Ibm 18nov2010

Editor's Notes

• #12: Let’s first talk about the desktop dilemma facing most enterprise IT teams and end users. Simply put the problem is how to satisfy end-user requirements while ensuring IT requirements are also met. What users want is the flexibility to access their personalized desktops, applications and data anywhere, anytime, using multiple devices. What this means is the ability to have their desktops follow them not a device. Additionally, they want the ability to use native Windows applications in conjunction with web based applications. They need the ability for these applications to work seamlessly together. Finally, users want 24 by 7 access to their desktops, implying a critical need for desktop business continuity. On the other side of the coin, IT teams face the challenge of managing different types of desktops. Enterprise desktops are one of the most difficult-to- manage IT assets today. Within any organization there exist different users, a variety of hardware that must be supported, growing security concerns, and a workforce that is increasingly dispersed geographically. In addition, different types of users need different applications. Managing these moving parts is both complex and costly. This makes managing these devices very time consuming and inefficient in addition to making it very expensive to manage these disparate desktops. Industry research shows that more than 70% of the total cost of ownership of a desktop is spent on operational activities associated with managing the PC: managing end-users, hardware maintenance and repairs, provisioning and upgrading PCs, and software application management—such as installing and patching. Increasingly, IT departments are being pressured to reduce costs but manage more applications, users and desktop configurations with minimal resources. Companies are being mandated to do more with the existing resources or even reduced resources. Quantifying security risks and their associated costs can be very difficult. A report often cited to estimate the cost of a security breach is the “CSI/FBI Computer Crime And Security Survey”. According to the 2007 survey, the average cost per security breach was $350K, up from $168K in 2006. Average losses associated with the theft of confidential information, except from mobile devices, were $5.7 million per incident. The loss associated with data or network sabotage was $1.1 million per incident. As the landscape changes, it is essential that businesses think strategically about desktop management to enable their workers to get the resources they need to efficiently do their jobs, while also meeting IT requirements.
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