Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 - Small Things That Make a Big Difference

The past 3 weeks I have been very busy preparing for and hosting webcasts for TechNet dealing with the new products (Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange 2010) that Microsoft will be releasing this month.  While discussing some of the new features and updates in Windows 7, I was struck by what a large impact some seemingly simple new additions can make. Let's face it, we've all heard a great deal over the past few months about DirectAccess and BranchCache and they truly are game changing technology, but they require new technologies to be implemented (Server 2008 R2 for both features, IPv6 for DirectAccess). So I wanted to look at some of the small less touted features in Windows 7 that still return a very real business value right out of the box with little to no administrative overhead. What I came up with are the new Windows 7 Search and Windows 7 Libraries. It didn't take much digging to see that these new additions would make users working experience more enjoyable, but when I broke out my calculator and started doing some simple math I was startled by the results.

Let's start out by taking a quick look at what Windows 7 Search and Libraries are and how they impact a user's daily routine.

The new Search capabilities in Windows 7 make searching for anything much easier than ever before by both putting the Search box directly on the Start menu and then returning search results directly into the Start menu as the Search is entered. The results to a search are not limited to only files and directories on the local computer, but rather display files, files contents, SharePoint contents, Outlook contents (even if Outlook is closed), Internet results, and many other possibilities. Making Search easier to access while also returning a better and more diverse result set makes finding information much easier and faster for an organization's users.

While Windows Search makes finding information easier, the new Libraries feature in Windows 7 allows users to organize their data in ways that are intuitive to them.Users can create their own Libraries and then add files and directories to them for future access regardless of where the data truly resides. With Libraries, it no longer matters where a file or directory is located, which makes accessing files as simple as opening a Library. No more digging through directory hierarchies to find files, no more remembering which mapped drive holds the necessary data; just open the library and the appropriate files and directories are there. The best part is that these libraries were created by the users not and administrator, so they do not have to recall someone else's logic to find things, they create the organization while IT Professionals create the infrastructure.

Now you might at first respond to all this with "So what, users can search and find things more easily. What does this mean for me as an IT Professional or Manager?", because that was my response. But then I put pen to paper and fingers to calculator, I crunched some numbers and I was very happy with what I found. Assuming that users save a mere 2 minutes apiece per day by no longer traversing directory structures to access the information they use to do their jobs, an organization with 250 users would save $32,500.00/year if each user makes $15.00/hour. I honestly think that the numbers I used are low (I see our users at my organization already saving far more than 2 minutes per day in real life testing programs) and I haven't even delved into some of the "big" changes in Windows 7, but already I am seeing a full ROI for my upgrade licenses in less than a year with enough left over to by a very nicely configured server for continuing my migration to a virtualized data center. That's powerful stuff! Those are real concrete numbers I can take to the CEO, CFO or CIO and justify those upgrades that Vista just never managed to warrant. This truly is The New Efficiency!!!

 The second change I want to discuss is Power Management in Windows Server 2008 R2, which I feel is just not getting the coverage it deserves (much like Search and Libraries in Windows 7). The biggest change in power management with Windows Server 2008 R2 is how it deals with multiple processors specifically Processor Parking. There is a great write up on the new Power Management in Windows Server here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/R2-management.aspx which I highly recommend reading (it's short), but what it really comes down to is the fact the Windows Server now monitors the consumption of processor resources and powers them accordingly. If a server has processors that are not needed Windows Server now uses Processor Parking to shut them down so they consume no power. If there are underutilized processors, Windows Server 2008 R2 throttles them back so that they consume less power. As with the changes to Windows 7 I knew about this change as was not terribly impressed, until I saw the real-world numbers. I will start by admitting that the main purpose for which I have currently deployed Windows Server 2008 R2 is as virtual hosts so that I have the capability of Live Migration in Hyper-V. I build these servers and configure the guests in a lab environment until they are ready to be deployed at which time I shut them down and move them to my data center, and that is when I got my surprise. I deployed Windows Server 2008 R2 on the same hardware make and model as I have used for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 for the past year and because I have metered PDUs in my data center I how how much power each server draws. This gave me a pretty good baseline of knowledge that each server draws a little over 1.5 amps per power supply which varies slightly depending on the load the server is under. When I power on the first of my new 2008 R2 servers, I was stunned to see the draw stay at zero. I really thought I had 2 new faulty PDUs (they were new and unused which is why it was at zero to begin) and was ready to start the RMA process to get them replaced, but first I powered on the second of my new Server 2008 R2 servers at which time the draw finally topped 1 amp and hovered under 2 amps. Again, I admit that these were virtual hosts and the guests on them were replacing development servers and underutilized physical servers, so the processors are obviously not very taxed, but I don't feel that that make the results any less exciting. Who among us does not have servers that require great deals of disk I/O or memory while needing little in the way of processor resources? The power reductions and the corresponding savings are very real and extremely compelling, in my case I took 12 physical servers offline where each one was drawing significantly more power than just one of the 3 physical servers that replaced them, with no loss in workload. And I haven't even mentioned cooling costs!

All of this is to point out the fact that, with some small changes that require no configuration on an administrators part, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will save you money. Just install the OS and you will save money it really is that simple. Be aware that all of the numbers that I have quoted and used come from my real world experiences, so I strongly urge you to do the same. Install them, try them out and see if you find the same things that I am finding, if not let me know. I'm very interested to hear your feedback on how these small changes are making a difference in your bottom line.