2. Saving Energy - How?

2.1. Virtualisation

OUCS hosts virtualised servers and has considerable experiences of running virtual servers under VMware ESX and vSphere, at low cost. Virtulaisation saves money and space. Most UAS servers are virtual machines running on hardware managed by OUCS.

Nottingham Trent University study showed potential savings to be made. Half of their 300 servers were virtualised.

  • Saved 1,050,000 kWh/annum
  • Led to savings of £78750/annum
  • At 7.5p per kWh the initial costs should be covered in under 4 years.
  • If the electricity price increases, payback will be more rapid.

Already have virtualisation hardware?

  • New Infrastructure as a Service, or IaaS service
  • provides virtualised virtualisation infrastructure
  • computing on demand, cloud-based services

2.2. New Machine Room, New Services

OUCS has new, custom-built machine room. We can offer:

  • Tiered services
  • Hosting for existing rack mounted kit
  • Virtual servers
  • Dual-site resilience

More about Shared Infrastructure Services.

2.3. Wake on LAN (WOL)

Save money and energy by turning off computers when not in use. This technology enables people to turn on computers remotely (e.g. from home), which is a common reason why people leave computers turned on. Older pilot service is now being replaced with a more sophisticated offering (e.g. remove restriction on being limited to one subnet).

Contact nsms@oucs.ox.ac.uk to discuss implementing WOL in your College or Department.

More about Wake on Lan and Power Management

Up: Contents Previous: 1. Saving Energy - Why? Next: 3. Making the Most of your Web Presence