of the year.

The company - which through its NightWatchman and SMSWakeUp suites provides firms with the ability to remotely turn off and on desktop PCs - said it wishes to make it easier for datacentre managers to reduce their energy bills by turning off under-utilised or unused servers.

"We want to provide a suite that reports on datacentre energy use and identifies areas of efficiency and inefficiency so you can optimise without decommissioning existing kit," said Sumir Karayi, chief executive at the company.

Karayi added that once this reporting capability is developed, it would be relatively easy to add automated power management capabilities, similar to that found in NightWatchman, which would allow datacentre managers to remotely turn off unused servers.

Karayi insisted that many datacentres are running far more servers than they need, but admitted it would take a major change in the mindset of risk-averse datacentre managers for them to agree to turn off servers to save power. "Most datacentres are 24x7 operations… and people believe there is a large degree of risk in turning machines off or even just changing processor states to reduce power draw," he said. "But this is a hugely inefficient scenario and it is perfectly plausible to turn more machines off when they are not in use."

Fujitsu Siemens Computers is pushing enterprises down a similar path. Earlier this year Bernhard Brandwitte, director of product marketing for the vendor’s enterprise server business, argued that European firms should follow their Japanese counterparts by adopting management software that would allow them to switch off under-utilised servers every evening.

1E's plans were revealed as the company prepares to launch an updated version of its Nightwatchman suite this month, featuring enhanced reporting capabilities and integration with Vista designed to exploit its new power saving technology.

In related news, Staffordshire County Council has announced it could cut its energy bill by £40,000 after an IT support team leader developed his own patch management programme to switch off PCs left on overnight.