Conversation with Sumir Karayi, CEO of 1E
Sumir Karayi knows when your PC is sleeping (literally). He’s CEO of 1E, a London-based software and services company that helps customers operate more efficiently and achieve their environmental goals. We recently had the opportunity to chat with Sumir about his company, the importance of power management and the steps businesses and consumers can take to become energy-efficiency leaders.
Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you start 1E?
Prior to founding 1E, I worked on PC-based networks for the BBC, Reuters and Lombard (RBS Group). I then moved to Microsoft as part of a team of industry experts to provide high level technical support for Microsoft’s premier customers. In 1998, I left Microsoft to co-found 1E with the aim of providing leading-edge systems management consultancy to large organizations. There were initially three of us in the operation who each invested $1,000. 1E has now grown into a global organization which still remains privately owned with no external investors. Today, we develop and deliver leading-edge automation solutions that reduce complexity, management costs and power consumption for large-scale desktop and server environments. 1E solutions help enterprise and public sector organizations to ease and speed-up the process of implementing IT infrastructures that meet changing business demands.
What are you doing to help companies reduce energy consumption? What role do customers play?
We recognized the significant amount of energy that large corporations were wasting by leaving PCs on during non-working hours, either to install security patches or simply because users didn’t shut them down. In response, we wrote software to help customers safely and remotely shut down PCs and then wake them up as required, named NightWatchman and 1E WakeUp, respectively. We also realized that there was a real lack of awareness of how much energy IT equipment was wasting and that PCs and monitors were the largest contributors. To increase awareness and support the campaign with hard facts 1E commissioned a PC Energy Report on the US market with the Alliance to Save Energy. The report was widely referenced and made a significant contribution to the Green IT movement. The report can be downloaded at www.1e.com
Why is power management important?
1E has led the “Green PC” movement since the introduction of NightWatchman 8 years ago. The solution has been instrumental in significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions resulting from IT, estimated to account for 2% of overall CO2 emissions. We are particularly proud of the fact that the NightWatchman software is now deployed on over two million “seats” worldwide – reducing CO2 emissions by 250,000 tons per year. Recently, we launched an updated version of the software with some great new user management and reporting features – NightWatchman 5.3. To watch one of our carbon friendly videos or download a free evaluation copy of NightWatchman, please visit http://www.1e.com/softwareproducts/nightwatchman
Ten years from now, what will you look back on and say you achieved?
NightWatchman has been around for over 8 years and has been deployed on over 2 million seats = accounting for a reduction of approximately, 250,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year. As climate change becomes increasingly more important for all organizations, the reduction in CO2 emissions will continue to become more significant when looking back 10 years from today. With spiking energy costs and increasing demands among consumers and businesses to improve environmental practices, NightWatchman has become the leading solution for organizations looking to reduce PC energy costs while implementing a more environmentally friendly IT strategy. 1E is enormously proud of our customers such as Dell and Verizon who have shared this vision in taking a proactive step to reducing their carbon footprints. Worldwide our customers total over 1,000 organizations, representing 10 million licensed users in 42 countries. To review a collection of various customer success stories please visit - http://www.1e.com/collateral
