There is no doubt that ensuring the desktop is fully up-to-date with security patches, and the latest software patches or drivers is a ‘good’ thing. What is more debatable is how much control the automated procedures should have over the end user.
We can turn to Microsoft for an example here. Some updates require a restart to take effect; this is not always convenient to carry out straight after the installation, so Microsoft kindly provides an option button to restart later. Unfortunately, in this case, later means about 20 minutes later, when the reminder button pops up again.
So far, no major problem. Where there is a major problem, however, is when you leave your computer unattended for any length of time and the operating system decides that, because you haven’t explicitly stated a later restart, it will take matters into its own hands and restart anyway. Hard luck if you were downloading something and expected the job to be finished when you returned, and discover the desktop sitting there doing nothing.
This isn’t a blast against Microsoft, which is just one example of vendor software taking a decision that may not be appropriate to all users in the name of helping. As organizations look at centralization of IT support, it is vital that there is a strong balance between helping, organizational requirements (such as enforcing new corporate policy – especially in the area of security), and appropriate actions for the individual end user.
Clearly, enforcing standards is essential to many organizations, and allowing too much freedom of choice will quickly negate any of the much-vaunted cost advantages of centralization of management. With applications, in particular, this will require strong version control to be in place.
The newest, latest version of an application is not always relevant to everyone in the organization, and simply doing a blanket rollout could be counter-productive. There has to be a deep level understanding of application usage on an individual basis, allied to strong testing to see the ramifications that ‘latest version’ software deployment might have.
Centralization of management is more about a deeper level of understanding than a blanket option to make management more automated.
Source: OpinionWire by Butler Group (www.butlergroup.com)
