Agencies can get power management software

Power management software capable of saving $50 worth of electricity a year per computer is being offered by the General Services Administration. The program is in line with energy conservation initiatives in the federal government, said Tom Kireilis, acting deputy director of the Office of Infrastructure Optimization at GSA. The software from BigFix is available through GSA’s SmartBuy program, which lets agencies aggregate software purchases. “It shuts down power at the end points, so essentially it is targeted at workstations and laptops,” Kireilis said. Under this system, individual offices administer the software independently. First an analysis must be conducted to see which computer can be automatically powered off and when that can be done. “Then you basically let the program run,” Kireilis said. For GSA’s 15,000 computers, the software could lead to savings of $750,000 a year. In addition to conserving energy, agencies are under strong pressure to conserve dollars, Kireilis said. “You can take it as a given that [information technology]  budgets will remain relatively flat in the coming years, so you simply have to do more within your fixed budget,” Kireilis said. “The way to do that is to figure out ways to cut your existing costs.” BigFix Power Management will be offered to federal government agencies at an annual license fee of $3 per computer.