Spara is a revolutionary new power management solution for computers which enables end users to save as much as 40% of the power their computers consume by allowing Spara to use artificial intelligence technology to align power management policies with actual user behaviour. So if a user of a computer regularly leaves a computer switched on when they go for lunch or go home, Spara learns this behaviour and acts to save power, reduce the costs of operation and saves you or your company and the planet from yet more carbon emissions.

The Spara software is a client – server software which works within a networked environment, or on a single computer and saves power through various features of the software such as Scheduling / Pattern recognition / Power Schemes etc. The Admin module of Spara has the ability to remotely perform power down operations such as System Shutdown, Hibernate, Standby, Monitor Standby etc, on the specified client nodes by remotely configuring required settings on it.

• Fully automated operation
• Multiple Device Control
• Extensive reporting

SPARA technology ensures that power is used according to the requirement of the user. Spara is designed to perform power management operations in 3 modes:

• Manual mode: This feature allows you to issue instant Power Down commands to remote systems on the network installed with the Spara module. The idle time of each client is monitored and thus the PC can be powered down if felt necessary.
• Semi automatic mode: "Schedules" can be set for organisations where office timings and break timings are known beforehand so that systems which are not powered down already can be automatically shutdown by the scheduler. Another feature of Spara includes "Power Schemes" which is a semi-autonomous mode of control. This feature allows you to alter the power schemes and the client specific settings of a system. The power scheme options are in a way similar to the windows power schemes except that these take place on the Spara enabled systems and the settings can be remotely distributed to all the client nodes.
• Fully automatic mode: Yet another exclusive feature of Spara is the fully – automatic AI – mode which performs power management tasks by using pattern recognition. The AI module is a new technology that is designed and implemented in order to automatically set optimal / custom power schemes for users. Thereby achieving improved savings when compared to the normal power scheme settings where a computer is uniformly set to perform a particular operation according to specific idle times.

The amount of power consumed by a deaktop PC is so varied that it would be pointless and possibly misleading to try to demonstrate here what this might be. Desktop PCs are invariably connected to a myriad of additional devices and peripherals all of which impact on total power consumption. Average figures by manufacturer are available but these figures do not include the additional devises and peripherals we have already mentioned. So testing on an individual client basis is the preferred way of identifying total power consumption.

As to the savings possible using Spara, we have tested Spara in many different situations and environments and savings range from 24% where good power management practices were already in place to over 47%. Imagine cutting your electricity bill by half. What benefit could that bring and you would nearly half you carbon emissions from your IT estate.

As we all know, processing power and processors are a constantly evolving technology, new functions and features are added with each new processor release, some of which are useful and others which are not. From our investigations into these new processors we believe these new processors mentioned work by disabling unused signal and other memory usage to reduce power consumption. This is no bad thing but it is not as comprehensive or as complete as a fully automated and intelligent power management solution. We will continue to evaluate new processor technology as it becomes available to make use of this additional functionality in future releases of Spara.

The ability to remotely wake machines is not currently available in the current release of Spara. Our initial design intention was to obviously save as much power as possible and having machines automatically switched back on goes against this philosophy, however, some clients have requested this functionality and therefore we will be introducing this with the next release of Spara.

The AI algorithms and local Power Schemes of Spara are triggered as soon as Spara is installed on a system. The AI algorithm takes 5 days (Customizable) on average to learn the behaviour patterns of a user. Where as the Local Power schemes starts working straight away. Once the patterns have been established both the AI algorithm and the Local Power scheme works together to ensure perfect power savings.

The software works in three modes to reduce power consumption.

• Manual mode: This feature allows administrators to issue instant Power Down commands to remote systems on the network installed with the Spara module. The idle time of each client is monitored and thus the PC can be powered down if felt necessary.
• Semi automatic mode: "Schedules" can be set for organisations where office timings and break timings are known beforehand so that systems which are not powered down already can be automatically shutdown by the scheduler. Another feature of Spara includes "Power Schemes" which is a semi autonomous mode of control. This feature allows you to alter the power schemes and the client specific settings of a system. The power scheme options are in a way similar to the windows power schemes except that these take place on the Spara enabled systems and the settings can be remotely distributed to all the client nodes.
• Fully automatic mode: Yet another exclusive feature of Spara is the fully – automatic AI – mode which performs power management tasks by using pattern recognition. The AI module is a new technology that is designed and implemented in order to automatically set optimal / custom power schemes for users. Thereby achieving improved savings when compared to the normal power scheme settings where a computer is uniformly set to perform a particular operation according to specific idle times.

No. We do not restrict any operations.

No, we do not prioritise any operations.

Only when the system crosses the idle time criteria set by the administrator or by the AI engine are power savings techniques initiated. We have a CPU throttling feature which is being developed for the new Windows Version and which is already present in the Linux version. In this we do save power during normal operation as well as by switching off unused cores. For example a user working in Microsoft Office in a Quad Core System need not have all the cores switched on. Typically each core takes on an average 10-15 watts per hour.

Firstly this is highly unlikely and under normal conditions impractical. Secondly though, the software is aimed at saving power which is wasted due to employee and corporate policy or useage. If there is a perfect employee who works for 9 hours at a stretch without break and then switches off the system we need not save anything. There is no risk in such a scenario happening though as statistics show that not even 1 per cent of employees have a 100% utilisation.

We are therefore extremely confident that Spara can have a positive impact on your power consumption and costs.

The Spara software is used only in computers. We have other versions of the product which includes the hardware as well which can be used across devices such as printers,scanners,fax machines and photocopiers.

Idle times vary between desktops and laptops, and it is fair to say Spara is useful in both scenarios but it can be particularly beneficial with laptops extending battery life by more closely aligning power management policy with actual user behaviour.

However random the patterns are our algorithm has the capability to catch the pattern and work accordingly. We have used this across companies where random patterns emerge and we still achieve savings. There is also a threshold set for these patterns and hence if there is idle time there would be savings.

Power usage varies greatly between devices and manufacturers and although there are figures on the web that quote average usage figures these are based on manufacturers stated power consumption in a controlled test environment without any of the usual additional peripherals or devices regularly found attached to PCs. These figures are therefore misleading and should not be used as a baseline for power savings. Having said all of this, to save you doing it, the following are a range of averages available from a quick piece of web research of the power consumption figures per Kilowatt Hour. As you can see there is a great deal of difference.

• Desktop: 80 to 150 watts
• Laptop: 40 to 80 watts
• Printer: 20 to 2000 watts

No, software updates will be applied when the machine in question wakes up..

Spara can achieve savings of 40% when compared against a system with no power management.

• System Reports
• Operational Logs
• Client usage Reports
• AI reports
• Power Savings Report
• Carbon emissions report

No

Yes, and this is included in the installation guidelines.

Spara does not actually shut down machines. It only puts them to sleep or hibernation so there is no need to save documents in this way. The O/S will do this automatically if you allow it to. The only time a situation might exist where user data might be at risk is if a machine was left switched on for a long period of time and was not part of a power management policy under spara but did have a spara agent installed on it which had been disabled by the administrator. The administrator could issue a shutdown command that would cause this problem.