Contents
Acknowledgement 1. Introduction 2. Persistent Systems 3. Green Persistent Movement 4. Business Need 5. Creative Riot 6. Enpower – Plugging the Leak 6.1 Scope Process Flow Sources Client Agent Central Server Mathematical Model Enalytics Advantages over Windows Salient Features Technical Requirements Additional Features Enpower Results Input Documents Output Documents Input Screen Formats Output Screen Formats Reports Application Testing User Training Data Migration Implementation Method Integration with Systems Integration with Partners 6.2 Challenges 6.3 Benefits 6.4 Future 7. Bibliography Page 3 4 6 7 9 10
Acknowledgement
We wish to express our sincere gratitude to Prof. J.M. Shah for providing us an opportunity to work on the project „Enpowering Persistent Systems.‟ It was an extremely enriching learning and we could easily apply the concepts taught in class to our understanding. We would like to thank the library staff and the administrative staff for being extremely cooperative.
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1. Introduction
The world today faces unprecedented problems due to rapid climate change which are now receiving attention from governments and businesses across the globe. As concern for climate change and sustainability continues to grow, and actions now ramp up, businesses are grappling with reducing carbon footprints while remaining profitable. Feeling pressure from customers and other stakeholders, organizations around the world have begun to make serious improvements in their environmental performance, recognizing that if they fail to deliver on this, it frequently translates into a negative impact on profit. Businesses have realized that taking initiatives that have a positive effect on the environment also helps their bottom-line while simultaneously enabling them to use technology efficiently.
Great opportunities lie in the IT department and CIOs across organizations are taking decisions on major purchases and infrastructure revamps to mitigate the environmental impact of technology. The solution resulting in the quickest ROI is energy efficiency and one of the simplest ways to improve an organization‟s energy efficiency is PC power management.
THE POWER OF POWERING DOWN
Gartner estimates that a company with 2,500 PCs and a power management system can save 433,000 kWh per year in comparison to one that doesn’t have PC power management installed. That’s over 40,000 USD saved annually.
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Many workers unknowingly waste their organization‟s money through one simple act: leaving their PCs on when not in use, especially overnight and during the weekends. As an example, US organizations waste $2.8 billion every year powering 108 million unused PCs. According to estimates, a desktop computer in a normal usage pattern is in active mode for approximately 2,279 hours annually. It is reasonable to say that computers are used efficiently for about five hours on an average workday and for 200 days per year, equal to 1000 hours. Based on an average workday, this means that every computer is in active mode for 1,279 hours per year while not utilized - or roughly a third of the year!
IS INDIA IMMUNE?
According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker for Q408, there will be 4.1 million more desktop PCs and 2.4 million more notebook PCs in use in India in 2012. By 2013, the country’s installed base of PCs will reach 47 million units. This amounts to wastage of USD 960.68 million due to idle PCs that are not powered down.
Perhaps the greatest external factor responsible for environmentally friendly initiatives in organizations has been government regulation. As stringent regulations have yet to see the light of day in developing economies, the motivation for businesses in these countries to adopt green practices and lower their carbon footprint remains low. What‟s undeniable, though, is the role that these economies will essay over the coming decade. A country like India, undergoing phenomenal economic growth and social change, will increasingly contribute to CO2 emissions. The numbers today, as illustrated, are worrying and warrant immediate action.
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2. Persistent Systems
Persistent is a global company specializing in software product and technology innovation. For more than two decades, it has partnered closely with pioneering start-ups, innovative enterprises and the world‟s largest technology brands. It has utilized its finetuned product engineering processes to develop best-in-class solutions for customers in technology, telecommunication, life science, healthcare, banking, and consumer products sectors across North America, Europe, and Asia. Thanks to its extensive technology product expertise, today, customers also approach for technology strategy and consulting services. Persistent‟s customers benefit from its deep knowledge of next-generation Cloud, BI &Analytics, Collaboration as well as Mobilitybased computing platforms. By leveraging its strategic technology partnerships, IP-based accelerators, and agile development processes companies can successfully navigate increasing time-to-market pressures and deliver the highest quality solutions, faster and more cost effectively. Persistent‟s global team is made up of the industry‟s best and brightest software engineers and technology consultants whose expertise spans from niche technologies, to the latest technologies and built-to-scale enterprise applications. Team members share a passion for pushing the limits of the technology frontier and an unwavering commitment to quality, efficiency and innovation. That is why Persistent customers continue to partner with it across companies, careers and technology changes, and while in its third decade, it is still innovating with the market leaders it once helped launch.
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3. Green Persistent Movement
As an organization Persistent believes that reducing global warming is its social responsibility and it must do its part to make the planet a better place to live. As a result, it has launched the Green Persistent Movement where a number of initiatives would help make Persistent green and contribute to a greener planet.
Persistent Green Initiatives
Conservation of Energy The Conservation of Energy campaign was introduced to bring down overall energy consumption at the Persistent offices by encouraging employees to:
Switch off their computers at the end of their workday to achieve 100% CPU Energy Conservation Refrain from using hand dryers in restrooms and cafeterias, and switch off cubicle lights when not in use Refrain from using elevators on No Lift Day
Conservation of Trees The Conservation of Trees campaign aims to spread awareness about tree conservation. Employees are encouraged to:
Plant at least one sapling in their vicinity – to date Persistent has distributed more than 1600 saplings Reduce paper wastage and make prints only when necessary; Persistent organizes “No Printer Days” to promote awareness
Pollution Control The Pollution Control campaign was introduced to promote pollution control activities. Employees are encouraged to: Get a PUC Check done for their vehicles so that they minimize air pollution Persistent organizes Free PUC Check up Camps to facilitate this Refrain from smoking on “No Smoking” days Carpool to minimize emissions that affect the environment from car and motorcycle emissions. Persistent facilitated this by creating a Car/Bike Pool
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Page that enables employees to search for Persistent colleagues who live in the same area and who are willing to share their vehicles Waste Management The Waste Management initiative aims to ensure the waste reduction at all levels in our routine activities. Persistent employees are encouraged to: Minimize the amount of food wasted during meals Refrain from carrying plastic bags and carry cloth or paper bags wherever possible; Persistent organizes “No Plastic Days” to promote awareness of using plastic Recycle paper by using both sides
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4. Business Need
The trend in the past 10 years has changed in a massive way. Organizations have realized the importance of being responsible towards the society in order to be sustainable and Persistent is not far behind. Through its Green Persistent Movement, it has ensured that it is responsible and addresses the concerns plaguing the society today. An important part of the Green Persistent Movement is Conservation of Energy. The major reasons that led the top management at Persistent to think of energy conversation were: Persistent is based out of Pune and the city on a whole has a power deficiency crisis. This has an adverse effect and organizations resort to other methods of power generation. In order to bridge the gap, Persistent installed diesel generators in the building. On an average, the generators were used for 3 hours a day running at Rs. 15/unit compared to Rs. 6/unit charged by the government for commercial purposes. This proved to be costly for Persistent and was in no way helping it meet the green standards. Most of the clients of Persistent are based out of developed countries. Such clients like IBM, lay down regulation norms for their partners on accounts of energy conservation, waste management etc. and the partners have to comply with such norms. So, Persistent, in order to sustain relationships with important clients, needed to adhere to such norms. The above two reasons made the top management realize the importance of energy management and it started looking for ways to minimize energy utilization. The top management assessed that employees did not use the computers efficiently. Most of the employees did not turn off their computers at all which accounted for a huge chunk of electricity. Therefore, Persistent started looking out for a computer power management software which would help it: lower energy costs by preventing unnecessary wastage of power on account of idle machines not being powered down lower carbon footprint – lowered IT power consumption translates into lower carbon emissions ensure compliance with sustainability mandates from clients / customers To meet the need, Persistent partnered with Creative Riot - a green software development company and installed ENPOWER on its computers.
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5. Creative Riot
Creative Riot Software is a product-oriented software development company. Founded by three undergraduate engineering students with a common passion for innovation, robust design and scalable architecture, Creative Riot Software is the first company to graduate from an alliance between the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship, IIM-Ahmedabad, and Microsoft Corp., India and be selected for incubation at the country‟s premier business incubator.
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6. ENPOWER – Plugging the Leak
6.1 Scope
ENPOWER is an intelligent, centralized power management and monitoring solution for computer networks. It enables IT administrators to optimize PC power consumption on their networks by effectively transitioning idle machines into power saving modes and ensuring that only the machines that are in use are actually on and drawing power.
Process Flow
ENPOWER is divided into two components - a central server and individual client agents. ENPOWER derives its input from three sources – the network, individual client agent (user) and the computer. The information is provided to EMPOWER‟s central server which then performs mathematical calculations and allows the administrator to select power policies and create power groups. The calculations are then sent to the reporting dashboard – ENALYTICS, which provides detailed reports.
Sources
There are three sources that provide important information to ENPOWER: NETWORK – The computer network provides the power factors to the central server of ENPOWER. The power factors are picked up by the central server on its own from the network. However, these can be changed by the administrator.
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CLIENT AGENT – ENPOWER‟s client agent allows the user to define his own settings for effective usage of power without compromising on productivity. This user input is passed on to the central server COMPUTER – The central server picks up two very important sets of information directly from the computers connected on the network. These are: STATE – A computer can be in six power states and this is the most crucial information needed. The power consumed in each power state is given in the table below.
Power State Fully Active Idle Idle (Monitor Turned Off) Sleep / Standby Hibernate Shutdown / Soft-off ACPI State S0 S0 S0 S3 S4 S5 Power Consumed (per day) > 100 W 100 W 75 W 2W 1W 1W
CONFIGURATION – The configuration of the computers on the network along with their type is passed on to the central server.
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Client Agent
An ENPOWER agent on every workstation enables each employee to make the most of PC power management in a manner that best suits his/her usage pattern. This agent allows the user to define inactivity-based timeouts for shutting off the monitor and putting the system on standby or into hibernate/shutdown. Scheduling of hibernation/shutdown of the workstations at a fixed time is also possible. Arguably one of ENPOWER‟s most powerful features is its ability to let users to define what „inactivity‟ means to them – no more will that critical download or unsaved document be lost on account of a scheduled shutdown. An elegant widget shows users how much they‟ve saved in real time and helps them get involved in your green initiative.
CLIENT AGENT INTERFACE
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Central Server
ENPOWER‟s central server monitors all workstations, and lets IT administrators group them into logical collections called „Power Groups‟. Administrators can then define „Power Policies‟ for individual workstations as well as power groups. An interactive, analytical reporting module exposes energy consumption, costs, CO2 emissions avoided, energy savings estimates and much more at the individual workstation, power group or organization level. These comprehensive reports let you track your savings and realize your ROI in real time.
CENTRAL SERVER INTERFACE
Mathematical Model
A desktop computer draws anywhere between 70 -200 Watts of power from the wall. The average power consumed by a typical business desktop across the different power states is illustrated below. Kindly note that the power consumed is finite even in the Hibernate / Shutdown states. (This unavoidable consumption is referred to as vampire power) Power State Fully Active Idle Idle (Monitor Turned Off) Sleep / Standby Hibernate ACPI State S0 S0 S0 S3 S4 Power Consumed > 100 W 100 W 75 W 2W 1W
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Shutdown / Soft-off S5 1W Average idle time that can be avoided, per computer per day (by powering down the computer to Standby / Hibernate / Shutdown) = 5 to 16hrs Power saved on account of powering desktop down = 100 W Number of days in a year = 365 Savings expected per desktop per year between: 100W * 5 hrs * 365 / 1000 = 182.5 kWh Up To: 100W * 16 hrs * 365 / 1000 = 584 kWh Cooling costs avoided between: 182.5 kWh / 3 = 60.8 kWh Up To: 584 kWh / 3 = 194.6 kWh Total savings per desktop per year between: 182.5 kWh + 60.8kWh = 243.3 kWh Up To: 584 kWh + 194.6 kWh = 778.6 kWh Average price for power = 5 INR / kWh Total savings per desktop per year between: 243.3 kWh * 5 INR / kWh = 1216.5 INR Up To: 778.6 kWh * 5 INR / kWh = 3893 INR Similarly, power saved on account of powering IP phone down = 7.4 W Based on similar mathematical model, total savings per IP phone per year [5] = 187.37 INR Therefore, Savings expected across 1000 desktops between 14, 03,870 INR to 40, 80,370 INR. & 1000 IP phones per year:
Enalytics
ENALYTICS is the underlying reporting platform for the suite of Energy management and auditing products. It provides comprehensive information and insight into the organization‟s energy savings, energy consumption, network status and environmental footprint.
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Reports - Categories Energy savings Energy consumption Efficiency rating Network snapshot (to identify the network state/load on a given day) Exception reports (machines not supporting low power states – standby/hibernate) Environmental footprint
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List of all out of the box reports
Savings/Consumption conversions The savings / consumption conversions report displays the total power saved and consumed by machines on your network while converting these totals into equivalent CO2 / fuel / money etc.
Savings/Consumption estimates The savings / consumption estimates report displays an approximate annual estimate of the total power that will be saved and consumed by machines and the equivalent CO2 / fuel / money etc.
Network Summary The network summary report gives you an overview of the computers under management / audit along with a list of exceptional cases
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Savings Aggregates: Power The savings aggregates power report displays the total power saved on account of different power transitions (Monitor Off, System Standby, Hibernate).
Consumption Aggregates: Power The consumption aggregates power report displays the total power saved on account of different power transitions (Monitor Off, System Standby, Hibernate)
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Savings Aggregates: Time The savings aggregates time report displays the total time spent by machines in your network in power saving mode (Monitor Off, System Standby, Hibernate).
Consumption Aggregates: Time The consumption aggregates time report displays the total time spent by machines in your network consuming power (Idle, Active).
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Savings/Consumption Timeline: Power The savings / consumption aggregates timeline report displays the total power saved and consumed by machines in your network each day.
Savings Consumption Split: Power The savings / consumption granular timeline report displays a split of the total power saved and consumed by machines in your network each day.
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Top Energy Savers: Clients The top energy savers report displays a list of those machines in your network that have saved the most energy.
Top Energy Consumers: Clients The top energy consumers report displays a list of those machines that consume the most energy in your network.
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Top Energy Savers: Groups The top energy savers report displays a list of those power groups in your network that have saved the most energy.
Top Energy Consumers: Groups The top energy consumers report displays a list of those power groups that consume the most energy in your network.
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Energy Efficiency Index The energy efficiency index report illustrates how efficiently computers across your organization are utilizing energy. The more power that's wasted, lower the energy efficiency index.
ROI Analysis The return on investment analysis indicates how close your organization is to achieving an ROI on its investment in PC Power Management
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ENOUNCE
ENOUNCE is an internal twitter-like feed system wherein users can view their contributions through the days and also that of their colleagues. Users can be disallowed to view their colleagues‟ stats if the admin so desires.
Filters
The generated reports are filterable on the basis of 38 variable factors including: Time span (day / week / month / year)
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E.g. Consumption of the organization on last Sunday Type of computer (desktops/laptops/servers) E.g. Consumption of all server machines based on active/idle split over a period of time Groups / Department / IP range E.g. Savings of all computers in the BPO division Configuration / OS / Settings E.g. Consumption of all computers having running a particular OS, specific motherboard Savings / Consumption / Active / Idle E.g. Consumption of all computers idle for long periods of time
Other features
Complete UI flexibility Ability to choose which reports to view in the dashboard
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Ability to drag and drop reports around so as to customize the look as per convenience Ability to print/e-mail reports Further custom reports available on request A paginated, navigable, customizable grid showing list of clients belonging to the applied filter
Advantages over Windows power management
While Windows allows for basic centralized power management via Group Policy (GP), this approach has been found wanting on account of the following reasons: Limited Wake on LAN capability (no Wake on Web support) No scheduled power transitions(wake / turn off) No compliance, effectiveness monitoring No notifications if policies are overridden / modified No reports to measure savings / consumption Implementation varies depending on version of Windows CSE needs to be installed on XP, Vista No provision for delegating control Group Policies are always enforced
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Group Policy preferences can be overridden Granting exemptions to users is a laborious, manual process Inflexible definition of "inactivity" culminating in PC insomnia Computers power down when Windows considers them to be idle This cannot be modified as per business requirements Business critical applications cannot be marked as exceptions, leading to requests for complete disabling of power management on some machines Applications may prevent Windows from transitioning to low power mode, leading to PC insomnia Inability to group computers logically for power management GP uses existing Organizational Units (OU) for applying policies This cannot be modified as per business requirements Inability to manage additional devices Power over Ethernet (PoE) devices like IP Phones, Access Points, IP Cameras etc. cannot be managed Servers cannot be monitored / managed
Salient Features
Enpower’s centralized console is an intranet web application – policies can be administered and real time reports can be seen by administrators from anywhere inside the organization‟s network is capable of managing 30,000 computers per server has deeply integrated Wake on LAN functionality alongside power management To enforce policies and ensure compliance, Enpower offers a single click solution for applying different power policies to different departments or individual computers ability to be strict in terms of enforcing policies thus disallowing exiting/killing the client agent, password protection of un-installation ability to define privileges at a granular level – e.g. computers in department X can change timeouts but not define inactivity
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To monitor and roll out the initiative gradually to drive painless adoption & minimize user resistance, Enpower includes intra-day policy settings for work hours(lenient) and post-work hours (aggressive) ability to exempt machines from power management for a specified duration notifications to user before a power transition occurs, so unnecessary transitions can be overridden administrative notifications when user tries to change policy settings/uninstall summary emails to management for a scheduled update on consumption and savings For comprehensive reporting and feedback, Enpower comes with enalytics – a comprehensive and customizable reporting dashboard more than 15 graphical reports including savings & consumption trend, ROI analysis ability to filter reports based on date, departments, savings, configurations etc. Minimizing energy consumed by the system during “Idle” state being one of the key goals, Enpower lets you define “active” and “idle” consistently across all flavors of Windows based on CPU utilization disk utilization (read and write) application/process exceptions Multipe platforms and devices. Enpower helps, via a single console, unify power management of power over ethernet (PoE) devices like IP Phones, Access Points, IP Cameras etc. servers
Technical Requirements
Network Footprint
Server to client No new settings: 80 bytes New settings: 596 bytes
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Client to server No new reports: 180 bytes (consumption, status – IP, notifications) New reports: 900 bytes
Client Server Data Exchange
No firewall exceptions, network re-configuration required Communication over HTTP (intranet) – port 80 by default – or any other port if so configured Server responds only to requests from client agent Data exchange format – XML, CSV
Client Agent Footprint
Average Memory (RAM) utilization 15 – 35 MB On the low side on newer version of Windows Disk space: Setup size: 2 MB After installation: < 5 MB Average CPU utilization 0 to 1 %
Additional Features
PoE Device Power Management
Enpower ensures efficient IT energy consumption by putting idle machines into low power mode.
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The PoE Device Power Management Add-On extends Enpower‟s ability to manage power from computers to a bunch of other devices such as IP phones, IP Cameras, Access Points etc. – basically all PoE devices.
Working In the organization‟s Intranet, there‟s an Enpower server installed and running The PoE Device Power Management Add-On is installed on the same server Based on a schedule that is set by the network administrator, PoE devices are switched On and Off – for e.g. turn off all IP phones after 9 P.M. every day; turn on all IP phones at 8 A.M. every day Devices can be grouped and flexible policies and exemptions can be applied to these groups Consumption and Savings reports are auto generated and viewable from within the very same reporting dashboard powering Enpower – i.e. Enalytics Technical prerequisites SNMP (v1) needs to be supported and enabled on the switches to which PoE devices are connected Administrator can import a list of switch IPs and corresponding community strings (RW) to start centrally managing power on the individual ports and thus - devices Optionally, an option to monitor health parameters of such devices – such as utilization, temperature etc. (subject to hardware support) is provided
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Wake on LAN, Wake from Web
Enpower - Wake is a dynamic and scalable solution for remotely turning on machines. It consists of a central web server and a service that is installed on every client on the network. Packaged with Enpower PC, it ensures availability of PC when required – giving authorized employees the ability to remotely power ON their workstations from home; and empowering the administrator to wake up selected systems instantly/on a scheduled basis to apply patches, install updates etc. The service, installed as a network service, runs all the time and sends information to the Enpower - Wake server about the network cards installed; the MAC and IP addresses of the same. The server uses this information to detect machines on the same subnet and categorize them accordingly. Wake-On-LAN technology is used to remotely turn the machine on. Major Features: The admin has the option to immediately wake any machine. The server will try a maximum of 5 times before declaring that the machine as unresponsive. Enpower - Wake is fully integrated with Enpower – PC (Centralized PC Power Management). It reads the wake up schedule as set using Enpower and remotely turns the required machines on at the set time. A machine can be turned on from anywhere in the world. The admin sets a password for each machine that is meant to support being woken from anywhere. The user enters the hostname and the password at a page hosted on our server on the internet. A service on the local server is checking this page for wake up requests. Upon getting one, it will wake the machine using the usual steps.
Enpower Results
An organization using ENPOWER can, for every 2500 PCs, realize annual savings of about: Monetary – 43,300 USD Energy – 4,33,000 KWH CO2 emission reduced – 280 tons Trees not required to sequester CO2 emissions – 92 acres Comparable auto emissions avoided – 59 cars Equivalent homes powered – 40 homes
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Input Documents
In order to do the calculations, the Enpower server pulls information from three sources – computer, network and client agent. Information is pulled directly from the computer and the network by the server. But, to obtain information from the client agent, the information has to be provided by the employee using the machine. As stated earlier, the client agent on every workstation enables each employee to make the most of PC power management in a manner that best suits his/her usage pattern. 1. Inactivity One of ENPOWER‟s most powerful features is its ability to let users define what „inactivity‟ means to them – a critical download or unsaved document would not be lost on account of a scheduled shutdown.
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As seen above, the page for inactivity allows the user to define what inactivity means to him. He can set the percentage for CPU utilization and disk utilization which would help the computer to run in low power mode as per his wish. 2. Timeouts The agent allows the user to define inactivity-based timeouts for shutting off the monitor and putting the system on standby or into hibernate/shutdown.
As seen above, the client allows the employee to select the time during which he can set the timeouts. He can set timeouts for turning off the screen, standby and hibernate.
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Output Documents
The output of Enpower presented at the server is called the management console. The server collects information from all the computers connected on the network and prepares the output screen. The management console is accessible only to the IT administrator and he uses the management console to define power policies and power groups as per his requirement. Defining power policies and power groups are extremely essential because the reports generated by Enalytics depend on them.
MANAGEMENT CONSOLE The management console also enables the IT Administrator to see the settings set by employees using the client agent on their individual computers. The IT Administrator can see the inactivity definition of employees, their timeout settings and any other information taken as an input by them.
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Input Screen Formats
There are two ways of providing input to Enpower – using the client agent and the management console. Client Agent – the client agent takes input from the employees directly and provides an easy to use interface. The input screen formats are shown below.
Validation Checks – The text box for „Turn off screen after‟ takes only integers and doesn‟t take characters or symbols The text box for „Standby after‟ takes only integers and doesn‟t take characters or symbols The text box for „Hibernate after‟ takes only integers and doesn‟t take characters or symbols
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Server management console – The server management console allows the IT administrator to edit power policies and power groups. He can also set his own power policies and power groups. The screen formats are shown below.
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Validation Checks –
As seen above, while scheduling for Mon, if characters are entered, a message stating „Integers only‟ is displayed This validation check is applicable to all the text boxes available on the form
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Output Screen Formats
The management console at the server is the output provided to the IT administrator. It shows the list of all the computers connected on the network. The screen format is shown below.
Enquiry and Responses Power Policies, Power Groups and Power Factors – The administrator can see all the power policies, power groups and the power factors by not selecting any computer from the list and then clicking on the appropriate links highlighted in the screen format above by the red box. Client agent settings – The administrator can see the settings set by the employee using the client agent by selecting his computer from the list of computers available on the network. Number of clients – The administrator can set the number of clients that he wants to see at a time by selecting the appropriate number from a drop down box. This is shown below.
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Reports
The reporting dashboard, Enalytics generates 16 different reports which include Management Information System reports, Decision Support System reports and Executive Information System reports.
Management Information System Reports
Enalytics generates several reports that help the IT administrator to assess the effectiveness of Enpower in managing power at Persistent Systems. A few of the reports generated are: Network Summary The network summary report gives an overview of the computers under management / audit along with a list of exceptional cases. The exceptional cases are: Computers with Enpower disabled Computers without S1/S2/S3 power state Computers with hibernate support
Consumption Aggregates Power Report The consumption aggregates power report displays the total power consumed on account of two states – Active and Idle. Active state is when a computer is actually in use and Idle state is when there is no activity on the computer.
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Savings Aggregate Power Report The savings aggregate power report displays the total power saved on account of different power transitions - Monitor Off, System Standby, Hibernate, Shutdown
Top Ten Energy Consumers Report The top ten energy consumers report displays those machines that consumed the most energy in the network.
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Top Ten Energy Savers Reports The top energy savers report displays those machines in the network that have saved the most energy.
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Decision Support System Reports
Enalytics generates DSS reports that help the IT administrator and managers to make important decisions pertaining to power conservation. A few of the DSS reports generated are: Average Savings/Consumption Power Split Report The average savings/consumption power split report pools information from the savings database and the consumption database and provides a comparison of the average power saved and consumed on a daily basis.
Decision making at Persistent The report helped the IT administrator to see that initially (1 May, 7 May), a good chunk of power was being consumed on weekends in spite of them being holidays. This was an unwarranted situation. On close inspection, the IT administrator found that many employees were not shutting down their computers and left them running on weekends. This caused power to be consumed even when they were in the idle state. IT administrator brought this to the notice of employees who were asked to shut down their computers before leaving on Fridays. This substantially
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reduced the power consumed during weekends and increased the power saved. This can be seen in the latter part of the report above (21 May, 29 May). Savings/Consumption Split Power Report The savings/consumption split power report pools information from the savings database, consumption database and the power states database and then provides a comparison of the power saved and consumed based on the power states.
Decision making at Persistent At Persistent, there were machines that did not support all of the six power states. For instance, many computers did not support the „hibernate‟ state which provides flexibility to employees in order to save power. Of the six states, Active and Idle are power consuming states and the rest are power saving states. Analyzing the report, the IT administrator saw that till 19 May, the power being consumed was relatively higher on weekdays compared to the power saved. Seeing this, the IT administrator decided to go for a change and upgraded the operating systems in order to incorporate the hibernate state. After having done this, the report shows that due to the added state, employees got the flexibility to save power in a better way without affecting productivity. The power consumed went down and power
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saved went up starting 19 May on account of the hibernate state. This happened because employees no longer left their computers in the Idle state (power consuming) but used the hibernate state (power saving).
Executive Information System Reports
Enalytics generates EIS reports that help senior executives understand the importance of power conservation and make long term decisions. Some of the EIS reports generated are: ROI Analysis Report The return on investment analysis indicates how close an organization is to achieving a favourable ROI on its investment in PC Power Management.
ROI at Persistent The report above shows the ROI at Persistent. The point where the blue bar meets the yellow bar is the breakeven point. Persistent has reached the breakeven point and is now benefitting from its investment in PC power management. It has gained or in other words, saved Rs. 1.81M due to its investment. Senior executives use this report in order to understand the reduction in costs due to PC power management. In fact, the senior executives have pitched this to the clients and in a way improved Persistent‟s relations. Savings/Consumption Conversions/Estimates Reports The saving/consumption conversion report converts the savings and consumption in terms Money, Power, CO2, Gasoline, Trees and Cars.
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The saving/consumption estimates report converts the savings and consumption in terms Money, Power, CO2, Gasoline, Trees and Cars, and provides the estimates for the next year if the organization follows the same power policies.
Conversion and estimates at Persistent The above two reports helped the senior executives understand savings from different perspectives. The figures showed how important PC power management is to the cause of energy conservation. Persistent at present has one building that supports around 5000 computers. Persistent is in the process of expanding and constructing a second building that would support 8000 computers. The present building is not a green building, but Persistent wants its new building to be a green building. In order to do so, it has plans to install a Building Management System (BMS) which would help it optimize energy consumption by monitoring the heating and cooling systems and the electrical network. Though a very sound system, BMS does not cover the aspect of PC power management. So, Persistent‟s executives have decided to integrate Enpower with BMS when the new building gets functional.
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Application Testing
Pesistent was one of the first clients of Creative Riot. So, a lot of rigorous testing had to be done because Creative Riot was pretty new at rolling out Enpower. The various tests that had to be done before Enpower could be used to its full potential were: Number of clients handled: Enpower is based on a client - server architecture. Therefore, it was required to test the number of clients Enpower could handle at a time without crashing. With incremental testing of adding clients in chunks to the server, it was realized that the Enpower server at Persistent could handle 30,000 clients at a time. This is a huge number compared to the 5,000 computers that Persistent has currently. The 30,000 clients easily cover the expansion plans of Persistent. Bandwidth usage: Being modeled on the client – server architecture, Enpower‟s server communicates with clients over the established network of Persistent. Since it uses the network of Persistent, it was required that the network be used to the minimum possible extent. In fact, minimal bandwidth usage was a concern put up by Persistent while making the decision. Persistent did not want to compromise on productivity on the account of PC power management. So, tests were done by Creative Riot to reduce the size of the data package sent by the server to the clients and vice versa. After these tests, the size was slowly brought down that used minimal bandwidth. Data storage: Enpower relies heavily on databases to store information from the clients and the network to generate reports. There are huge chunks of data collected everyday which have to be stored. So, efficient data storage was a norm that was mandated by Persistent. Persistent needed data storage to be minimal so that information could be received quickly on firing a query and reports could be generated instantly. Hence, the database was tested on the grounds of redundancy, integrity, accuracy and other parameters. Mathematical tests: The results provided by Enpower are calculated using a mathematical model. In order to be sure of the results, tests had to be done at Persistent to ensure that the figures calculated by the system matched with the manual calculations.
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User Training
Enpower is a very user friendly information system with minimal complexities. Therefore, the need of extensive user training was not imperative. However, some amount of training was required. IT Administrator: The IT administrator is in a way the owner of PC power management at Persistent. Though not a complex information system, the IT administrator had to be trained on: Basic usage: The IT administrator had to be trained on the basic usage of Enpower. He was made accustomed to the user interface and made aware of the basic functionalities. Power policies: Power policies are the most essential part of Enpower. Power policies decide how much Persistent would save every day and these are defined by the IT administrator. Therefore, he is the one who decides the fate of power management at Persistent. Hence, he had to be trained on the different power policies that he could define in order to efficiently manage power. Power groups: Power groups are another aspect that can help the IT administrator to group clients together and monitor their activity. Hence, he needed to be trained on how to form logical groups and monitor them. Employees: The employees are involved only to a certain extent in the process of power management. They become a part of the process through the client agent which provides an easy to use interface. Hence, employees had to be trained on the basic usage and on the way they could use the client agent to define their own settings without compromising on productivity.
Data Migration
There was no need of data migration while implementing Enpower. This was primarily because: Enpower was a completely new information system catering to a new business need, there was no information system that it was replacing Enpower requires real-time data from the network and therefore does not depend on historical data
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Implementation Method
Since the information system was new for both Persistent and Creative Riot, they decided to implement Enpower in phased manner. It was done in three phases: First Phase: 1500 clients were added to the Enpower server Second Phase: Another 2000 clients were added Third Phase: The rest 1500 were added The basic reasons were: Ease of deployment: By using a phased approach, Persistent thought the deployment would be easy and it would give them more time to test the application. Deploying in chunks reduced the task for both Persistent and Creative Riot and gave them time to assess the system. Ease of testing: By using a phased approach, during the first phase only 1500 clients were added which relatively took less time to deploy and the system could be tested easily for its effectiveness. After testing, more clients were subsequently added during the second and the third phase. Ease of training: Since clients were added in phases, training employees could also be done in phases. During the first phase, only those employees were trained whose computers were added to the server and the rest were trained during the other two phases.
Integration with other systems
Enpower caters to a new business need that was identified by the top management and Persistent did not have any such system in place before Enpower. Hence, there was no need of integrating it with any other system.
Integration with partners
The business need identified was an internal need of the organization. As such, Persistent did not have to integrate Enpower with the any other system of its partners.
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6.2 Challenges
While implementing any information system, an organization faces many challenges and so did Persistent while implementing Enpower. There are basically three types of challenges that organizations face while implementing a new information system and in Persistent‟s context, they are:
Management Challenges
The need for PC power management was realized by the top management itself. Therefore, there was no challenge faced by Persistent from its top management. In fact, to the top management, Enpower was a necessary information system that would help it in the long run.
People Challenges
Keeping people aligned with change is a very important aspect of any implementation. Persistent faced a lot of challenges when it came to people: IT Administrators: This was by far the biggest challenge faced. Since Enpower is based on a client – server architecture, it was going to use the network at Persistent. The IT administrators were very apprehensive of the deployment because they thought using up the network bandwidth for power conservation could affect the functioning of the network and hence affect productivity. Resolution: This challenge was resolved by training the IT administrators and making them realize the importance of PC power management. They were involved in the deployment and were also a part of the testing. It was made sure that Enpower uses minimal bandwidth for ensuring power management without affecting the working and productivity of the network. Project Managers Project managers were highly skeptical of Enpower. This was primarily because most of them were not looking at the larger goal of conserving energy but were concentrating on the performance of their projects. They were apprehensive of the power policies that were going to be used. They thought there would be untimely shutdowns which would lead to loss of data and delays and therefore reduce the productivity of their projects.
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Resolution: The best way to tackle this was to inform the project managers about how important the initiative is to the organization. They were given a surety by the top management that there would be no untimely shutdowns and their productivity will not be affected. In fact, they were told that employees could make their own settings according to their convenience. Clients Though the initiative was internal to Persistent, it was important to convey it to the clients. It was difficult to convince the clients of the initiative because ultimately, it was the clients who are affected by any step taken. Resolution: The clients were informed of each and every stage of the deployment. In fact, the reports generated were shared in order to gain the trust of clients.
Implementation Challenges
The previous two challenges were relatively easier to handle, but Persistent faced certain implementation challenges which were difficult to resolve and took time. A few implementation challenges faced were: Hibernate State During implementation, it was found that around 1700 computers at persistent did not support the „hibernate‟ state because they were running on outdated operating systems. The hibernate state is important in the sense that an idle machine can be put in the hibernate mode in order to save power. Since 1700 computers did not support this state, they were consuming a lot of unnecessary power. Resolution: In order to resolve the problem, during the implementation, Persistent had to upgrade the operating system on those computers in order to support the hibernate state and hence, use Enpower to its full potential. Formatted Computers The clients connected to the Enpower server have licenses attached to them. Only a licensed client can connect to the server. Now, like in many organizations, when an employee leaves and another employee takes over his computer, the computer is formatted. So, in such a case, a new license is generated because while formatting, the license installed on the operating system of the computer is also
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erased. But, it was realized that when a new license is generated, it was not reflected in the database on the server‟s side. Hence, there was a mismatch. Resolution: The problem was realized a little late. However, the only solution to the problem was to update the database on the server‟s side. This could be done only by the administrator. Whenever a computer was formatted, the administrator was made aware and he would then update the database on the server‟s side.
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6.3 Benefits
Enpower has helped Persistent and its employees in a big way by making them responsible towards the environment. Persistent Persistent has gained immensely from Enpower. Through flexible work hour / non-work hour power policies, scheduled exemptions, timely notifications and comprehensive reporting, Enpower is now helping Persistent Systems lower its carbon footprint by over 2000 tons of CO2 annually and save over 230,000USD in energy costs across 5000 computers while ensuring that systems availability or employee productivity are never negatively impacted. IT Administrator Before the deployment of Enpower, the IT administrator had to keep a check on the computers that were not shut down or put on hibernate. He then had to send mails to employees and put stickers on their workstations asking them to be responsible. This was a tedious task which consumed a lot of time. Now, with Enpower, he can easily define power policies and shut down computers on his own and the burden of sending mails and putting up stickers on workstations is avoided. Employees The employees inherently become a part of the green initiative without putting in any extra effort. In fact, earlier, they had to take care of shutting down computers or putting them on hibernate. Now, they needn‟t worry about any such thing. They can set their own settings in the client agent and everything would be taken care of by Enpower.
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6.4 Future
At present, Persistent has one operational building and is in the process of constructing a second building. Persistent wants both its buildings to be green buildings. In order to have green buildings, it is trying to get rid of the diesel generators and move on to cleaner sources of energy like solar panels. A very important aspect that Persistent is considering is to go for a Building Management System.
Building Management System
A Building Management System (BMS) is a computer-based control system installed in buildings that controls and monitors the building‟s mechanical and electrical equipment such as ventilation, lighting, power systems, fire systems, and security systems. As a core function in most BMS systems, it controls heating and cooling, manages the systems that distribute this air throughout the building (for example by operating fans or opening/closing dampers), and then locally controls the mixture of heating and cooling to achieve the desired room temperature. A secondary function sometimes is to monitor the level of human-generated CO2, mixing in outside air with waste air to increase the amount of oxygen while also minimizing heat/cooling losses. BMS systems are a critical component to managing energy demand.
Improperly configured BMS systems are believed to account for 20% of building energy usage, or approximately 8% of total energy usage in the United States
Enpower’s Cause
A BMS could serve very fruitful to Persistent. But, BMS doesn’t include PC power management and this is where the role of Enpower comes in. Whenever Persistent plans to install a Building Management System, it would call Creative Riot to integrate Enpower with the BMS and fulfill its need of a green building.
