Climate change has been a global concern, and organizations are working harder everyday to reduce their carbon footprint. We can contribute to this global cause by making endpoint power management a fun and engaging activity. So grab your favorite snack, settle in, and let’s delve into this crucial aspect of sustainability.
Picture this: You’re an IT admin handling over 1,000 computers. Lets say 30-50 watts of power is consumed per computer screen. If left on overnight and on weekends (which is about 128 hours), it would consume approximately 25kWh per month per screen.
Now, for the 1,000 screens under your management, 25MW per month will be consumed. At a rate of 10 cents per kWh, this is roughly $3,000 per month or $36,000 per year. The earth is getting warmer day by day, and your trusty laptop could be causing more damage to the environment than you realize!
This is where endpoint power management comes in. Controlling a device’s energy utilization when it’s not in use is the practice at hand—this includes setting up power management policies that automatically put devices in sleep mode or shut them down. Think of it like a superhero weapon that puts your devices to sleep when not in use; of course, you’re the superhero in this scenario, taking measures to save the planet one device at a time.
Implementing power management policies across an organization’s endpoints can result in significant energy savings and help reduce carbon emissions. Who doesn’t like saving money while saving the environment? Turning off a computer monitor when not in use can save up to $30,000 in energy costs per 1,000 computers annually, according to the US Department of Energy. That’s like getting two free pizzas for every user just for putting their computers to sleep. You could open a pizzeria!
However, the advantages go further than that. By decreasing the amount of time endpoints are in use, power management policies can also contribute to the extension of their life span. It’s similar to giving your laptop a much-needed slumber, prolonging its life. You can also restrict unwanted access to your data by configuring your device to sleep and require a password or biometric identification to wake up.
We’re not suggesting you start throwing your laptops in the trash to save energy—that would be detrimental rather than effective. Organizations should instead implement power management policies that apply to all endpoints within the organization.
There are some misconceptions regarding certain power management strategies, such as:
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Putting your computers to sleep often could wear out the hardware.
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Laptops consume much less power than PCs and do not really require such policies.
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Remote computers must be kept on 24/7 or sleeping computers will not receive important software updates.
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Computers have existing sleep or hibernate settings and do not require further configuring.
To put things into perspective:
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Modern computers can handle 40,000 on-off cycles before failure.
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Laptops, although a better option than PCs, still consume approximately 30 watts of power, which reduces to two watts when on standby.
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Monitor sleep and wake-up settings can be applied to computers being operated remotely.
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Most of the default settings might not be retained once the device is in use, so it’s necessary to confirm if computers are configured for automatic sleep or hibernate settings.
Of course, you can’t forget to educate employees. Who knows, you might inspire someone else to become a sustainability superhero as well!
We advocate the use of one of ManageEngine Endpoint Central’s configurations that enables power management policy creation. Using our solution, you can monitor and manage endpoint energy consumption while accessing energy saving reports as well—in other words, it’s your superhero side-kick that will assist you in saving the world.
With Endpoint Central’s power management configurations, you can:
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Deploy power management schemes for Windows computers, and assign different schemes for varied user groups present in the network depending upon their work requirements, like work hours, the type of device they use, or the kind of data they might be dealing with.
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Define the action steps that need to be performed when a computer is idle for a period of time, such as reducing display brightness, turning off the display, putting the computer to sleep or in hibernate mode, or turning the hard drive off.
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Prompt for a password when the computer wakes from sleep.
Apart from the above-mentioned power management configurations, Endpoint Central offers various other modes in which you can save energy consumption:
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Set the machine to deploy patches during specific times or days of the week to avoid unnecessary system reboot.
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On older models of computers that do not support power schemes, you can use Endpoint Central’s Registry Configuration to disable screensavers.
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Using the Remote Shutdown option, multiple tasks can be created to shutdown specific groups of computers based on employee working hours and on weekends.
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By preconfiguring end-user devices, you can save time, increase efficiency, and save energy—three birds with one stone.
While power management is just one small avenue in a sea of endpoint management features offered by us, why limit your capabilities? With ManageEngine’s Endpoint Central, you can completely automate redundant tasks to improve operational efficiency, fool-proof your organization from cyberattacks with our advanced threat detection and remediation features, and enjoy the endless configurations offered to cater to all your day-to-day demands.
