Is it time to turn off your servers?

Everyone knows you should turn off your PC when it is not being used, but could the same principle soon be applied to your company's servers?

Despite the obvious cost and energy savings, firms have always been reluctant to turn off even under-utilised servers, for fear it will disrupt their IT systems. But according to virtualisation software specialist Virtual Iron, attitudes are slowly changing as soaring energy prices and new systems capable of automatically turning servers on and off as required, combine to make the once unthinkable possible.

The company recently launched a product called LivePower, which it has claimed allows companies to automatically transfer server workloads from one machine to another, providing them with the ability to turn off otherwise underused servers at off peak times.

An extension of existing virtualisation software – which allows IT departments to run a large number of so-called "virtual machines" on one server, cutting down on hardware and energy requirements – the company is confident the new functionality will allow firms to slash the energy used by their datacentres.

"You could have two servers running 10 virtual machines each at peak time, but then at off peak times you could move the 20 machines on to one server and turn the other one off," explained Chris Barclay, director of product management at the company. "If you can take 50 per cent of your servers offline at nights and weekends, that is a significant energy saving."

A study by Virtual Iron has shown that at off peak times, the Live Power system can help cut energy consumption by about 75 per cent, delivering overall energy savings of about 30 per cent over the course of a week.

Barclay added that the approach has no impact on the workloads being run by the servers, as machines are automatically turned back on as soon as demand for them increases.

However, he admitted that the approach is still facing resistance from IT departments that remain reluctant to turn off servers in any circumstances.

"IT departments are by nature quite conservative, and as a result we are seeing take up of the technology for development and testing work rather than in mission-critical environments," he said. "But once they see it works in those development and testing environments, we'll see it transition to production environments."