Meet the Energy-Saving, No-Compromise, Always Available Office PC

Some people say (maybe you’ve said it yourself) that with all of their devices, they are available 24/7. Of course, since presumably they sleep occasionally, that’s technically untrue. For large chunks of every day, all of us are completely unavailable.

Same for desktop PCs. To save money and provide the good feeling we get from conserving energy, most office computers enter standby mode when not in use—making them oblivious to most updates, communication attempts, and other activities.

The Age of Always Available

Intel, Fujitsu, and other industry leaders are on a quest to make always available office PCs pervasive in the business world. We’re working on solving the dilemma of how to make PCs that conserve energy but can still perform critical background tasks, automatically keep email and other files up to date and deliver an array of new technology solutions and software that take advantage of constant connectivity and instant readiness.

Ditch the Desk Phones

Possibly the largest immediate impact of always available PCs is in enabling the Unified Communication and Collaboration  (UCC) systems. UCC systems allow businesses to eliminate landline and VoIP desk phones and enable richer, instant communication environments (such as Skype for Business) that run on the PC. Always available office PCs are a critical part of enabling effective UCC solutions.

As my colleague at Fujitsu, Senior Product Marketing Manager Bernd Germandi, puts it: “If you want to save energy, you have to activate power management. If you activate power management, when the computer enters standby mode, the network connection is lost. Then if somebody wants to reach you, they will end up on your virtual answering machine.”

Always available office PCs are just that, always available to receive users’ incoming UCC calls and instant messages.

Complementary Approaches

We wrote about Intel Ready Mode Technology (Intel RMT), Intel’s approach for enabling always available office PCs, in another recent blog post. Fujitsu calls their technology Low Power Active Mode (LPAM).

Both LPAM and Intel RMT put the PC into a low-power, active state that allows them to stay connected, up-to-date, and instantly available when not in use. In addition to saving energy and providing the constantly connected foundation for UCC, these similar technologies also give IT constant in-band access to the business’s PCs. This simplifies automated nightly backups and allows administrators to efficiently distribute system updates and software patches over the network during off hours—something that’s not always possible today.

Fujitsu’s Germandi outlined another common scenario: “With traditional power management, the device can’t be reached anymore. We know of many customer cases where they leave their systems fully on overnight so they can easily update PC software.”

Always available office PCs mean enterprises will no longer need to choose between energy savings and ease of manageability.

LPAM is available in Fujitsu’s Unified Communications and Collaboration suite, including many Intel-based All-in-One and Mini PCs, with more always available office PC models slated for the near future.

Ready to refresh with desktops featuring Intel Ready Mode Technology today? Learn how at: www.intel.com/readymode