U.S. Department of State taps 1E for PC power management and bandwidth optimization

Department’s efficient IT initiative achieves early success, setting the foundation for continued savings
New York & London, 14 December 2011 – 1E, the global leader in Efficient IT solutions, and the U.S. Department of State today disclosed the initial results of a joint power management and systems management initiative.
Federal mandates assess agencies on a variety of sustainability areas, including energy management. Historically, the Department mandated that all 88,986 desktops at 468 worldwide sites – comprised of domestic facilities, embassies, consulates, and passport agencies – be kept on 24/7 to ensure regular security scanning, maintenance, and patching. To comply with federal mandates and support the Department’s Greening Diplomacy Initiative, the Department launched an agency-wide initiative to eliminate power waste across 100 percent of its workstation computers.
Operating under a distributed deployment model, the Department needed a flexible tool that worked with its existing systems management platform to accommodate the specialized needs of each individual, while eliminating duplication of efforts. Since the initial deployment in November 2010, Efficient IT solutions from 1E have generated significant savings in energy, cost and time for the Department.

Power and Patch Management

With projected savings worldwide of several million dollars per year when fully implemented, the power management initiative now eliminates more than 21,000 metric tons of carbon emissions per year. The Department also automates patch deployment and network scanning during off hours to save system administrator time.
NightWatchman® Enterprise helped the Department automate the shutdown of unused workstations while maintaining security and minimizing disruption. Integrating seamlessly with the Department’s Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) platform, it also offers robust reporting capabilities that accurately report power and carbon consumption savings through a highly customized dashboard. In addition, WakeUp™ – the Wake-on-LAN feature of NightWatchman Enterprise – allows Department site workstations to be powered on for patching, scanning, health checks and software installation. These tasks can now be performed during non-business hours, minimizing impact to normal day-to-day business operations.

Systems Management

The Department also needed an effective way to proactively maintain the security of desktops and laptops at remote sites. Based in sensitive locations globally with no IT staff, these sites faced tremendous network constraints. The remote sites relied on bandwidth-challenged 512Kbps satellite links to deliver 400+ MB packages to desktops and deploying servers simply was not a feasible option. In the Spring of 2011, the Department further expanded its initiative with 1E by deploying Nomad Enterprise
Using spare network bandwidth, Nomad Enterprise securely delivers operating system upgrades, software deployments and patches safely and securely to thousands of PCs and servers day or night with zero disruption. This removes the need for branch servers or desk-side visits – reducing existing server footprint and administrative overhead.

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