Saving Power is Green…AND Smart!

Simple Do-It-Yourself, Energy-Saving Tips Can Conserve The Environment…And Your Company’s Cash!

It’s a win-win: reducing your company’s energy consumption not only helps the environment, it also increases your bottom line.  By implementing a few simple powerful and power-saving IT strategies, you can be on your way to a greener future, while leaving behind a smaller carbon footprint.  Before you get overwhelmed, read on.  It’s easier than you think to “go Green.” 

Give It A Rest.  Your computer I mean.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that activating sleep settings on monitors and PCs can save as much as $75 per computer in annual power costs.¹   If you want to see how many greenbacks you’ll save – no pun intended – you can estimate your company’s potential cost and energy savings with this simple savings calculator provided on Energy Star’s website: http://pmdb.cadmusdev.com/powermanagement/quickCalc.html. 

If your company has just 20 computer users, you can potentially save ~$1,000 per year, or about 80% of your current energy costs for computers.  And, you’ll reduce CO2 emissions by about 19,000 pounds.  That equates to removing 2 cars off the road per year!  With this example, two acres of trees would have to be planted to sequester the amount of CO2 emissions you’d save per year.² How’s that for minimizing your carbon footprint? 

To find out more about how you can implement power management for your monitor and/or computer, visit www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.pr_pm_step2 .  Before you implement power management settings on your computer, check with your IT department to ensure the power management settings you select are appropriate and won’t interfere with critical software updates. 

If you’re already an ITonCommand customer, feel free to turn off your computers, or set them to standby mode.  ITonCommand updates are completed at the server level and do not require any response from your hardware.  However, we DO NOT recommend setting your computer to “hibernate,” as this feature has been known to cause a lot of problems with restarting. 

Give Servers The Boot.  Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) in California estimates customers can expect to save $300 to $600 in annual energy costs by removing just one server.  ITonCommand customers don’t need servers.  All of their data and business applications are securely stored on servers in our state-of-the-art data centers.  With ITonCommand, you’ll never purchase another server, you’ll never pay the energy costs to keep a server running, and you’ll never be burdened with the management of in-house infrastructure again.

Slim Down.  We’re not referring to your waistline.   We’re talking about switching from PCs to thin client devices.   A thin client device is a network computer without a hard disk drive.  Designed to be especially small, they run data on servers and require minimal processing power.  Manufacturers estimate thin clients to be anywhere from 25% - 50% more energy efficient than standard PCs.  ITonCommand runs all of your applications at the server level, requiring nothing but an Internet connection to access your entire corporate network.  You don’t need to run software locally, so you don’t need hard drive space, and therefore, a thin client is all you and your employees need.

So what about ITonCommand’s responsibility to the environment?  ITonCommand maximizes server utilization and efficiency in our state-of-the-art data center facilities, reducing energy emissions and costs. Because we consolidate the server requirements of many companies into a smaller footprint, we are also doing our part to be energy-friendly.  

¹Source: Energy Star – www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.pr_pm_step1

² Source: Energy Star online savings calculator using ¢7.1/kWh energy cost.