Enterprise PCs Work While They Sleep, Saving Energy and Money

Personal computers in enterprise environments save energy and money by “sleep-working,” thanks to new software called SleepServer created by computer scientists from the University of California, San Diego.

Sleep-working enterprise PCs are accessible via remote connections and maintain their presence on voice over IP, instant messaging, and peer-to-peer networks even though the PCs are in low-power sleep mode. SleepServer can reduce energy consumption on enterprise PCs previously running 24/7 by an average of 60 percent, according to a new peer-reviewed study presented by UC San Diego computer scientists on June 25 at the 2010 USENIX Annual Technical Conference in Boston.

SleepServer creates lightweight virtual images of sleeping PCs, and these pared down images maintain connectivity and respond to applications, such as Voice over IP, instant messaging and peer-to-peer services, on behalf of the sleeping PCs. Each virtual PC image can also enable remote access to the sleeping PC it represents via protocols such as Remote Desktop, VNC and encrypted connections using SSH. SleepServer is compatible with existing networking infrastructure. It is highly scalable, runs on commodity servers, and is cross platform – it works with Windows and different versions of Linux. A MAC OSx version is being developed.

“One of the big benefits of SleepServer is configurable on-demand wakeup. SleepServer enables enterprise PCs to remain asleep for long periods of time while still maintaining the illusion of network connectivity and seamless availability,” explained Yuvraj Agarwal, the UC San Diego Research Scientist in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering who developed SleepServer.

Putting PCs to sleep that routinely run all night and all weekend saves energy and money.

“Reducing the electricity required to run our information technology infrastructure is an absolute must, and our SleepServer technology is an important step in this direction,” said Agarwal. “Our goal with SleepServer is to help buildings with heavy IT-loads reach net-zero energy use – so that these buildings effectively become carbon neutral by generating as much renewable energy as they consume.”

At the 2010 Design Automation Conference on June 17, Agarwal (Ph.D.’09 computer science UCSD) and UC San Diego environmental engineering professor Jan Kleissl presented their calculations on how SleepServer can play an important role in balancing a modern building’s energy consumption and renewable-energy generation over a one-year period.

SleepServer Saves Energy

During September 2009, the energy consumed by the 30 PCs running SleepServer dropped by 27 to 86 percent, with an average savings of 60 percent – when compared to leaving the machines on 24/7. Currently, more than 50 PCs in the UCSD computer science building are running SleepServer.

Enterprise PCs running SleepServer (black line) can enter energy-saving sleep mode but maintain their presence on networks and remain accessible via remote connections.

“I have seen an almost 70 percent energy savings on my PC over the last six months,” said Agarwal. ...

via Enterprise PCs Work While They Sleep, Saving Energy and Money [Jacobs School of Engineering: News & Events].