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Consumer Tech: an IT Nightmare
snydeq writes "Advice Line's Bob Lewis discusses the difficulties IT faces in embracing the kinds of consumer technologies business users are demanding they support. 'Let's assume the consumerization of IT is the big trend many think it is. But using consumer tech in a business environment is a very different matter from being satisfied with consumer tech in a business environment. One of IT's legitimate gripes is that we're often asked to turn consumer-grade technology into business-grade technology with a wave of our magic wands. On top of the intrinsic technical challenges, there's this: IT doesn't have anything that even resembles a methodology for performing the business analysis we need to figure out what it means to put consumer tech to productive day-to-day use.'"
we're often asked to turn consumer-grade technology into business-grade technology with a wave of our magic wands
This is nothing new. We've been expected to do this with Microsoft Windows for nearly two decades now.
Yeah, the $70 drive from Newegg is 7200 RPM, 2+TB, and has 64mb cache. The $300 drive from HP is 5400rpm, 320mb, and comes with a piece of paper saying it's 'certified' compatible with the server, and they'll replace it free when it dies 7-18 months from now (same as the $70 drive's equally short lifespan). What a bargain.
Spending more for SLC vs MLC? sure. Ditto, for the network gear. But don't kid yourself... "enterprise" drives are no less failure-prone than their Best Buy Brethren. Nowadays, they're *all* crap. :-(
departments who see no middle ground between "100% supported" and "not on my network ever".
Because there is no middle ground.
If we help you out of the kindness of our hearts once, you will never. ever. let us forget that.
You want to run the thing, you want it to be yours, but you want someone to bail you out if you can't make it work. That is the nightmare IT scenario. That is the one that sucks tons of time from the group: When users want to run their own devices in their own way, but want IT to fix it when there's a problem.
Now I should say such a situation would be feasible, but only if you are willing to hire a bunch more IT people. Have a large enough group and sure, you can have people to do all the hand holding as well as all the all the central functions expected (like making network and all the servers work, developing new custom apps, and so on). However in a typical IT environment where there are not many support people, hand holding takes time away from other tasks.
Basically if you want to use your toys that's fine, but don't expect IT to want to waste time on them. They are your devices, you deal with them.
In terms of the "not on my network" I don't usually support that idea but there are cases where it makes sense. Security is a concern with companies and if the management decides they want only approved devices on the network, well then that is what IT has to enforce. There are reasons for that too: User devices are the biggest source of problems easily. I work at a university and we do allow for personal laptops and other things on the network. 99.9% of the time when there's a virus or other issue, it is from one of them. Of course they bypass one of the layers of our security, our border firewall, since they come inside the network, which makes them a bit more dangerous.
To me wanting IT to support your personal devices is the same as wanting the motor pool to work on your personal car. It just isn't reasonable. Your stuff is yours to do with as you wish, but don't expect corporate support to help you out. They have other things on their plate.
The GP has no idea what "support" means.
The PROBLEM is that every single person out there has the same attitude towards "support" that you do.
With you it is your iPhone.
With someone else it is something else.
A third person has a third product.
And pretty soon it is "every crazy piece of hardware" (and software and website and so forth).
The problem is that if IT provides 50% support for X ... there will be calls from people wanting help with something that falls on the other 50% of X. Eventually it is 100% support.
If you want that to change, then get a business case together and get management's approval and IT will get the additional funding / staffing / whatever to provide the support.
Otherwise, deal with it. IT is there to support the management approved users on the management approved software with the management approved hardware.
No, it began with businesses buying and managing Unix workstations for their staff.
Where it started to fall apart was when businesses thought it would be cheaper to buy Microsoft systems instead. There was a little TCO problem there. Microsoft users were managing their own systems, and they were doing it badly. Not only was their actual job function was being diluted, it also created some truly monstrous infrastructure train wrecks. That problem still isn't solved. Businesses simply think it's normal.
Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
I do IT support for a company of about 800-1000 people. All of our executives and corporate staff wanna use their goddammed iPads, iPhones, Androids, and other personal wotsits or doo-dads to do their work. Enough is a-freakin-nuff! We're a corporation and we need to maintain stability and compatibility over fancy and chic. You get a laptop. With Windows. And a BlackBerry... if you're lucky.
Here's the deal: Those "goddammed iPads" and other "doo-dads" are stable and allow their users to be productive. The windows laptops and crapberries are neither stable nor do they allow the user to be as productive as do the personal "doo-dads".
More and more of the decision-makers in your company are letting their Windows laptops sit unused while they turn out productive work using their personal "doo-dads". Many of those users whom you say are "lucky" enough to be issued a Crapberry are also carrying a personal iPhone or Android for their personal calls and other personal business; they're not happy about having to carry a Crapberry because their other phone is so much more useful.
Eventually, one of those decision-makers is going to realize that their unused laptops cost your organization $5k each. They will then multiply that $5k cost per laptop by 800 to 1000 users, a lightbulb is going to go off in their head and you're going to be looking for another job.
About 25 years ago, my boss, the IT manager, had the same attitude towards PCs. He referred to them as "toys". They lacked security. At the time you didn't even need to log into them. You had to upgrade and install software on them independently. Backing them up was problematic, etc. etc.
Of course the mini-computers and terminals we all used at the time were eventually replaced with PCs.
It's about productivity. It's about not depending on an IT department with a backlog of 2 years for every little thing. What we've done to the PC in the name of security and making life easier for IT is to make them part of a centrally controlled system just like the mini computers were 25 years ago.
Want to use a great new piece of software? Is it on the approved list? No? Too bad.
That is not how we should be doing things.
I'm an IT director. Yes, you need security. Yes, centrally controlled admin is good. Being able to roll out tested software patches on mass is good. However, our role in IT is to FACILITATE, not to be a road block. That doesn't mean we have to say yes to everything but we need to understand why people want to use these devices for work and if there is a legitimate purpose, we need to figure out how to make it happen.
Our job is to support our people, even if that makes our job harder.
Years ago the kit you used at work was faster, better and more powerful than your home consumer devices. Today it's the reverse and what you are forced to use at work is totally crappy next to what you have at home. Thus consumerization of IT is necessary to even get your own work done.
Or to put it more simply, my companies OS is XP with Office 2003.
-Xen