Power IT Down Day

Today (Aug. 27th) is "Power IT down day".... a marketing/awareness-building event by HP, Intel and Citrix to promote installing and activating PC power management software. By doing so, companies can reduce power during off-hours and weekends.

Little do they know, this is both (a) a great idea, and (b) missing-the-boat on a huge additional opportunity.

Here's why: the event is definitely a great move to build awareness that IT doesn't need to be on 100% of the time... this is just a myth. And shutting down a PC/monitor overnight can save close to 200W. But the messaging the initiative is missing is that this doesn't need to be confined to desktops and monitors. Data Center Servers, the most power-hungry (and wasteful) equipment can be turned off, too.

At the time of this writing, the official website at HP showed over 2,700 participants, saving an estimated 35,000 KWh. But here's a sobering statistic: At a recent Silicon Valley Leadership Group Energy Summit, Cassatt piloted Server power management software. The organization using the software operated a number of its own data centers -- and the case study findings showed that if this software were used enterprise-wide, the annual savings could be 9,100KWh for this enterprise alone.

Maybe we'll try to expand the scope of Turn IT Off Day in 2009...