Green IT

The department provides fully managed Windows, Linux and Mac desktop systems. Historically both to facilitate easy remote access and use of these machines, and robust and reliable system administration, these systems have, in general, remained continuously on.

In the later half of 2009 work was done to modify the way the systems are managed to make it easier to ensure robust management even if the systems are not always on. Systems were installed or created, and tested, that enable machines both to be automatically shutdown when not in use and also to be remotely woken back up when needed (both by individuals and for system administration, in either case directly or remotely).

The systems remain fully managed and can potentially have remote users etc. As such the general policy still remains that individuals leave machines on at all times in order not to affect other users or system administration tasks. Power management and energy saving is entirely automatic (although you can of course turn on a machine that is off manually, see outline policy doc for more specific details).

As of July 2010 the data so far available to the department shows a 23% reduction in the total electricity bill!