Sunday 6 May 2012

More Reasons For Performing Those Software Updates!

Don't you get frustrated when each and every single application on your PC (& MAC), Server, Printer.. (the list goes on!) asks you to update the software every other day because they have some bugs fixed?


Well, apart from the reason that doing this will keep your systems secure, there is another important reason emerging to the forefront to ensure you do these updates, which is to save power! Yes, you read it right; SOFTWARE UPDATES CAN SAVE POWER and help you contribute to the green IT revolution! 


We talk about Software & Deployment Optimization, list some use cases and show how small things that you can do can save planet Earth!



Consoles & Devices:


According to the Natural Resources Defense Council ( NRDC ), the United States from 60 to 100 million video game consoles that fit 40% of American homes, about half of users leave their consoles on 24 hours on 24, is an annual consumption of about 16 million MWh (16 TWh).

In the latest edition of the journal Energy Efficiency, a study conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University believes that a software update of these consoles would save 9.3 TWh per year, or 1% of household electricity consumption in North America!

Software Updates on Video Games
Consoles can save 1% of North
America's Power Consumption!

According to the authors, 68% of electricity is consumed during the phases where the console is not used. A function of auto power exists yet on most of gaming console, but rarely enabled by default by the manufacturers (except for the latest version of the Xbox). However, a single PS3 consumes as much as 5 fridges ! It would therefore suffice to patch the firmware of the 30% of consoles that are never switched off to achieve significant energy savings. [1]

Complex Software Code leads to Algorithmic Inefficiency:

Take the example of the world's most prolific software maker - Microsoft:

Studies done by Greenit.fr have shown that Windows 7 + Office 2010 Pro requires 15 times more processing power, 71 times more memory and 47 times more disk space than the couple Windows 98 + Office 97.



Is this inflation justified? We do not write 15 times faster than what we did with Windows 7 with Windows 2000. And Office 2010 or Office 2000 are office suites. Nothing more.



Hence we raise these two questions:
1) What are the key new features enough to justify such inflation?
2) How to impose a regime to software vendors (because virtualization is just deport the problem server side)? [2]

Intelligent Resource Allocation:

Conventional resource and server allocation is decided using the most available system, that is, a zero-intelligence system. Often this approach does not provide the most energy efficient way of computing.

A new invention provides a mechanism for dynamic resource allocation that maximises performance with minimum total energy consumption. The technology allocates tasks to the most energy efficient servers, thus allowing idle nodes to go on standby. 
A Smart & Green way of routing traffic!
Experimental results (see figure on the left) have shown that using this technology an energy reduction of up to a 45% can be realised, compared with the zero-intelligence approach. [3]

Virtualization:

Virtualization has single handedly taken the IT Industry to a whole new level of energy efficiency!

Consolidate servers: 



Reduces the number of servers by a ratio of 15:1, eliminating server sprawl and cutting maintenance costs.


Reduce energy consumption:

Every server virtualized saves 7000kWh of electricity annually, or about $700 in energy costs.

Increase IT capacity:

Improves server utilization rates from 5-15% to 60-80%. Running fewer, highly utilized servers frees up space and power.

Reduce CO2 emissions:

4 tons of CO2 are eliminated for every server virtualized, the equivalent to taking 1.5 cars off the highway.




Click Here to download Gartner Reports, Case Studies & Demos of how virtualization can contribute to enhancing your contribution to a greener planet. (Provided by vmware) [4]



Also Watch the Impact of Software Development on Energy in the Videos Page... 


References:
[1]: http://www.greenit.fr/article/materiel/jeux-video-1-milliard-de-deconomies-via-une-simple-mise-a-jour-logicielle-4381
[2]: http://www.greenit.fr/article/logiciels/logiciel-la-cle-de-l-obsolescence-programmee-du-materiel-informatique-2748
[3]: http://www.newcastleinnovationscience.com.au/power-optimised-resource-allocation-green-servers
[4]: http://info.vmware.com/content/GreenIT_LP/?src=WWW_08Q3_VMW_CSGN_ENERGY_EFFICIENCY_SOLUTIONS_PAGE

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