Channel 9 - Entries tagged with Green Computing

Aman Kansal: Inside Joulemeter

Charles — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:56:00 GMT

Joulemeter is a software-based Microsoft Research project designed to measure the energy usage of virtual machines (VMs), servers, desktops, laptops, and even individual software programs running on a computer.

Joulemeter estimates the energy usage of a VM, computer, or software by measuring the hardware resources (CPU, disk, memory, screen, etc.) being used and converting the resource usage to actual power usage based on automatically learned realistic power models.

Here, we talk to MSR research scientist Dr. Aman Kansal about what Joulemeter is and how it works.

Download Joulemeter here.

Mark Aggar: Energy Smart Software

Charles — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Ensuring that applications work well with Windows Power Management is a vital step in providing a solid end user experience and reducing IT energy costs. Developers need to ensure their applications are Energy Smart.

Here, we visit Mark Aggar, a Director in the Environmental Sustainability organization at Microsoft to get some insights into what energy efficient computing means and why it matters. Further, since Channel 9 is a comfortable place for developers, we discuss developing Windows applications that work in concert with Windows Power Management to effectively and efficiently use energy resources.

In some sense, energy efficient computing, like trustworthy computing and software security, is a journey that will continually evolve over time. The concept of energy smart software has only recently hit the general purpose computing mainstream. Of course, in the IT world, system administrators are always trying to maximize energy efficiency in large datacenters and have energy conscience for a some time. But what about developers?

NOTE: The Adobe Flash Player power management issue Mark mentioned during the conversation was fixed in version 10.1 and you should update.

Windows 7 Greener than XP

Sarah Perez — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:27:00 GMT

A recent Ars Technica article points to a recent study from Mindteck which analyzed the “greenness” of Windows 7 as compared to Windows XP. The company looked at power consumption in various scenarios (sleep, idle, low and high use, etc.) to determine how much better Windows 7 did (or did not) fare when compared to its predecessor.

The results showed that Windows 7 improved upon XP in every case, even out-of-the-box, prior to updated drivers, for instance. For businesses with XP desktops considering an upgrade to Windows 7, the improvements mean major cost savings, even thousands of dollars as this chart shows.

The full report is available as free download from Ars’ website.

Greening Corporate Networks with Sleep Proxy

TechFest — Wed, 05 May 2010 22:04:00 GMT

In a corporate network, most desktop machines always are left on, even when they are not in use for extended periods, such as at night. This is wasteful, bad for the environment, and bad for the corporate treasury. While Win7 provides aggressive sleep functionality, most users override it because they occasionally might want to access their machine remotely. Ideally, a desktop would go to sleep when not in use and awaken seamlessly when the user tries to access it. We have built a system to enable this. Our system consists of a sleep server that maintains the network presence of the sleeping machine and seamlessly awakens it on remote access. We do not require special hardware or changes to existing software. Our system is operational in Building 99 and has resulted in substantial savings in terms of money, power consumption, and carbon-dioxide emissions.

For a Greener PC: Granola for Windows

Sarah Perez — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 15:37:00 GMT

Granola is a new software application that helps you reduce the energy waste that coming from using a computer and leaving it on all the time. The program, smaller than a single MP3, is a “set it and forget it” type of application that automatically optimizes system settings without compromising performance or availability. Granola typically lowers the total system energy use by 10-35% even when a system is 100% utilized, the website claims. It also tracks the energy saved in order to estimate cost savings and carbon emission reductions.

Granola uses a technology called dynamic voltage and frequency scaling or DVFS which is analogous to a “dimmer switch” on a light, says the company. When you don’t need the brightest light, you can dim it via a switch. DVFS works in a similar way – when it needs CPU at full speed, it allows that, but when the PC is in a lower state of activity (like reading a website instead of playing a game), it uses less energy.

You can download Granola for free from here.

ARCast.TV - The Green Datacenter Panel Discussion

Bob Familiar — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:31:00 GMT

With the increase in regulations and high energy prices, green and environmental initiatives in the IT world have evolved from hype buzzword to strategic metrics for organizations this year. This panel discusses environmentally sustainable changes in the IT industry as well as best practices for architectural leaders. With George Cerbone, Michael Manos, Beth Humphreys, Kathy Malone, Lewis Curtis, and David Platt.

It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green

Ben Riga — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:30:00 GMT

I couldn’t help but think about the old Kermit the frog tune while chatting with Jennifer Pollard (Product Manager) and Neil Huizenga (Software Developer) last week about the new Environmental Sustainability Dashboard for Dynamics AX. While many organizations are doing everything possible to reduce their carbon footprint and improve the efficiency of the resources that they do use, it is often difficult to measure progress. With the recent economic downturn and pressures to report emission, the environmental sustainability dashboard helps organizations to run their business more efficiently as well as fund ongoing green efforts.

Jennifer talks about Microsoft’s commitment to the environment including making ourselves greener by reducing our carbon footprint and partnering with governmental and non-governmental (NGOs) organizations to to address larger global environmental issues. At the heart of this is technology.

The Environment Sustainability Dashboard is a part of that commitment. The Dynamics AX team has heard from our clients that they are feeling the pressure to report whether that’s for regulatory reasons or for reasons related to the greening of supply chains.

Jennifer shows us a great demo of how this dashboard built into Dynamics AX as a role center takes advantage of SQL Server Analysis and Reporting Services within SharePoint Web Parts. Out of the box the product provides 4 web parts showing energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, actual energy costs and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The KPIs are based on Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines v3.0 (aka G3 Indicators); the de facto standards in this area. With this product a process as simple as paying an energy bill becomes an opportunity to capture information about energy consumption and as a result the ability to calculate the related greenhouse gas emissions.

Jennifer makes the point that “if you can measure it, you can manage it” and shows a couple of scenarios where being able to monitor energy consumption puts organizations in control of that consumption in order to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

There’s a huge demand right now for partners and developers with knowledge in both environmental and ERP systems. The dashboard comes with just a few web parts leaving open the opportunity for developers to build this out much further (for example with water and waste consumption). Neil shows us how simple it is for a developer to dive into the Dynamics AX Application Object Tree (AOT) and modify the metadata in order to customize the system in just about any direction.

So yeah, I guess we did just make it a bit easier to be more green. Sorry about that, Kermit.

Related Resources:

Environmental Sustainability Dashboard product page
- Download (requires PartnerSource login)
Microsoft’s Environment home page

iGo Delivers Green Devices That Save Energy

Sarah Perez — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:40:00 GMT

New surge protectors, laptop chargers, and electrical outlets from a company called iGo were unveiled at this week’s CES. These “green” products are designed to help you save energy, which of course means that you can save money too. For any heavy duty computer and gadget users, these devices will certainly be appealing.

The way the iGo products conserve energy is by stopping the flow of electricity to plugged-in devices once they’ve been fully recharged. This technology virtually eliminates what the company calls "vampire energy" - the power used by devices in off or standby modes. Says iGo, their products automatically use 80% less standby power than standard power products.

One of the new products that I would love to try out is what the company says is the first ever "green" laptop charger (pictured) - a device that would come in handy for those of us who use laptops as our main computers. The surge protector is also definitely on my wish list as it offers 4 of these automatic shut-off outlets and four regular outlets for things that don’t need charging…like my Chumby, for example.

ESRI: Green Computing

Charles — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:34:00 GMT

ESRI, a Global ISV partner, is pushing the envelope on technology adoption and environmental issues. In this interview, I talk with Senior Product Managers Rob Elkins and John Baleja about technology advancements, development needs and what the Microsoft partnership means to ESRI. Through personal experiences, customer examples and a unique environmental perspective, Rob and John give us a look into the world of geospatial analysis and the importance of Microsoft technologies in their customer’s applications. SQL Server 2008 (new spatial types), Windows Server and Client, Visual Studio 2008 (AJAX), WPF/Silverlight and Virtual Earth are highlighted in this discussion. As is the importance of the balance between managed and native code.

ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner dedicated to helping people to make better decisions that affect the world around us. In “an age of Software plus Services”, ESRI and Microsoft give application developers, analysts and consumers a platform that adapts to varying needs. Many examples are cited, including land use planning, home site selection, police in-vehicle crime statistics and drive time analysis.

More information
www.microsoft.com/isv/esri
www.microsoft.com/environment

Go Green With Edison

Sarah Perez — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:31:00 GMT

Edison is a new download that helps you with PC Power Management. The app comes from a company called Verdiem, which offers similar technology for large enterprises for a fee. With Edison, though, you’ll get those same power-saving tools for free. After you download and register the program, you can customize your settings through a set of easy-to-use tabs. You can specify when you use your PC the most, edit settings for both "work" and "home," use a slider to adjust your savings level, and more. But the best part of this app is where it tells you what your estimated annual power savings will be. Edison provides those figures in dollars, Kilowatt hours, and even in pounds of CO2 saved! You can download Edison from www.microsoft.com/environment – the link is on the right. (via Steve Clayton)

Dell’s New Studio Hybrid PCs

Sarah Perez — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:01:00 GMT

At long last, the new “green” PCs that have been under development at Dell have finally arrived. The Dell Studio Hybrid PC is 80% smaller than the conventional desktop mini-tower while also using 70% less power than typical desktop PCs. Their small form factor lets them fit almost anywhere and the optional wireless keyboard and mouse help kill the clutter. The PCs are Energy Star 4.0 compliant (of course!)and can be customized with 6 interchangeable color sleeves or even a sleeve made of environmentally- friendly bamboo. Despite their small size, the Studio Hybrid still finds room for a CD/DVD drive, analog and digital sound ports, a gigabit networking port, and HDMI and DVI ports. The PCs start at $499 and go up depending on your customizations like selecting a Blu-Ray drive, more memory, or a larger hard drive.

Tom Raftery: On Blogging, Green Computing and other interesting topics

Charles — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:12:43 GMT

Tom Raftery is blogger, podcaster and social media consultant.

Tom consults to companies on social media (blogs, podcasts, wikis, etc) and how to use them for knowledge management, brand management, communications, etc. Tom is a director of a startup data centre in Cork - Cork Internet eXchange (cix.ie). CIX will open doors for business in January 08. Tom is also involved in an energy management startup called Synergy Module (synergymodule.com).

Here we talk about green computing, blogging and other interesting topics. Enjoy.

5 Ways to Practice Green Computing

Sarah Perez — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 21:23:00 GMT

There is a lot of interest in environmental responsibility these days: debates on global warming, hybrid cars, recycling, buying environmentally friendly products, conserving energy, reducing waste, etc., etc. Additionally, there has been a growing area of discussion on the subject of "green computing." What exactly is green computing? Mostly, it's the practice of using computing resources efficiently. With today's powerful systems, not to mention the myriads of peripheral devices, the home office is an area of the house where energy is wasted and lost. If you're interested in ways to reduce your power consumption, here are ways you can go "green" at home:

1. Buy "Energy Star" labeled monitors, desktops, laptops, and printers . The "Energy Star" devices can be programmed to "power-down" to a low power state when they are not in use, helping you save energy and run cooler which helps them last even longer. The Energy Star specification for computers was revised on October 20, 2006 and goes into effect July 20, 2007. The specification includes new performance requirements to qualify for the Energy Star rating for desktop and notebook computers, workstations, integrated computers, desktop-derived servers and game consoles. Now you can feel good about that upgrade!

2. Put laptops in "sleep" mode when not in use. The EPA has estimated that this reduces their energy use by 60 to 70 percent – and ultimately could save enough electricity each year to power Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, cut electric bills by $2 billion, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of 5 million cars.

3. Even better, turn OFF computers and other equipment when not in use. Despite the debate over whether it's better for your computer to be left on or shut off, the fact is it's better for the environment to shut it off. Trust me, your computer can handle it just fine; in fact, computers were designed to be turned off and back on!

4. E-cycle used computer equipment. Find a recycler in your area. Also, Staples, the office supply retailer, has now started a recycling program. They will accept any brands of used desktop and notebook computers, monitors, printers, fax machines and all-in-one devices with a fee of $10. Smaller items like keyboards, mice and speakers are free to drop off.

5. Buy the new "Smart Strip" power strip. The Smart Strip actually senses how much power your computer peripherals use. And when the Smart Strip senses that you've turned your computer off, it automatically shuts off your peripherals, too, preventing them from drawing an idle current, which is the current drawn even after equipment is shut off.

Speaking of going green, yesterday was the huge Live Earth event, a series of worldwide concerts to raise awareness about the global climate crisis. You can catch up on what you missed over at the Live Earth website, where they feature streaming videos from the concerts, photos, news, and more information about going green.