Is the PC Disappearing?

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

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Last month, I talked about how notebooks and netbooks are re-defining systems management. This month, I cover another burning question-can the PC completely disappear or be severely marginalized from the corporate network due to growing popularity of notebooks and netbooks? Several market trends can cause one to think that.

One, the growth of PC sales is much lower than those of notebooks and netbooks. Two, most apps seem to be getting inside the cloud, so that you could access them from anywhere with any device. Third, catching onto the cloud computing trend, smartphones are increasingly being used to access enterprise apps.

All of the above makes it very much possible to shift to a completely mobile network. Everyone could be given laptops or netbooks instead of PCs depending upon their level in the organization, along with high-speed data cards to connect to the Internet and the corporate Intranet over a VPN. They could be issued smartphones or mobile phones so as to be reached anytime, anywhere.

This work environment provides several benefits. Employees could work from anywhere and not necessarily have to come to office everyday, therefore saving administrative costs. Notebooks and netbooks consume lesser power and also have battery backup, which would reduce the organization's electricity bills and the cost of deploying heavy UPS systems. Since netbooks/notebooks are portable, employees could actually sit anywhere in the office, and wouldn't have to remain fixed on one seat.

While these benefits sound good and quite doable, there are limitations. The first problem is that of manageability. There will be more cases of system crashes, software not working, broken or damaged hardware , etc.because employees could be working from anywhere. Will your IT team be able to service them? The cost of spares for notebooks and netbooks is also higher, thereby increaseing your AMC costs.

The second problem is that of security. As these machines would also be connecting to alien networks, they're likely to bring viruses and other malware into the office network. You would therefore need to beef up your security systems. Plus, you would also have to factor in the cost of downtime and unproductivity when fixing infected systems being fixed.

The third problem is of connectivity. How will you control mis-use of data cards for instance? Employees will most likely use their data cards for personal needs as well, which would increase the cost of your Internet connectivity bills. Plus, you'll have to deal withmobile network availability, bandwidth, and even security.

This wasn't a problem with PCs because they would connect to your corporate network, which would have one bandwidth provider and a back-up line. For a mobile workforce, can you afford to give everyone two connectivity options?

Keeping all these limitations in mind, PCs can't disappear completely from corporate networks. They will have their own place. I welcome your thoughts on this topic. Please post them at the PCQuest online forum here.

Anil Chopra, Editor
anilc@cybermedia.co.in

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