Best Practice PC Power Management Selection Criteria

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© 1E 2013

Authors: Michelle Hazelton, Geoff Collins

Rationale
Adopting a solution to help reduce the energy consumption from computers is an effective way to reduce costs and CO2. 1E is best known for creating the power management space more than 12 years ago with NightWatchman Enterprise. It is deployed across twice the combined total number of endpoints for all of our competitors, making it the undisputed market leader. PC power management is more than just powering machines off. In order to demonstrate credible and accurate savings you need to be able to measure consumption, take a baseline of current power usage and predict future consumption. User productivity should be unaffected by the power management policies applied.

Best Practice Selection Criteria
1. Uniquely suited to large enterprise environments Many well-known and successful companies have trusted 1E to help them reduce energy costs and CO2. Some of these include Bank of America, AT&T, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Citigroup. a. Enterprise scalability Unlike many other power management vendors, 1E offers secure enterprise-class power management proven to scale to more than 300,000 PCs with a single server. b. Integrated with patch management Power management will not succeed if the IT department needs machines to be left on to patch. NightWatchman has Wake-on-LAN technology built in to wake machines out of hours to apply patches. The key challenge is that not all power management solutions allow you to cleanly restart PCs after applying patches. The alternative (and often common) scenario means the user is forced to reboot during the working day to complete the cycle. To minimize user disruption, when NightWatchman powers a computer down it will save all open documents before rebooting, guaranteeing the best possible user experience and ensuring systems are up to date and secure. c. Common Criteria Certification NightWatchman Enterprise (including 1E WakeUp) has gained Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 2 (EAL2) Certification which means it has undergone a rigorous analysis and testing process and conforms to standards sanctioned by the International Standards Organization. This is essential for many governments and regulated organizations. d. Deep integration with major systems management solutions NightWatchman Enterprise is tightly coupled with, but not exclusively to, Microsoft's System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) - 2003 to 2012 SP1 (read the technical brief here). It integrates with the SCCM console for on-demand wake-ups and client policy refresh to a single client or a collection of clients and you can use group policy or command line to configure settings. NightWatchman also integrates with a number of other systems management solutions. e. 1E WakeUp and Intel vPro 1E NightWatchman can utilize Intel AMT Out-of-Band functionality found in many enterprise desktops and laptops. Leveraging this investment provides an additional level of ability to wake systems even if every computer is turned off at a specific location. The WakeUp server wakes a single machine per

subnet using the AMT power on command, after which this machine will broadcast magic packets for the remaining machines to be woken. f. Flexibility for enterprise environments Unlike other, less flexible power management solutions, NightWatchman can be used in even the most complex environments. Power policies and reporting can be managed by location or department and the administrator can choose the most appropriate low power state (e.g. Shutdown, Standby, Sleep) for each scenario. There are a myriad of options for configuring the nuances of every exception, including local language support, meaning that more machines can be power managed, including highly secure networks. g. Secure network support Customers with a need for security often have secure networks (802.1X). NightWatchman is the only solution on the market to offer support for this. 2. Maximum possible savings Maximum possible savings should be the primary goal of any PC power management project and it’s not just about the savings generated from energy reduction. NightWatchman identifies other areas where savings can be achieved, such as tracking PC utilization across an enterprise. a. Shut down PCs confidently with Sleepless Client Detection Many systems will refuse to go to sleep because numerous common applications found in the enterprise can incorrectly request that the system stay awake. NightWatchman features sleepless client detection, which allows the administrator to specify processes that must not stop the PC from entering a low power state. Solutions which address Sleeplessness are often seen as “nice to have” yet not completely necessary. This is short sighted as many organizations undervalue the savings that can be achieved through the use of this feature. b. User centric power management NightWatchman Enterprise’s user friendly approach means productivity is never impacted:     User data is always saved whenever a PC is powered down it detects and defers shutdown if a user is still active through Web WakeUp, it enables users to remotely wake office computers for access at any time through a customizable web portal or via a mobile device it will wake up machines so that they are ready for use when users arrive at their desks in the morning.

c. PC Estate Profiler (NEW in v6.5) The PC estate profiler is a strategic decision making tool for organizations which monitors and reports hardware utilization of all PCs across your estate enabling key stakeholders to make intelligent and informed business decisions. This could include tracking hardware to ensure resources are allocated where they are needed. It can help reduce waste and your energy footprint from IT. Maintenance windows can also be scheduled for periods when PCs are not in use. d. Professional services & partner ecosystem Using Professional Services will accelerate the implementation of a power management project and ensure maximum savings from the outset. 1E Professional Services is a team of extremely experienced

consultants who have many years of experience working in organizations of all sizes and complexities. They provide strategic, targeted and technical end-to-end guidance to help organizations maximize success and minimize risk. Our consultants target all stages of a typical implementation or upgrade project, accelerating the deployment of 1E’s enterprise-class products and solutions to ensure project success. This includes power management solutions – where their extensive experience and tools can address even the subtlest of challenges that any power management implementation could encounter. 1E has a growing community of partners. We believe in strong collaboration with our partners so that together we offer the best service to our customers around the world. We work with some of the most technically innovative and advanced organizations whose wealth of experience ensures first class delivery of every IT efficiency project. 3. Trustworthy reporting The NightWatchman Enterprise reporting engine is a highly accurate web-based system, requiring no additional installations to view reports. Reporting can be accessed from any browser and adjustments can be made to take into account the actual power consumption for any given make and model of PC, laptop and monitor. The reports also fit any organizational structure and account for the different carbon and electricity tariffs across locations. Advanced reporting features include customizable reports, detailed analysis reports, multiple baselines and what-if scenarios. a. Multiple baselines for savings reporting To measure how much something has changed you need two data points: before and after. NightWatchman takes “behaviour baselines” (to measure the energy state of PCs before and after implementing power management). By comparing these baselines it is possible to create an accurate measurement of the savings achieved. Other solutions do not take multiple baselines in this way and simply compare current usage to an assumption that all PCs were on 24*7 prior to power management. This basic method is so inaccurate it is simply not fit for purpose. As a result, with this level of inaccuracy you would not be able to produce adequate evidence for annual reports, PR or legislative compliance. b. Cloud-based catalog for PC power consumption values (NEW in v7) 1E’s ActiveEfficiency is the world’s first IT efficiency platform developed specifically to cut the costs of running and maintaining IT. A component of the platform is a comprehensive cloud-based catalog of computer power consumption values by make and model. The catalog synchronizes with NightWatchman to ensure power values for all PCs are accurate and up-to-date. This enables reporting on PC energy consumption to be even more accurate. c. Cloud-based reporting for highlighting performance against key metrics (NEW in v7) ActiveEfficiency cloud-based reporting is a ‘snapshot’ view of energy and efficiency across the organization. Delivered as a unique industry value-add as part of every NightWatchman implementation. The reporting captures and highlights real energy and efficiency data across all locations, departments, hardware and Operating Systems. When selecting a PC power management product there is lots of choice from premium to cheap and even free. There are a number of key capabilities built into NightWatchman Enterprise that are absent from others. In reality, the lack of critical capability will only give you, at best, some savings on some of your systems some of the time. As the global leader, NightWatchman Enterprise significantly lowers costs and reduces energy without impacting user productivity. It is proven to scale, and is deployed across organizations with less than 500 PCs up to large complex environments of more than 300,000 PCs.

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