Server Power Management Myths - and more

An old friend, James Governor, in his GreenMonk blog recently got me thinking. First he pointed out that it's common in Japan to turn servers off at night. Then it wasn't so much as his follow-on blog (about turning servers off when you don't need them) as acomment he highlighted from Mike Gunderloy:

• Has anyone looked at the labor costs of this? I know that even on my tiny little dozen-machine network, I am reluctant to power everything off at night simply because it takes so bloody long waiting for the damn things to boot up in the morning. Seems like actual working fast-boot technologies would go a long way to sell this initiative.

This is exactly the sort of objection or "urban myth" that we're trying to dispel. For example, many believe that application availabiltiy might be compromised if servers are shut down. However, there is a solution to this: policy-based control, whereby servers might be powered-up in advance of their need. That's the sort of work we're doing at Cassatt. And even in a small business, if servers in a closet are turned off nights and weekends, you're still talking about energy savings on the order of 40% or more over the duration of a year!

BTW, if you're interested in additional "Urban Myths" about server power control, check out the "Myths and Realities of Power Management" page.

And while you're at it, give us some feedback on how you feel about IT Energy Management and "Green IT": we're hosting a 5-minute survey this week (and, you could win a Wii if you take it).