Keeping energy use down
Shutting down one computer is easy, shutting down thousands can be trickier. But the rewards are great. Learn more about how upKeeper can help you.
Save money with the touch of a button. Or let upKeeper turn all your computers off for you (Photo: Istockphoto)
Do you turn off your computer before leaving work, and do you have any idea how many computers in your organization that are left on day and night? The administration of Piteå municipality in Sweden asked themselves these questions. They found out that on average between 700 and 1000 computers were always on. This meant that at any time one third of their computers were on. Weekends, holidays, night and day.
Wasteful habits
In one way it makes sense to think that it is no big deal not turning off your computer, after all you will be using the next morning anyway. But you don't think of a vacuum cleaner the same way do you? A computer is a tool like everything else, and if it there are no one there to use it, there is no reason for it to be on. Unless you want to waste money and energy.
Piteå municipality's IT-department already used upKeeper to manage all their computers, and knew that this system expanded to also perform scheduled shut downs for all computers. They decided to give it a shot.
- We were a little worried about what our users would think of this, but after informing all of them of our project we went ahead, says Conny Öhlund from the IT-department.
Their worries turned out to be unfounded, as they hardly had any negative responses. After all, the system will not shut down the computer if an employee is busy using it. As the scheduled shut down is approaching, the user will be notified giving him time save his work, or alternatively the user can notify the system that he wishes to continue working.
Big savings
Piteå municipality have calculated that the energy saved equals 400 000 Swedish crowns (ca. 40 000 euros) in savings annually. But that is not all, not having their computers running all night also created a better indoor environment and makes their hardware last longer. After a while they also found out that many more of their users have started turning off their computers manually before leaving work, creating a further cut in energy use and expenses.
Further reading
Energy savings in Piteå municipality (in Swedish)
What is upKeeper®?upKeeper is a packaged client platform environment with two primary parts – processes and technology. The processes describe how to work with an automated IT platform, and the technology contains tools that are needed to make this possible. The processes and the technology are based on established standards. upKeeper is equipped with Zero Touch Installation, which means that the work to install and maintain operating systems and applications is 100% automated.
