Keeping watch against power waste, Part 6

The latest version of NightWatchman, from software developer 1E, gets even more granular about power management by reporting energy consumption not only specific to certain hardware configurations but also according to your geographic location. The company is hoping to build on predictions from market research firm Gartner that suggests by 2012, more than half of all enterprise PCs at midsize and large businesses will be managed for power consumption.

Other new features in NightWatchman 6.0 include the requisite consolidated management dashboard, which provides information not only for NightWatchman but for related products including WakeUp and NightWatchman Server edition. The software also includes a utility that makes sure PCs are still being power-managed when they are not actually in use. Thinks the managers in you love.

1E counts more than 4.6 million licenses for NightWatchman, worldwide. That's pretty impressive, considering that the whole power management software category continues to be more touted than deployed. I think one of the challenges for this category as a whole remains the perception that powering down your computer too often can be dangerous to the hardware. There's also the fact that people don't want anyone telling them when thy can and cannot be using their computer. Remember when you used to have a curfew in high school? People still chafe at the idea that their computer could turn off at any moment.