Scavenger Hunt 4 Flashcards
What factors typically drive personal purchases of IT?
If it feels good, do it!
Flavor of the day - momentary influences
Lowest purchase price
Sale items
New products
Hot Rod syndrome
By contrast, what factors typically drive corporate purchases of IT?
Business requirements
- Match the tool to the job you need to get done
Many systems
Control costs (TCO)
- Maximize revenue, minimize expenses
- More to the cost of owning a computer than just the purchase price
How do standardized purchasing agreements reduce IT acquisition costs?
Hardware and software purchases
Volume discounts
- Standardization drives volume and therefore lowers the purchase prices
- Saves money in the long run through the lifetime of the system through support, maintenance, & training
Define the term BYOD
“Bring Your Own Device”
Company doesn’t provide employee with a device, the employee chooses what they’ll use
Varies from company to company, and type of employee within a company
What are the characteristics of a BYOD program?
Company supplies an allowance to employees who are responsible for buying proper IT equipment for themselves
What are the benefits of BYOD?
Benefits:
- Shared cost
- Employee satisfaction
- More engaged
- Less likely to leave for another employer
- Likely to have happier employees who are more productive
- They know the tool they chose very well
- Consumerization
- Might save money
What is the “Consumerization of IT”? What factors led to it? How does this impact corporate IT?
Consumer device (iPhones, iPads, etc.) have been proven to be incredibly popular and wanted for corporate business
Tend to be faster, smaller, lighter, and tend to be easier to use than corporate standard equipment
Bring Your Own Everything
What is TCO?
Total Cost of Ownership
What are Direct Costs and Indirect Costs?
Direct Costs:
- Shows up on the organization’s budget and can be easily defined as IT costs
- Ex: Initial purchase price of a computer
Indirect Costs:
- Not visible at IT costs in a company’s budget
- Ex: One of your employees can’t do work for two hours because his computer’s broken, so the cost of his salary during that time is an indirect cost of owning the computer
What are the characteristics of the two different PC management styles – Unmanaged vs. Managed?
Unmanaged:
- Users DIY
- Installing applications and managing PC settings
- Could care less about control of costs
- Buy whatever
Managed:
- Tools, processes, and policies are used to consistently and automatically manage PCs
- Can’t install software or change critical settings
- Choose what you want and how to run it
Which single item is the most expensive?
Software
Which single item can bring the biggest savings if it is locked and well-managed?
IT support cost (software)
“The $1000 PC is a _________.”
Myth!
What is an “image”? What is a “gold image”? How are images used? How do they impact TCO?
Image: OS + Applications + Settings
Gold Image: Represents how all other should be set up
- Build once
- Test and tweak
- Deploy repeatedly and automatically thousands of times
Impact:
- Labor savings for IT
- Increase productivity because they get it correctly and quickly
Methods for application deployment and their implications for TCO
Manual Workflow
- Install everything manually, individually
- “Sneakernet”
Automated Workflow
- System automatically downloads when computers are connected to network
- Push or pull your own applications (like your own App Store)
- Automatic and quick
Implications:
- Increases productivity and reduces TCO
- Better license management
- Reduced labor cost
- Avoiding legal problems
- Reduced waiting for software installations
- Reducing indirect cost component of TCO
What is Patch Management? Why is it necessary? Who should do it?
Bugs happen!
Must patch OS & applications
Can’t rely on users
Automated Systems:
- Labor savings and reporting
User Account Types
What are they and how are they different?
Administrator
- Full control over the system
- Can install software, programs, and hardware drivers
- Can create and modify users
- Create passwords
Standard User
- Permitted to log on to the computer
- Run programs already installed
- Customize their own settings
- Save files
- Prevented from making system-wide changes
What best practice does Mr. Olson recommend?
Give “standard” accounts to users
How does standard accounts impact TCO?
Prevents users from messing up your settings and machines
However, it can increase indirect costs
System settings – contrast user settings vs. computer settings
User Settings:
- Follow the user no matter which specific computer they’re using
Computer Settings:
- Affects how the computer operates no matter who is using it
Security Settings:
- Things like how long your password has to be, or what apps can be running at a certain time
Operational Settings:
- Automatically set up various network storage locations
- Automatically configures the printer and drivers
What is Microsoft Group Policy? What is its role in managing systems at work?
Example of an operational setting
Infrastructure that allows you to implement specific configurations for user’s computers
What is the purpose of PC instrumentation? How does IT learn about PC problems?
Detects and reports problems before it causes problems for the users
SMART
Leading management systems…
What is Microsoft’s solution?
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager
What “world-class” system was mentioned for managing Macs?
JAMF
Briefly, what are the three motivations for properly managing computers at work?
TCO: saving money on each machine by managing them well
Compliance: we must carefully manage machines and have records that prove we were compliant with laws
Security: you can’t secure something unless you’re managing it
Daas
Desktops as a Service
Virtualizing a user desktop system so instead of having the power on the computer, everything happens on the server
VDI
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
“On Premises”
You do it yourself on premises but Daas is in the cloud
- We pay for someone else to do it for us
Thick Clients
Client is a traditional PC that you’re using to access VDI environment
- Does all the work
- Powerful CPU
- Lots of RAM
- Lots of data storage
- Software
Complex
- High TCO
BYOD
Thin Clients
All work is done on the server
Only input/output occurs at client
Simple, cheap hardware
Many form factors: desktop, notebook, tablet
What are Thick/Thin Client characteristics?
Thick:
Powerful CPU
Lots of RAM & storage
Thin:
Only input/output occurs
Simple
Cheap
Where does the work happen? Where is the software? Where is the data? (Thick/Thin Clients)
Thick:
Traditional PC that can access VDI
Thin:
All work is done on the server
How do acquisition costs compare? Software costs? (Thick/Thin Clients)
Thick:
Management licensing; costs more
Thin:
VDI licensing; cheaper
How does maintenance compare for thin and thick clients?
Thick:
Maintenance varies but more expensive
Thin:
Maintenance is cheaper
Thick or thin: Temporary employees
Scaling up and down quickly; therefore, use thin clients maybe with BYOD or DaaS
Task oriented workers:
Limited set of software necessary for specific, repetitive tasks; therefore, you only need modest computing
DaaS corporate thin client
Power User:
Could be either thick or thin
Thick could give advantage if they need a powerful computer but you could also use Daas for high storage in the cloud
How does the “hybrid” scenario work?
You can use it as a traditional PC and a thin client
BYOD access apps in VDI
How does the Consumerization of IT impact mobile devices in the corporate environment?
Whatever we buy are our consumer devices and we want to use that same device for our work
What are the implications of Mobile Device BYOD for Business? (a.k.a. headaches)
Securing corporate data and email
Ensuring regulatory compliance:
- Company has to make sure that an employee’s use on their personal device doesn’t go against their laws
Cost of supporting BYOD
What can a “lightweight approach” to EMM do for you? What does it require?
SECURITY
- password enforcement, inactivity lock, device wipe
- SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION
- app downloader, app verification, app update support, app patch support
- POLICY/COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT
- deny noncompliant devices, external storage blocking, restrict new apps, control web access, cost containment
INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
- Basics-hardware info, who owns it? Software info, Advanced-monitor performance, battery life, memory utilization, lost phone recovery, migrate user to new mobile device
What is EMM?
Enterprise Mobility Management
What are “Containers”? What’s the benefit to the company? To the user?
An area of memory on personal device that separates personal and corporate data
- Apps, data, email
Benefits:
- Selective wipe
- Encrypt work container
- Barrier between containers
What is “remote wipe”? How is it different for lightweight approach vs. full EMM suite?
If device gets lost you can erase entire device
Lightweight: If you lost your phone you would wipe all the data since corporate data and personal data are intermingled without a barrier
EMM: If you were to lose your phone, it could wipe strictly the corporate data, not the entire phone
Potential savings in electricity costs for PC’s in a well-managed scenario: _____%
35%
What power reliability problems affect our IT devices?
Problems: Surges, brownouts, blackouts
What solutions address those power reliability problems?
Surge protector, UPS, generators
Define ergonomics
The science of fitting workplace conditions and job demands to the capabilities of the working population
Why is ergonomics important?
To make sure the job fits and respects the capabilities of our bodies
Making sure there are no risks of illness and injury
Increase productivity and employee satisfaction
What are the IT-related risk factors?
Repetitive stress
Bad posture can be bad on your body
What hardware and software can help solve ergonomic problems?
Hardware:
- Ergonomic keyboard
- Pointing devices (mice, touchpads, touch screens)
- Monitors
Software:
- Speech recognition
- Keyboard hotkeys replaying mouse
- Breaks:
- Reminder
- Auto detect
- Exercise
What are the key rules for ergonomic computer work areas? (Monitor location, sitting posture, etc.)
Workstation layout:
- Distance to monitor
- Monitor height
- Top of the monitor at eye-level
Good sitting posture:
- Upper back straight
- Arms roughly 90-degree angle
- Knees 90 degrees
- Feet flat
- Standing might be better
What ergonomic problems face notebook/laptop computer users?
If your monitor is at eye level then your hand are too high
Heavy equipment (bad posture)
What factors impact Printer TCO?
Printer acquisition
Consumables
- Ink & paper
Repairs
- Warranty & duty cycle
- Maintenance
User support (device drivers)
What is a “duty cycle”?
How many pages it can print in a certain amount of time
Heavy duty or light duty?
What are the typical characteristics of a “Managed Print Program” such as UF’s PrintSmart program?
Network printers
Onsite support & spare parts
Potential for significant savings
UF claims 60%
What is CPI?
Cost per impression
What is an SLA?
Service Level Agreement
Contractual agreement that says the provider must make sure that each device has a certain amount of uptime
Well-managed Direct Costs Only
$17000
Well-managed Direct & Indirect Costs
$3300
Unmanaged Direct Costs Only
$2000
Unmanaged Direct and Indirect Costs
$6400
Percent Savings for Well-Managed Direct Costs Only
15%
Percent Savings for Well-Managed Direct and Indirect Costs
43%
What account type is a commonly-used best practice that typically reduced PC support costs?
Standard user
In an effort to contain TCO, management wants to implement a world-class system for managing its Mac computers. What system best fits that business requirement?
JAMF
Your Mac is the lightest, most powerful laptop you’ve ever owned. It’s so powerful that you don’t even have a desktop computer any more. This device is an example of a ______
thick client
True or False: Thin clients have lower break-fix cost than thick clients, especially when you consider both direct and indirect costs
True
Your company needs to hire about 100 short-term contract workers. They start work in a few weeks and will only work for the company for 90 days. What thick or thin option makes the most sense for this?
Thin client with Daas
The company want to do EMM as cheaply as possible, ideally not spending any more money on software licenses than they already do. Which options fits the best?
Lightweight approach
Suppose that the company wants to have an EMM system that will allow them to remotely wipe out all company data on employee smartphones without affecting employee data. What capability do they need for this?
Containerization
CPI
The fee you pay the vendor for each page printed
SLA
Guarantee the vendor makes about uptime, how quickly they repair printers, etc.
Duty cycle
The number of pages/month that a printer is designed to produce
