Slow laptop boot times may be causing users to move to other endpoint devices
“Fire up your laptop”!?!?!? I’ve lost count of how many times I have heard this expression and remain baffled by how end-users have become accustomed to and accept the fact that it can take minutes, many minutes in some cases, before a user begins to productively start work. This is nuts!
I can’t even begin to fathom how much productivity time is lost or abandoned altogether simply due to how long it takes a system to “fire up.” I get that I may want to warm up my car on a cold morning, but the majority of times I like to get in it, buckle up, turn the key, and go. We don’t have to “fire up” our smart phones–they just work and provide instant access to calling and applications. It baffles me when I watch how long it takes some people to boot their systems or simply just not turn it on at all because of how long it takes to log on. The scary part is that IT is going to get more and more pressure from its users. I shudder to think how much productivity would be gained in any company if all endpoint devices instantly turned on and provided instant productivity. I suspect the impact would be dramatic.
I believe this is one of the many reasons we are starting to see such an insurgence of smartphone and tablet usage inside companies – they work – instantly! Laptops and desktops need to do the same. My informal survey of MAC users clearly validates the fact that one of the best benefits of the MAC is its ability instantly turn on, which alone is worth the price of admission. I’m positive someone can show me a Windows machine that does the same, but the majority of Windows users I see have to “fire up” their system.
Solid-state drives can help, but feel like more of a band-aid than a true solution. I think desktop virtualization has some very interesting technology that can help solve the “fire up” use case and may be reason enough to give it a hard look and factor into the investment.
Users are naturally going to migrate to the path of least resistance and we are already seeing this with the usage of smartphones and tablets as mentioned above, but is IT ready to support the proliferation of these devices? Have they considered the impact to the way they currently deploy and maintain applications? Have they thought through security challenges? I suspect in 2012 this will be a hot item for business to address. We are already seeing some leaders in IT stand out ahead of the curve, but for the most part, we are just getting started on a major transformation in the way we design, develop, deploy, maintain, consume, and pay for applications. This is very exciting and a tremendous opportunity for IT technology innovators!
