A Technique to Minimize the Power Consumption of Computer Fleets

Energy consumption of current computer fleets of most organizations can be substantially reduced by using power management systems. Energy saving is an important matter as, with the sustained increment of the cost of electricity, the monetary savings can be significant. This paper presents a technique to minimize the power consumption of the computer fleet or an organization. The technique is based on a distributed system where a central manager coordinates the local power manager of each computer. A method to determine the profitability of this type of management system is also proposed. The key element to save energy is the idle timer used by local power controllers. When the controller detects that the computer is inactive, it starts the timer, and when the timer expires, the controller puts the computer in suspension or hibernation, or turns off the computer. This paper proposes a systematic technique to estimate the appropriate values of the idle timers for the computers of the fleet. Any administrator of the fleet can take advantage of the technique proposed in this paper to achieve an appropriate trade-off between energy saving and user productivity. The paper also shows the application of the technique to the computer fleet of a company.