Among the elements of CPM are user-education, software, and hardware. Successful CPM requires an understanding of end-user needs and taking steps to educate end-users about how CPM steps may influence the way they work. We believe that user education is a current priority because of the misconceptions around whether a daily shutdown / startup cycle is somehow harmful to computer systems (it is not). The software controls help IT departments centalize and roll out CPM solutions with a minimum of disruption to strategic corporate systems. Hardware controls are a very new area, still largely under development. In the long-term, these will enable "Smart Grid" enhancements to make power consumption more reliable, more secure, and more economical.

All computers - including Windows PCs and Apple Macs - support computer power management settings. Power settings tell the operating system how long to wait before going into a lower power state (Stand-By) or a Sleep (Hibernate) state. If power management settings are turned off (or disabled), then a computer system stays fully powered until someone explicitly shuts the system down. For many years, computer users have been told to keep their computer systems on at night. At one time, it was because of the wear-and-tear on hardware components. More recently, there is the need for automatic updates.

This practice uses a lot of electricity. Enovative's mission is to help educate computer users on the need to turn off their systems when not in use. To address this issue when dealing with fleets of computers (more than 100), we recommend automating the process with centralized computer management software.

PC power settings

Mac power settings

LINUX power settings