How Microsoft allows PCs stay in the network while being turned off

Microsoft has successfully reduced the use of the power with its sleep proxy system which enables office PCs stay connected to the network even when they are turned off or put into a standby mode.

According to the Microsoft Research the company has deployed the sleep proxy system to more than 50 active users in the Building 99 research facility in Redmond, Wash.

"A number of studies have noted that most office machines are left on irrespective of user activity," Microsoft researchers write in a paper titled "Sleepless in Seattle no longer." "At Microsoft Research, we find hundreds of desktop machines awake, day or night – a significant waste of both energy and money. Indeed, potential savings can amount to millions of dollars per year for larger enterprises."

Sleep proxies allow machines to be turned off while keeping them connected to the network, waking the machines when a user or IT administrator attempts to access it remotely.

The company has been operating its sleep proxy system for most part of the previous year with software deployed on users' primary workstations. To date the technology has allowed user machines to sleep more than 50% of the time, but Microsoft hopes to increase that number by minimizing "interference from IT management tasks."

Microsoft's Sleep Proxy system is based on two components: server-side software called SleepServer, and SleepNotifier, which runs on client machines.