HP Rolls Out Device-as-a-Service for PCs, Printers (eweek.com)

HP says it plans to provide companies with personal computers and other devices as part of a service. Corporate customers of HP's new initiative dubbed "device-as-a-service" will be able to pay a fixed monthly fee per employee for devices, eliminating the need to pay the retail cost upfront for hardware. From a report on eWeek:The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company unveiled a DaaS (device-as-a-service) initiative, one that has already been up and running with several of its clients for the last few months. As more and more millennials come into the work force, they expect to see light, fast, small, and up-to-date tools to use, because that's what they're used to, and their tools are like a badge of honor, HPI's Vice-President and General Manager of Support Services Bill Avey said. "Older employees might want bigger screen and keyboards. The point is, work tools need to fit the work force, and as workforces become more diverse, the tools must adjust fit the needs," Avey said. Otherwise, Avey said, employees will find workarounds in so-called shadow IT (using their own laptops, smartphones, tablets and applications) to get the job done -- which is always a nightmare for enterprise security professionals.

Comments

Hardware isn't expensive

[DogDude]

Hardware isn't expensive at all. PC's can be had for next to nothing. It's the software that costs the real $$! And considering computer hardware generally doesn't wear out, it's a no-brainer for us to buy cheap hardware, and save our IT money for good software.

Re:About time...

[The-Ixian]

there's just no possible way to prevent rogue Mac, Linux and Commodore 64 computers from joining secure domains and having complete access to the network

Well, yes, actually, their is. It's called 802.1x and can provide authentication for all capable devices on the network.

In addition, you can also use NAP to limit who can get a DHCP address.

Or there are port level MAC filters on the switches.

You could also firewall your servers from the LAN and use ACLs based on MAC addresses, IPs or L7 rules.

I am sure there are more methods you could choose from, but those are the few I could thing of off the cuff.