EnergyWise - Network Management and Power Management Combined


The concept of "going green" has become quite popular these days. With the volatility of energy prices, that has translated into higher prices most of us have to pay for almost everything. So, would it be a surprise to you that one of the largest consumers of energy is computer datacenters?
Most people probably don't think about it, but it's not just our computer workstations that we use every day that suck up so much power. It's really the datacenters full of multi-core servers that feed us search engine results, stream our videos, and let us play games online.
With more pressure to keep energy consumption low, Cisco has rolled out their EnergyWise capable devices. With EnergyWise, you are able to better control power consumption from your Cisco equipment. Have you ever changed the power settings on your laptop for when it is plugged, and when it is on battery? EnergyWise is like a much more powerful version of those settings, for networking devices.
Just like other features that are included on Cisco gear, EnergyWise is configured through the iOS. This is because configurable parameters are usually done through this method of configuration management, and you'll be able to easily use EnergyWise just as you would other Cisco features.
In fact, if you are using network management software [http://www.solarwinds.com/geek/videos.aspx?video=39] for configuration management already, you'll be able to use blanket settings to cover all of the EnergyWise devices on your network. This way, you can decide how to want to manage your network's power, set it one time, and it proliferates across your network.
Network management tools also allow you to see how EnergyWise is performing on your network. You will be able to see just how much power consumption these devices consume during peak times. There is also the ability to control power to individual ports, to save energy if they are not being used.
Lastly, the data coming in from EnergyWise can help you see what devices consume the most power on your network, giving you the option to better configure those devices for optimal performance.
Of course, a lot of the settings within EnergyWise are useless unless you have the right performance management tools. While you can configure all of these manually through the iOS, why would you want to spend all of your time trying to do that with each device?
Sukhdeep Singh.
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