Sleep When Idle

Microsoft focuses some of its investment on energy efficiency in the data center. Reducing power consumption during server idle periods is a research topic. Microsoft Research on efficient datacenters: "selectively putting idle servers into a low-power state ... " ...

... "As of today, turning servers off and on automatically is difficult to do, but with growing interest in environmental sustainability and a need to reduce rising energy costs, more people and businesses are motivated to find and develop solutions that work. " ...

Via Microsoft: Sustainable Computing