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For a growing number of businesses, power consumption is a major cost and will increasingly become an environmental headache. Much of this power is used by monitors and desktop PCs, which are responsible for 40 per cent of the total greenhouse emissions from the IT industry.

Desktop power management is nothing new – most PCs have a plethora of power management features hidden under layers of control panel options, but these require tinkering with each machine and can be frustrating for users when they return from a coffee break to discover their PC has shut down.

There are many programs available that allow centralised power control. Klustner recalls that in Verdiem’s early days its customers weren’t pioneering eco-warriors; rather they were US district schools operating IT on a shoestring budget.

‘[We] can save £20-£60 in running costs per PC per year, which can mean hundreds
of thousands of pounds for a large enterprise and an overnight reduction of five to 15
per cent in organisation-wide energy consumption,’ says Klustner, estimating that
at most organisations the software will pay for itself within 18 months.

Smaller organisations can probably work out their own green solutions by using individual power consoles and simply asking employees to switch their PCs off at night. But companies with more than a few computers running day and night can use some of the software tools out there to cut their power consumption without compromising efficiency.

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