Do you leave your shower on 24/7 just so it’s ready any time you want to jump in?  Obviously, that’s absurd.  Why then, do most companies let computers suck energy every minute of every day?  By the time you factor in weekends, lunch, vacation, and meetings, most computers are used less than 20% of the time.  A user’s first response might be that computers take longer to boot up than shower’s take to warm up, but technology can render that excuse a moot point, ensuring that computers automatically start up a few minutes before users need them.  (Now that would be a cool feature in a shower!)

As TMCnet’s Brendan Reed pointed out in yesterday’s post, Making a Powerful Argument for Power Management, for many companies, “the first hurdle [to adopting power management strategies] is identifying where they are in terms of energy consumption and costs, and the second is justifying the initial investment to executives.”

Brendan got input from our own Umesh Shah, Senior Manager of Product Marketing, for advice on getting started with power management.  Based on this, Brendan offers a number of tips in his post: A few key points:

1. Know what the payoff will be.  It’ll be worth it!  If you need help predicting ROI, check out our handy Power Management Calculator.  What’s more, the financial benefits of going green aren’t limited to your energy bill.  Almost anywhere you are in the world, you can increase your savings through government-funded incentives.
2. Find a buddy. Don’t try to implement power management strategies in a vacuum.  By combining power management with other IT asset management initiatives, you can create a strong business case with the one-two punch of energy savings and improved asset cost control. 
3. Measure up.  The TMCnet post points out that reporting capabilities are important as they  enable IT managers to show the value of power initiatives internally.  However, I’d add that this is not the only reason measurement is important.  As governments increase their focus on carbon emissions, businesses need to be prepared for new requirements by measuring actual energy use in addition to cost reduction.  Implementing energy efficiency improvement strategies today is a key to staying competitive tomorrow.

The post also offers some great tips for selecting a power management solution. If you’re thinking hard about going green to save green, take a look at Brendan’s tips, and then check out Numara Power Manager. You can find an overview here Numara Power Manager or a more in-depth description in our product brochure.

Yes,  December is IT Asset Management Awareness Month!  I would have sent you all cards, but Hallmark seems to be out.

Looking at some of the IT predictions and trends for 2010, it’s apparent we’re all going to need to become more “aware” of our IT assets this year. So if you haven’t yet acknowledged ITAM Awareness Month, take a moment to ask yourself these questions.

Are you aware of how much energy your IT assets consume?

IDC predicts rising energy costs and pressure from the recent Copenhagen Climate Change Conference will make sustainability a source of renewed opportunity for IT in 2010.  “In 2010, all G20 nations will mandate companies to report on their carbon footprints. And while IT products generate on the order of 2% of the world's carbon output, they are among the fastest-growing sources — and will be a key target for carbon footprint reduction.” 

One of the most effective ways to reduce IT’s carbon footprint? Reduce the power consumption of your workstations. Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) estimates workstations (including desktops and laptops) account for roughly 90% of total business IT utilization.  While many of these workstations have built-in power regulating features, the use of these tools are often left up to end users, who aren’t personally accountable for reducing energy spend.  An effective Power Management tool allows IT to regulate power usage from a central point to enforce energy (and money) saving policies. And it also equips IT with reports on energy use and emissions reduction, which may become a mandate in 2010.  

Are you aware of how much of your hardware will expire next year?

This year’s economic crisis delayed the replacements of millions of servers, PCs and printers, and the trend will likely continue into 2010.  (Analysts estimate approximately 1 million servers have had their replacement delayed by a year, and this year it will be at least 2 million.) Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president at Gartner recently said, “If replacement cycles do not change, almost 10 percent of the server installed base will be beyond scheduled replacement be 2011. That will impact enterprise risk. CFOs need to understand this dynamic, and it’s the responsibility of the CIO to convey this in a way the CFO understands.”

IT organizations must start to assess the impact of this delay on increased equipment failure rates and future purchasing cycles. This is nearly impossible if you don’t currently have a centralized, comprehensive view of all of your IT assets. 

Are you fully aware of your virtual assets?

Virtualization continues to be on everyone’s list of top strategic technologies for 2010, from servers to desktops to applications.  And while virtualization offers a lot of promises, managing assets and licenses in “the cloud” can become a headache.  In a recent article on the ITAM Review, Martin Thompson wrote, “The physical process of building a new piece of hardware, plugging in a network cable and installing software allows for processes to be implemented to maintain compliance. When machines are built and deployed virtually instantly (whilst also consuming licenses) it can lead to VM sprawl and be a real challenge to manage licensing.”

Research conducted in August showed that 55 percent of organizations were actively employing virtualization, but nearly half of them had no tools in place to report on or manage virtual assets.  As virtualization continues to spread in 2010, IT must proactively manage both virtual and physical assets to ensure optimal usage of resources and compliance with software licenses. 

Not done celebrating ITAM Awareness Month?  Check out the International Association of Information Technologies Asset Managers (IAITAM) site. They’re hosting complimentary daily educational sessions, weekly surveys, industry partnered web seminars and giveaways throughout December.

The team here had a great conversation with Mike Vizard of IT Business Edge the other week (check out his “One PC Management Tool to Rule them All” post) and he asked a question that got me thinking. It seems obvious that IT Service Management (ITSM) and IT Asset Management (ITAM) go hand-in-hand; so why is our industry only now beginning to really integrate the two? 

It’s an important question.  While most ITSM and ITAM teams cooperate, more often than not the disciplines integrate only through shared data.  There have always been obvious benefits to converging ITSM and ITAM technologies and processes—cost savings, reduced complexity, more streamlined processes—so what current factors are triggering the convergence trend?  Why now?

Here’s a few of the things we’re seeing:

• Due to leaner budgets and increased service demands, IT help desk and service management people are being asked to take on more responsibilities.  This not only includes supporting a larger number of users with the same size service desk, but also taking a bigger role in managing hardware and software assets throughout their lifecycle.  It makes sense since the service staff has such proximity to these assets, and hardware and software performance is intrinsically linked to the demands on the service desk.  So the current economic downturn, and the resulting expansion in remaining employees’ roles, is the first factor. 
• The economic slump has also spurred a refocus on IT Asset Management (ITAM) as a whole.  Right now, IT needs to provide full visibility of their world and demonstrate that every penny is being spent effectively.  They must account for each asset, justify the contract or leasing agreements, and prove assets are being utilized efficiently.  The scrutinizing of assets has inevitably led to a more careful look at asset management process and systems, illuminating the benefits of integration with ITSM.  
• The third driver is the adoption of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) version 3, in which asset lifecycle management and service lifecycle management are more tightly linked.  ITIL v3 focuses on the services IT provides to the business, versus its predecessor, which centered on processes.  The integration point is that ITSM requires asset attributes and information to create, execute and measure these services throughout their lifecycle.  
• Today everyone is trying to be “green” while saving “green.”  By the time you factor in weekends, lunch, vacation and meetings, most computers are used less than 20% of the time.  But many companies are hesitant to automatically shut down PCs at night for fear of interrupting service updates and maintenance.  By integrating the PC asset’s power management schedules with IT service management, IT can easily add energy spend back to the bottom line while also being environmentally conscious.
• And finally, security and compliance demands, though not new, have become even more of a hot button for IT.  Service management staff must not only “find” the problems with IT assets, but also have the ability to fix and prevent these issues from happening again, while tracking everything along the way.

Based on these factors alone, it seems obvious to us that ITSM and ITAM will continue to converge over time.  Are you integrating your service management and asset management technologies and processes?  If so, what’s the driving force behind your decision? What results are you seeing from your efforts?