Case Study - Power & Patch Management

1E Power & Patch Management Saves the University of Southern Denmark $180,000 per Year
The University of Southern Denmark has cut its energy bills and improved the quality of the working day with the aid of Power & Patch Management from 1E. It can now switch on computers remotely overnight for a brief time in order to apply patches, eliminating disruptions to users during the day and saving an estimated $180,000 on electricity each year.

Customer profile
Syddansk Universitet, the University of Southern Denmark, has more than 1,000 researchers and 17,000 students located in six campuses. The largest campus is in Odense, with the remaining five in Esbjerg, Kolding, Slagelse, Copenhagen and Snderborg. Founded in 1966, it is one of Denmarks most modern universities, enjoying close links with business, industry and institutions across the world.

Solutions Overview
Project Requirements
The University of Southern Denmark wanted a way to manage the constant flow of patches and upgrades without disrupting the working day for users. Automatically turn on 4,000 PCs out of office hours to allow software to be installed or updated Machines can be updated out of office hours or when not in use Entire desktop estate can be patched quickly without having to wait for users to manually shut down or reboot Manage power states of computers so theyre not left on overnight

The challenge
With an active user base of nearly 4,000 administrators, staff scientists and researchers across all six sites, demand for the latest computing power was constant. But the increasing frequency and scale of software upgrades applied via Microsoft SMS was starting to disrupt the working day. Patch management was becoming an issue, says Erling Brandt Kjeldsen, Systems Administrator at the University. Upgrades were regularly intruding into the working day of our users, but many were not gaining any benefit because they never switched off or rebooted their PCs. This touches on another issue of concern PC power consumption. Our system management process was disruptive and our bills were growing, continues Erling. We needed a way to resolve this twin dilemma.

Solution
The university chose Power & Patch Management, comprising WakeUpTM and NightWatchman. Complements Microsofts SMS for systems management Guaranteed patching success Significantly reduced patch deployment time No user interaction required Allows PCs to be switched off remotely when not being used overnight and then remotely booted up for patch application

The solution
Erling Brandt Kjeldsen had worked with 1E in a previous organization and recalled the experience favourably. I contacted 1E and the consultant suggested we run NightWatchman across a small sample of PCs and use its energy consumption reporting tool to assess exact levels of power consumption.

Key Benefits
Significantly reduced CO2 emissions and power consumption Faster, more controlled and 100% guaranteed patch management All patch management tasks reassigned to an overnight schedule Uninterrupted working day for researchers, scientists and administrators Full reporting on energy use and cost savings

Case Study - Power & Patch Management

By doing this, Erling was able to show that around half of the universitys employees left their PCs switched on all the time a significant cost across 2,000 PCs. The report secured unanimous agreement from senior management that a university-wide roll-out of Power & Patch Management, comprising NightWatchman and WakeUp, should follow. Erling went ahead and deployed NightWatchman across the entire university staffs 4,000 desktops, followed by WakeUp, which powers on all PCs that are hibernating or shut down, for successful deployment of updates or patches. The university increased the flexibility with which WakeUp could be applied by using a series of mini-agents which run as a service to computers on each subnet, allowing WakeUp to work without needing to specify a proxy server for the target subnet, or without opening a router/switch to broadcast network traffic. Erling noticed some initial resistance when individuals found their PC had been updated sometimes quite substantially overnight. However, despite being essentially a background process, NightWatchman can respond to user requests. Our policy on energy saving and system management means all machines switch off at 7 pm, and patching occurs between 1 am and 5 am, explains Erling. If someone is working during those times they are given the option to postpone automated processes by up to three hours, or defer for 24 hours. But they cannot cancel. This flexibility has ensured rapid user acceptance and even some behavioural modifications, with users showing an increased awareness of the importance of energy conservation.

The benefits
The universitys primary goals reduced power consumption and the removal of disruption to the working day have both been accomplished through the deployment of the Power & Patch Management. Research shows that a typical desktop PC and LCD monitor sitting idle for a year outside of business hours consume 632 kilowatt hours of energy compared to 34 in sleep mode, equivalent to 598 kilowatt hours per PC per year. Based on these figures the university expects to save up to 1 million Danish Kroner ($180,000) from its energy bill over the year a very healthy return on investment. Additionally, as all disruptive system management tasks are now conducted overnight, the universitys IT infrastructure is now more consistent, stable and secure and its users are much happier.

Future plans
To enhance its management planning ability, the university is now implementing 1E Agility Framework, a reporting server which collects data from client PCs and creates reports and charts measuring power consumption, energy costs, CO2 emissions and power savings estimates. The 1E products were using have been absolutely reliable patch management now has a 100 per cent success rate and our bills are coming down, says Erling Brandt Kjeldsen. Their consultants are knowledgeable, responsive and constructive. Our future plans will definitely involve 1E.

1E Empowering Efficient IT
1E is the pioneer and global leader in Efficient IT solutions. 1Es mission is to identify unused IT, help remove it and optimize everything else. 1E Efficient IT solutions help reduce servers, network bandwidth constraints, software licenses and energy consumption. To date, our power management solutions have helped more than 1600 customers save in excess of $800m in energy costs alone, cutting their CO2 emissions by 6.4 million tons.

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