* How much control should we give users?
Centralization/decentralization, the yin and yang of corporate networks. From mainframes and terminals in the 1970s, to PC LANs in the 1980s back to terminal servers in the 1990s then on to today’s powerful workstations, the network landscape is an ever-changing milieu. Not only are the hardware and software changing but so too is the philosophy. Two particular shuttlecocks in this never-ending badminton match are “ease of use” and “ease of control.”
Ease of use and ease of control are opposed, but not diametrically. It’s possible to view some increases in ease of control as also being positives when measuring ease of use. But on a network, there’s also the balance between IT and users. Increasing ease of use for users can decrease ease of use for IT managers and vice versa. Even more so is that true of various ease of control issues.
Take, for example, the user’s desktop: what it looks like, how it’s populated, how and by whom it can be changed. Modern Windows networking allows IT management to create desktop policies controlling all of the look and feel of the desktop as well as what (if anything) can be added, subtracted or modified. IT manager’s see this as an improvement in ease of control as well as ease of use. Troubleshooting is so much easier when you know exactly what’s supposed to be present – and what isn’t.
Users, on the other hand, may not like having no control of their environment. They question whether the color scheme and icon placement should be a corporate issue, for example. One argument that we in IT have been able to use is that by standardizing everything, migration to new platforms – both hardware and software – can be accomplish much more quickly and efficiently. A few less hours to migrate could mean fewer techs on the payroll and that’s something the bean counters understand.
To counter this argument, a new class of utility services has emerged called “personality relocators”. These services migrate the personality of a PC: the applications, “look and feel,” shortcuts, bookmarks – everything that’s not directly related to the hardware (such as video driver, network card, mouse and keyboard, etc.). One such service is “AlohaBob PC Relocator” from Eisenworld (https://www.eisenworld.com/) which I learned about from our Systems Management newsletter (https://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/nsm/2002/01407583.html) about a year ago.
There really is an “AlohaBob,” by the way. He’s the father of one of the founders of Eisenworld and was always asking his son to visit and help him migrate to a new PC. Since migrating desktops is not optimal use of time when visiting Hawaii, the son created an automated service to do the work and the “personality relocator” was born.
It’s a neat tool, but possible better used in the home or SOHO environment (although it is frequently used in very large enterprises). But now you can learn the techniques behind the technology and perhaps create (or at least modify) a personality relocator for your business. Eisenworld is sponsoring a new, free, electronic book to be published by realtimepublishers.com called “The Definitive Guide to Migrating and Upgrading Windows Desktops” written by Windows desktop guru David Chernicoff.
As with all of realtimepublishers.com free e-books, this one will be published one chapter at a time and you will need to register (https://www.eisenworld.com/Ebook.asp) to receive it but it’s certainly worth the price – a few minutes of your time – if you can walk away with only one time-saving idea.
