* Hardware requirements improve to support the coming OS
Continuing with reports of my trip to Houston to see HP’s Small and Medium Business teams, let’s talk today about computers: new ones that are ready (almost) for Vista, and how much you’re willing to pay per user to keep them safe and secure.
Early in September, HP rolled out three new PC models in preparation for Vista: the HP Compaq dc7700, dc5700, and dc5750. Each one includes a tower and smaller form factor options, a wide variety of CPU, RAM, and disk options, and power saving options. They all tout Vista compatibility, but the fine print on the HP Web site adds the caveats that full Vista support, meaning the Aero Glass interface, may “require advanced or additional hardware.” I predict it will take time for manufacturers to install 256MB of dedicated video RAM to support the DirectX 10 requirements for the full Vista interface, but these new HP models get closer than other systems out there now.
The PC business must be tough today because prices are low, margins are tight and all the major and minor brands offer about the same feature list. The specifications for any one PC – Intel or AMD CPU, up to a maximum of 4GB of RAM, hard disks from 80GB to 250GB, CD or DVD or combo drive – pretty well match the specifications of all the others. So I asked HP to explain why its PCs are special. The answers: more security, less electricity and more management and security options.
The security part of the new models include a mix of TPM 1.2 (Trusted Platform Module) for embedded security, free RAID-1 support for mirrored hard drives, pre-boot security passwords that lock the disks, and some remote security management tools. I do take exception to HP’s marketing department labeling RAID-1 as “real time data backup” because it is not data backup but hardware redundancy. If one of your mirrored drives fails, the other keeps going and running your computer. Few if any other manufacturers offer such support free, but data backup means you can accidentally erase a file and recover it from another location. RAID-1 only means you have two drives doing the work of one for redundancy, and it is not data backup in any normal sense of the word.
With electrical prices so high lately, HP offers a bit of savings by dropping power consumption during hibernation down to about three watts, a wonderfully low number. You won’t pay for the new PC with your energy savings, but a couple of bucks per month savings won’t hurt, either.
TotalCare, HP’s do-everything support and protection package, aims to erase your need for headache remedies by providing each PC with antivirus, firewall, intrusion detection, antispyware, antispam, privacy enhancements, a minimum of 1GB of online backup space, patch management, proactive security checks, hardware diagnostics checks, firmware and driver updates, and a support response within three minutes. That’s a mouthfull, and HP bets you’re willing to pay $20 per month per PC for this support.
This brings us to an interesting set of questions. How much do you spend now per PC for similar protection? Do you even know how much you spend on individual software tools for each PC? Since HP partners with Symantec for many of these modules, can you make a better deal directly with Symantec?
In late September I discussed the innovative marketing of FileEngine and the free server hardware it supplies for $235 per month for data storage services. Compared to that, is $240 per year per PC a fair price for all the security software and support from HP? Would you feel better if someone did a FileEngine service for individual PCs and made those available, with all the operating system and security software, for maybe $300 per year per PC? $400?
HP hasn’t gone that far, but you can make a deal with a reseller or direct with HP for the PCs, sign up for TotalCare, finance through HP Financial Services, and the effect would be about the same, wouldn’t it? If you lease cars, would you like to lease PCs with all software and support services, and turn them in for new models every three years? If so, let me know, and let me know what you consider a fair price.
You can test drive TotalCare free for 60 days from HP’s site. It even works on non-HP PCs, except for some low-level diagnostic utilities that rely on specific motherboard components.
Are you an outsourcing fan? If so, are you ready to outsource your PC hardware and support completely, and focus on your data? Let me know.
