PC power management should be switched on, says Gartner

The organisation also says there is another 6% saving to be had by unplugging machines not in use, but agrees that this may affect employee productivity, because updates need to be carried out during working hours. “Much attention on power consumption has focused on the data centre, but PC power consumption can also be significant, especially given steadily rising electricity prices,” comments Federica Troni, principal analyst at Gartner. “IT organisations should recognize that the greatest savings come from employing power management features. They should investigate the power management capabilities of their PC lifecycle management tools and PC power management point solutions to implement these policies and to better support management activities,” she adds. Troni says Gartner has created a model to assess the impact of different variables on any organisation’s total PC power use. It calculates the power consumption for desktops, notebooks and associated monitors both during the working day and after hours, and is based on well-managed, unmanaged and unplugged companies. “Although we concentrated on three specific scenarios, the model can be used to assess the PC-related power consumption in any organisation,” advises Charles Smulders, managing vice president at Gartner. “In addition, the results of the assessment can be adjusted to reflect only the power used and paid for by the organization, thus excluding the power consumed by a mobile PC that is being used off the organisation’s premises.”