Faronics Power Save Conserves Energy while Cutting Costs

Background

Chaffey Joint Union High School District (CJUHSD) is a grade 9-12 school district located in San Bernardino County, California. This rapidly growing district has over 2,000 employees and 25,000 students operating on over 5,000 workstations in an all-Windows environment. There are also 40 physical servers and approximately 10 virtual servers which are increasing as they consolidate to enterprise-level virtualization.

Problem

With no existing PC power management strategy in place, the district's computers were often left powered on overnight, wasting a colossal amount of energy and money. The school district was searching for ways to save money and knew that a dedicated PC power management strategy offered a quick return on investment.

CJUHSD's IT Department had originally tried to power the district's computers down via Faronics Deep Freeze, a system restore solution with automated shut-down capabilities. However, because Deep Freeze was not designed specifically to reduce computer energy waste, it lacked the crucial features of a devoted PC power management solution. There was no way to specify which applications, when running, should prohibit the system from powering down into sleep mode. Also, because there were no specific reporting features, it was impossible to determine how much unnecessary energy was being consumed or saved.

Solution

Because CJUHSD is a current Faronics customer, they were introduced to Faronics Power Save by their Account Manager. Faronics Power Save works by using intelligent energy management to ensure workstations are available when system's resources are required, while conserving power during productivity downtimes. It provides organizations with centralized computer energy management, allowing organizations to continuously maximize their savings by powering computers and monitors down. Power Save is also non-disruptive, integrates seamlessly with existing IT maintenance routines, and provides organizations with centralized granular PC power management, savings reports, and a rapid ROI.

Like many organizations hesitant on using a PC power management solution, CJUHSD was concerned with Power Save taking action at inopportune times, such as when students are using a program like AutoCad. But by adding programs to Power Save's Critical Applications list, they are assured that no undesired actions will occur.

Evaluation

The district initially tested Power Save in Audit Mode on approximately 4,000 workstations. Power Save's Audit Mode feature enables organizations to determine the quantity of energy consumed as well as the potential for savings without actually starting to manage power. They learned that by configuring Power Save to take action after 45 minutes of inactivity, CJUHSD could save over $100,000 a year which quickly led them to fully enable Power Save and further decrease the inactivity settings to 30 minutes to save even more money. CJUHSD was equally satisfied by Power Save's seamless deployment. By using Group Policies, they pushed out Power Save on 4,800 workstations within three days.
Within one month CJUHSD saw a significant difference in their electric bills. The district reduced their PC energy consumption by over $350,000 in a year, which translated to over $70 per workstation.

In March of 2010 the district upgraded to the latest release of Power Save. "I am extremely impressed by the evolution of Power Save. The latest version(s) include even more savings reports and features that offered even more configuration flexibility from when we first installed it," said CJUHSD Network Specialist David Patzold.

Recent features include the ability to automatically save open Microsoft Office files prior to shutdown, while the newly revised architecture of the Faronics Core management platform delivers improved, enterprise-ready security and scalability. This multi-tier workstation management allows administrators to utilize multiple consoles, servers, and databases depending on an organization's requirements while managing their workstation energy configurations more flexibly.

By implementing a dedicated PC power management solution, CJUHSD is now demonstrating a strong commitment to environment and fiscal responsibility to the students and community of San Bernardino County.

About Faronics

Faronics' solutions help organizations increase the productivity of existing IT investments and lower IT operating costs. With a well-established record of helping organizations manage, simplify, and secure their IT infrastructure, Faronics makes it possible to do more with less by maximizing the value of existing technology.

Incorporated in 1996, Faronics has offices in the USA, Canada, and the UK, as well as a global network of channel partners. Our solutions are deployed in over 150 countries worldwide, and are helping more than 30,000 customers.

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