PowerPro Manager Blog

There are some great ways to save money in IT and to be more green. This is a great article from Inc.com going over some great ideas for being green. http://www.inc.com/magazine/20091201/how-to-cut-costs-with-green-it.html

Using the power saving options available in Windows operating systems to save valuable time is an easy and money saving task. Windows has features to automatically suspend the state of the operating system and shut down the most power hungry parts of a computer while still allowing a user to sit down at the computer and have it resume a session within seconds. This is a great article on how you can save energy with these features in Windows.

Here are some of our most frequent questions about PowerPro Manager.

How does it save me money?

PowerPro Manager will configure the energy settings of all your computers and automate powering down or put the workstation in a low powered state on a nightly basis after the workstations are no longer in use. Our organization uses both PC's and Macintosh workstations with different versions of the operating systems.

Will we need different consoles to manage each type of computer's energy settings?

No, the PowerPro Manager console communicates with both PC's and Macintosh workstations from one central console. The console supports Windows 2000 and later versions and Macintosh OSX 10.4 and later.

What if someone is working late and they are still using their computer?

PowerPro Manager can power the machines down based on inactivity or shut them down at a fixed time. The users receive a notification letting them know the machine will be shut down soon and offer them the opportunity to cancel before it is powered off. Also, the machine can be powered up the same as always for any afterhours work.

What if my organization runs backups and updates at night and the computers need to be powered on for these processes?

PowerPro Manager offers an hourly scheduler that allows you to disable power save mode during specified times to run the required applications and processes after hours.

Do I have to install and configure the software on every single machine?

Yes, but the software can be remotely installed on each workstation and will automatically update themselves from the PowerPro Server. The workstations can be organized with Auto-Grouping and the settings will be implemented from the console.

How long does it take to install PowerPro Manager, and how much maintenance will the program require?

Depending on the size of your organization, the installation and configuration can range from 1 to 8 hours, but once PowerPro Manager is setup, the maintenance is virtually non-existent. Unless settings need to be modified for specific users, the software will manage itself.

How much will PowerPro Manager cost and how long is my return on investment?

PowerPro Manager starts at $5 per computer for education customers, but some energy companies are currently offering rebates that will cover up to the entire cost of the software, including lifetime support and updates. Even paying full price, companies are seeing a return on their investment in 4 to 6 months. Contact us to find out if your organization qualifies for any of the available rebates.

Can PowerPro Manager power on the workstation?

Yes! Your computers can be scheduled to wake up before anyone arrives in the office. You can also wake up your computer remotely from a web interface if you need remote access to your files.

The US Department of Energy encourages data centers to save energy each year. Data centers are a major consumer of electricity with servers, backup power supplies, AC and networking equipment.

That is why the US DOE is investing $47 million into energy efficent data centers to slow the overwhelming growth in energy use.

 Click here to read more on the growing energy use!