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•Ashmolean found 1683
•Art & Archaeology collections moved Cockrell Building 1845
•New building opened 2009 replacing 1908 “sheds”
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Building:
No. of Public Galleries: 67
No. of Offices/Labs/Work Areas: 82
No. of Stores: 25
Over 170 locations
Maybe 500,000 to 600,000 objects (of one sort or another)
More Background Information: Human Resources:
Full-time Staff: 169
Part-time Staff: 86 (including VSAs)
Volunteers & Interns: 26 (varies)
Potentially up to 250 “workers”
No students, the Ashmolean is on track to have 1 million visitors in the first 12 months since it reopened.
Our Green IT strategy revolves around a iterative/cyclical process:
•Monitor what is going on in terms of overall picture energy consumption
•Identify what is consuming what energy
•Manage the equipment and the Users
•Establish policies and guidelines and maybe set a few targets
We will then continue to refine, adapt and change change as appropriate.
•One of the services that we’ve plumbed into is the Estates Directorate’s Electricity Meters web site [Only available on the University network]
•This allows us to see how much power is being consumed
•Through various links gets us to a graph like this.
•Peaks … during the day … a lot of stuff going on … as expected
•Troughs … during the night … not a lot … as one would hope
•We are also plugging into the University’s Green IT initiative, in particular the network Monitoring Service
•This allows us to see what is active on the network and when.
•This chart is just workstations, i.e. laptops and desktop systems
•Again, peaks and troughs, although …
•… as can be seen quite a few are being left on overnight.
•This chart excludes servers, switches, and UPS
•Also, networked printers
•We have found about 30 of these being left on over night
•Also, does NOT include items not plugged into the network (e.g scanners and other printers)
•We have just begun using Powerman software
•This allows us to monitor the activity of individual workstations
•This will help build up a picture of how users use their laptop or desktop system
•aka “Activity Profiles”
•Also rolling out PC Power down
•This is software that switches computers off and on at pre-determined times
•But clients check with the server each hour, so we can build up a picture of how many machines are actually “on” at any one time.
•The aim is to reach zero at times of “total inactivity”
•Not sure of the significance of negative numbers
As we build up a picture of power consumption we can then identify what the specific items are, and then see we can introduce some form of control
But it must be remembered that electricity is used by many pieces of equipment, it’s not just IT stuff!
The monitoring information allows us to “drill-down” to specific item:
•OMS provides us with a list of Mac addresses
•We use these to find the IP address and name on the OUCS IP Auditing page •Then use our own IT Assets db to find what each item is and who is using it (and where it will be)
•Having identified the various energy consuming devices that are operating outside the normal working day, we can manage their use
•With workstations, the emphasis is not while users are in the Museum working, but rather when users are not present.
•Once upon a time when people went home, they just went home and had a “life”
•Nowadays, in our 24 x 7 society, a growing number of people like to do remote “working” outside “office” hours
•It is this change in working practice that is proving the greatest challenge
•We are currently using 3 “systems”
•… we want to find out what works best for us
•… be it just one, or a combination.
•There will be a cost implication eventually (licences), but at the moment, in this testing phase, we have an opportunity to experiment, for free.
•For Remote Access we use a combination of things, one part of which is FiDo
•I will leave it to others who are better qualified to talk about that … but
•Wake-up on Lan requires this option to be enabled on each computer
•One of the ways we are making sure computers are switched off is to use PC Powerdown
•This comes from PC Power Down who are part of the Qubic Group.
•About March they contacted me out of the blue. I put them on to Howard, and the result is we get to use their system for free for a year.
Overview
-Client server based model
-Client software  deployed via Group Policy
-Shutdown policy managed on server
-Hibernate option available : if hibernate not enabled , will go to standby
Doesn’t yet work with Macs, but they are working on it.
Doesn’t yet work with switching off printers, but they are working on that as well
•As I’ve said, we are beginning to investigate Powerman which is similar to PC Power Down
•However, it has the advantage that it “plugs-in” to Active Directory
Overview
-Client server based application
-Power management through Group Policy add in
-IIS based web application
-Activity based reports and management
Pros
-Does activity based power management
-Excellent reporting structure
-Easy  installation and configuration
-Group policy based management
Cons
-24 hour lead time for new computers to show up
-Seems to have more features than PC Power down
But, if all we want is to enforce computers to shutdown, then maybe PC Power Down is more suitable
•From the experience we are gaining, we are developing practical policies.
•For a policy to be of any value, it’s got to work!
•Consequently, I prefer a bottom-up approach to solving most “problems”,
•And, in an environment where technology is changing and improving, we need to be flexible
•What we think is a good idea now may not be appropriate later on … goal posts move, rules change!
We are developing policies and guidelines for:
•Server virtualisation (we have 26, and we should reduce these)
•19 Physical 'mono role' servers ie one function one physical server
•Virtual Platform Production systems - 9 Virtual servers on 2 Physical servers - 3 virtual servers on 1 physical server (which is actually a standard dell optiplex 760 )
•Virtualisation intention: consolidate more roles per physical machine
•Reduce Storage footprint by consolidating them virtually and spreading them around.
•Desktop virtualisation - 5 virtual desktops delivered via the web based controller. OS independent
•Remote working … people have to ask and get line manager’s approval
•Finally, it’s ok to have policies but they need to be communicated to users
•Have an all-staff maillist @ maillist.ox.ac.uk
•Also a Wiki
The Future
•Users to be educated in “Green Ways” … to quote British Gas advert … “turned green”
•Share our knowledge/discoveries with others
•Try to get the best of all worlds … balance open source with commercial and stuff we develop in-house
•The ultimate aim is to keep the Finance Team and Funders happy, so reduce our Monthly Energy Bill (£15,000)
•But …
Manage Expectations!
•Although there is a need to manage expectations …
•ICT contribution: much less than 10%, maybe £800.
•Potential savings, once Green IT in place, about a quarter of out contribution = £200
•But that will be somewhere around 1-2% of monthly bill
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Beware of Responsibility Creep
•In the Ashmolean the greatest consumers of energy are:
•Air Handling System
•Lighting
•But both are “controlled” by computer software!
•Therefore, in the minds of some that means they must be IT Problems!
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