Technology Treading Lightly : Green IT

Reducing IT footprint, 15 PCs at a time

markaggar — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:39:00 GMT

What’s better than a classroom full of PCs? How about 1 PC per classroom? As backwards as this may sound, it’s exactly the promise of the recently announced Windows MultiPoint Server 2010. The simple goal of this solution is to reduce the cost of providing a rich Windows PC experience by allowing many users to use one (powerful) PC simultaneously. Simply add multiple monitors and USB devices (keyboards, mice, speakers), and with a bit of software magic built upon Terminal Services technology (or Remote Desktop Services as it has recently been renamed), the PC management experience for school teachers everywhere just got a lot more simple.

I had the pleasure of a demo of the solution a couple of months ago, and it is a dream come true. I mean that almost literally – when I first joined Microsoft back in 1999, I was the product manager for Terminal Server. In 2001, the Terminal Server architect showed me a hacked up system that allowed multiple users on the same machine, using similar techniques that MultiPoint Server is using today. The main difference was that in 2001 we were using a Pentium 4 and not very much RAM by today’s standards. As is the fate of many prototypes, this one didn’t survive the prioritization process, but I always held out hope that one day it would see the light of day.

To cut a long story short, and in no small part to some bright folks from Microsoft Research India and support from the Unlimited Potential Group, Windows Multipoint Server was green-lighted for development in Chief Strategist Craig Mundie’s Startup Business Group.

The demo itself was impressive. 16 monitors simultaneously playing 720P HD video using the processing power of one PC (an Intel Core i7 system). This is particular feat was aided by a new feature available in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 that allows for full screen video rendering within a remote TS session. If you have two Windows 7 PCs, you can try this for yourself - just open up a WMV file from within a remote desktop session on another W7 PC and prepare to be amazed.

In case you hadn’t guessed by now, this is a win for the environment in several ways. First and foremost it helps reduce waste by dramatically reducing the number of processors, disks and RAM and other electronic components required to serve a given number of users. Secondly, it also significantly reduces the amount of power required to support those users. And third, not only is there less e-waste to deal with at the end of the day, but it makes it far more feasible (financially and practically) to upgrade the central PC’s components (e.g. bigger disks, more RAM) than it would be for multiple PCs – quite often it’s just easier and ultimately cheaper to replace the PCs altogether. The cherry on top is that no special hardware is needed – the whole thing runs using standard (multi-port) video cards and USB hubs, so if you decide you don’t need the system anymore, it’s easy to repurpose everything.

I think MultiPoint Server has the potential to be very successful, especially in school districts where for one reason or another, students don’t have access to laptops. It also makes a lot of sense in Internet Cafe’s and libraries. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s easier on the environment and your energy bill as well.

For more information on Windows MultiPoint Server 2010, check out the Unlimited Potential team blog post.

Better Power Management in the Enterprise

markaggar — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:18:00 GMT

The System Center team asked me to come and chat about Power Management and what we’re doing in Windows and across Microsoft to make it better. If you can ignore the bad hair day I was having, then it makes for an interesting discussion. You can find Part 2 of the discussion here.

Server Efficiency Pot o' Gold

markaggar — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:11:00 GMT

My colleague Matt Robben from the Windows Server performance team has produced a very comprehensive white paper and accompanying blog post which goes into great detail about how you can save energy with Windows Server 2008 power management, including new options for increasing savings even further (up to 10% more than the default configuration, based on the systems the performance team tested). Even if you aren't running Windows Server 2008, the white paper is chock full of useful advice on how to save energy through your hardware configuration and the components you use. If you operate, spec or buy servers, this is a must read.

The paper correctly points out that the cost to power and cool the server is the same if not more than the cost of buying it when amortized over three years. With this in mind, you’re probably thinking that any investment in power efficient hardware is worth the potentially extra cost. Generally it is, but there are some exceptions.

For instance, based on some analysis I did a few months back of SPEC power benchmarks, it turns out that buying low power processors might not make much financial sense - depending on the price you pay. I calculated that with a $200 spread between two equally performant processors with different TDPs (Thermal Design Power), the ROI is about 7 years – obviously way beyond the life of the machine. However, the $200 difference in question was based on 'list' prices. On Amazon.com (they really do sell everything!), the difference was only $30 – which had a payback of about 7 months for a single processor.

This obviously applies to other components as well (e.g. price per GB for 2.5” vs 3.5” disk drives). If more efficient components are more expensive, then it might be worth doing some rudimentary math to see if the power savings will ever exceed the increased cost of the components before the machine is retired.