Energy efficiency through IT maintenance: sustainability starts with consistent system maintenance

IT decision-makers today are faced with the challenge of operating high-performance and energy-efficient IT infrastructures. In view of rising energy costs and growing regulatory requirements, the issue of sustainability is becoming increasingly strategically important.

Professional IT maintenance is often underestimated – but it offers far more than just operational stability. It can help to lower energy consumption, reduce operating costs and extend the service life of systems. A well thought-out maintenance strategy unlocks efficiency potential – without any immediate investment in new hardware.

Why IT maintenance is so crucial for energy efficiency

All companies depend on reliable IT systems – whether for production, communication or data management. At the same time, it is precisely these systems that account for a significant proportion of a company’s energy consumption. The reasons for this are frequent:

• Unused or inefficiently used hardware in racks, for example due to poor air routing or missing components such as blanking plates.
• Outdated or incorrectly configured power supply units with high energy loss.
• Lack of monitoring, which makes it difficult to identify energy hotspots and unnecessary loads.
• Standard settings in which servers are permanently configured for maximum utilization – regardless of the actual load.
• Incorrectly allocated resources in virtual environments – for example due to oversized or unevenly distributed CPU, RAM or storage allocations. These configurations should be checked regularly as part of IT maintenance. Many virtualization platforms offer functions for automated or manual resource allocation for this purpose. One example is the Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) in VMware environments, which dynamically distributes workloads to hosts in order to balance utilization and energy efficiency.

An unmaintained IT inventory unnecessarily increases operating costs – and contradicts any sustainability strategy. IT maintenance creates transparency, eliminates weak points and enables more efficient use of resources.

How IT maintenance actually improves energy efficiency

Targeted measures alone can significantly optimize energy consumption in IT – even without completely replacing existing systems.

1. optimize cooling and air circulation

A central component of IT maintenance is checking the air flow in the data center. Dusty fans, unfavorable positioning or blocked air flows unnecessarily increase the energy required for cooling.

Practical examples:

• With switches, care should be taken to ensure that the fan side corresponds to the air flow in the rack – otherwise thermal feedback will occur.
• Blanking plates can be used in unused rack units to ensure even air circulation and reduce cooling requirements.

These seemingly small measures pay off in the long term in terms of energy savings and system stability.

2. integrate energy-efficient power supply

A modern power supply is one of the cornerstones of energy-efficient IT. As part of IT maintenance, inefficient power supply units and power distributors are identified and replaced with more efficient versions.

Professional monitoring is also important:
Solutions such as PDU measurement systems can be used to analyze where your main consumers are located. This gives rise to important questions for infrastructure planning:
– Do I still need certain systems at all?
– Can they be consolidated or switched off?
– How does consumption change over the course of the day?

Transparency is the prerequisite for targeted optimization.

3. customize power management & server configuration

An often overlooked point: standard server configurations are designed for continuous operation under full load, regardless of actual use. This consumes energy unnecessarily.

With a suitable power management strategy, the behavior can be dynamically controlled:

• Strategy 1: Full-load operation for specialized systems that require permanently high performance.
• Strategy 2: Dynamic performance adjustment – the server only runs under high load if, for example, the CPU load requires it.

In this case, IT maintenance also means adapting the configuration to actual requirements – and saving energy without sacrificing performance.

Refurbished hardware as a building block for sustainable IT maintenance

Not every increase in efficiency requires new investment. The targeted use of refurbished hardware offers a sustainable, economical alternative:

• Postpone investments in new systems by using tested used components.
• Extend the life cycle of your data center without sacrificing performance.
• Benefit from tested goods from our own warehouse – carefully checked and available at short notice.
• Reliable worldwide delivery via established shipping service providers.

Refurbished hardware is a sensible addition to a sustainable maintenance strategy, especially for multi-vendor IT environments – efficient, environmentally conscious and flexible to use.

Conclusion: IT maintenance as a strategic lever for greater energy efficiency

IT maintenance is much more than just maintenance. It is a strategic tool for reducing operating costs, stabilizing systems and sustainably improving the energy efficiency of your entire infrastructure. In combination with intelligent configuration and a well thought-out hardware strategy, the result is an IT operation that is both economically and ecologically convincing.

A maintenance contract with K&P Computer also offers maximum security when using refurbished hardware – thanks to tested components, clear service levels and a reliable supply of spare parts.

Rely on an IT infrastructure that is not only powerful, but also efficient and future-proof.
K&P Computer develops individual IT maintenance concepts, combined with sustainable upgrade strategies – precisely tailored to your requirements.
Contact us – we will be happy to advise you on how to make your IT more efficient, sustainable and future-proof.