Whether what you have is called a "PC" is pretty irrelevant... You'll have a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse that go somewhere. For the end user the difference is negligible. As for the desktop phone? That could happen, but it seems less likely in a "no PCs but virtual workstations" scenario because of the way that voice traffic works... If the phone is disappearing because "they'll all use mobile phones" then I'll just laugh derisively: Mobile technology isn't there to provide the same level of reliability that landlines do, and businesses crave reliable communication. Then there's also the albatross of billing and privacy on mobile platforms...
I have a hard time seeing how your desk phone could "go away" anytime soon until a large number of non-trivial issues get solved.
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I can't remember the last time I had a desk phone. Between VoIP, cellular and PBXs that will route calls from my "desk" phone (there's a rumor I actually have one, but I've never seen it) to any number I choose; I really don't see the need.
Many companies where I consult have adopted Lync for IM and VoIP... quickly making their desk phones redundant. They have access to speed dial, call logs, voicemail, corporate and personal phone directories, directly integrated with Exchange and Outlook... no more keeping multiple phone directories.
Lync and other VoIP solutions have a huge added benefit over fixed desk phones: they work with my BlueTooth headset that I already use with my cell phone. Much more comfortable than the neck-cramp inducing handset or if-I-turn-around-one-more-time-I'll-hang-myself Plantronics over-the-head headset.
Many companies where I consult have adopted Lync for IM and VoIP... quickly making their desk phones redundant. They have access to speed dial, call logs, voicemail, corporate and personal phone directories, directly integrated with Exchange and Outlook... no more keeping multiple phone directories.
Lync and other VoIP solutions have a huge added benefit over fixed desk phones: they work with my BlueTooth headset that I already use with my cell phone. Much more comfortable than the neck-cramp inducing handset or if-I-turn-around-one-more-time-I'll-hang-myself Plantronics over-the-head headset.
You can absolutely live without a desktop phone... But you need a desktop PC to make it reliable. You simply cannot do VoIP calling from a "virtual workstation" scenario (unless you over-engineer that virtual workstation solution, which likely exceeds by an order of magnitude the money saved by "not having desk phones,") per the best practices of most vendors offering the solution. It doesn't matter if you have Lync or Cisco Unity, VoIP traffic is very time sensitive and the virtual workstations with application-based VoIP calling simply don't scale. You can carry off doing it with a couple instances, but scaling it requires significantly more network resources and engineering than you would have spent buying phones.
You can have a "virtual workstation" with a desk phone, or you can have a PC and "no-phone" but the technology does not work yet to have BOTH a virtual workstation AND not have a phone.... Which is what the article is talking about: A "no phone/no PC" world. There are still some tweaks and advances that need to happen before that becomes a scalable solution.
You can have a "virtual workstation" with a desk phone, or you can have a PC and "no-phone" but the technology does not work yet to have BOTH a virtual workstation AND not have a phone.... Which is what the article is talking about: A "no phone/no PC" world. There are still some tweaks and advances that need to happen before that becomes a scalable solution.
Will a big box CPU be sitting on most desks? Probably not. Will millions of people be using full sized keyboards, separate mice and big (probably very big or multiple) screens, yes. When it gets down to content creation per dollar spent on IT, I see some workers needing hard drives, memory and cpus at their fingertips.
As to the phone, you were kidding, right? How long does your battery last? Is that longer or shorter than your last phone? Do you think you next phone or the one after that is going to have the ten hour talk time an office phone does? I know a lot of people who "work from their cell phone" now. I can't see a non road warrior working from an ear piece 8 hours a day.
As to the phone, you were kidding, right? How long does your battery last? Is that longer or shorter than your last phone? Do you think you next phone or the one after that is going to have the ten hour talk time an office phone does? I know a lot of people who "work from their cell phone" now. I can't see a non road warrior working from an ear piece 8 hours a day.
I'm perfectly happy working with a laptop in a docking station. I get local storage, reasonably fast CPUs, reasonably configured RAM and a docking station where I can plug in my full-sized keyboard, mouse and a couple of monitors.
Then when it's time to travel or go to a conference room, I just grab the laptop.
Then when it's time to travel or go to a conference room, I just grab the laptop.
The offices in the world that can afford to go completely without desktop computers and/or phones are probably not doing the kind of work that really required a desktop computer to begin with. I can tell you that the company that I work for, with the order entry system we utilize, our photography and graphics department, shipping department, product manual writing, plus half a dozen others that only scratch the surface of the THOUSANDS of jobs around the world that WILL NEVER WORK WITHOUT A DESKTOP COMPUTER... this crackpipe dream of a "mobile" world is just about the most delusional thinking plaguing the tech world today. Apparently, being in charge and overpaid doesn't mean you aren't a colossal f**king moron.
I have a quad-core 17-inch laptop at home, a six-core screamer at work, and a tablet that I tool around with. I write for a living, have massive amounts of data, and need decent performance and mobile devices are not now and are unlikely to be (in my opinion) suitable for my type of work any time soon.
As a writer I can understand your need for research but the speed to access that data is restricted by the speed of the internet.
It is like owning a Ferrari or Lotus and having to stay within the allowable speed limit.
It is like owning a Ferrari or Lotus and having to stay within the allowable speed limit.
as I can have multiple web pages open at the same time as the story I'm working on and can easily switch between them by looking at different spots on the screen by shifting my eyes, something I can't do on any mobile device I can afford since none within my price range have a 24 inch screen.
but the speed to access that data is restricted by the speed of the internet.
True but most forget the basic 101, the speed of the brain is the driver, not the net
True but most forget the basic 101, the speed of the brain is the driver, not the net
I wish I could give this one, 1000 thumbs up. In fact, wasn't it these same CIOs that were the LAST to bring in the smart phones saying they weren't suited? While we technological folks were doing it already and having a damn productive time in the process. The reason being shifting the communications in email off to our small devices , (the worthless part of our jobs , BUT are actually the most important for the CIO). In fact, probably by email that built up from the CIOs themselves.
Absolutely right - those CIOs they surveyed are pointy-haired bosses. It's not the first time a TR survey has come up with wildly improbably predictions from these clowns - I maintain they are just like the Gartners and all those other "research" companies that have to justify their own existence by making what appear to be "deep thinking" pronouncements but are in fact colossally *shallow*, based on incomplete data.
You nailed it Darren. Aren't these the same folks that complain about not being accepted as "real" members of the corporate board? It's no wonder with cockamamie predictions like this. I can see the possibility of phones going away, but not anytime soon...say in 20 years or so. (Hopefully this isn't another evil BYOD plot to trick employees to bearing another cost burden. The company ditches desk phones and employees *cough* have the privilege *cough* using their own cell phone.)
The ability to perform *real* work on mobile devices is always going to be limited unless some totally new way of interfacing with them is developed. Even in Star Trek Kirk just did simple things like signing reports and duty rosters on mobile devices. When serious work had to be done they moved to a console. Duh.
The ability to perform *real* work on mobile devices is always going to be limited unless some totally new way of interfacing with them is developed. Even in Star Trek Kirk just did simple things like signing reports and duty rosters on mobile devices. When serious work had to be done they moved to a console. Duh.
We have approximately 50 employees at my company and by the end of this year all of them will have docking stations and laptops with 24" dual monitor setups. Currently all but 4 or 5 are already set up this way. Approximately 1/3 of those employees are engineers with AutoCad installed on their laptop and have no problem running it. We have desk phones but are using a VOIP solution that allows re-routing to a cell phone. Our sales and support staff spend majority of their time working from home or on the road. The company makes and installs automated conveyor / picking / palletizing solutions in the beverage industry and all our installations have 15-30 cameras with HD resolution to monitor critical areas which the support staff can remotely access to aid in solving problems as well as remotely access the servers at the various installations. So I wouldn't call this a crack pipe dream. This is a medium size manufacturing company which recognizes the need to be mobile. The prior company I worked for as a consultant was the Corporate Data Center for Time Warner Cable with over 400 programmers, analysts and managers on laptops.
does this also apply to your accounting an personnel staff? How do the costs compare to standards desktops and phones? I know here in Australia such a set up would be much more expensive to set up and use, especially everyone having a cell phone when their duties don't require mobility - is accounts and HR again.
A full sized keyboard, real mouse and dual 24" monitors is close enough to a desktop PC for me. That the CPU and hard drive can go home at night is pretty minor. For that matter, a laptop that sits on the same desk each day is a desktop PC in my eyes. That big beige boxes will go away in favor of folding little boxes is not a change.
as a space saving desktop than a laptop in a docking station, and be a lot cheaper.
Our company looked into going to thin client computers, but they were all far more expensive than PCs. Most people in a company aren't traveling around everywhere. They must have surveyed sales companies or something. In manufacturing or most corporate offices, you can forget about replacing the PC anytime soon. They are just too cost-effective compared to other devices, and that's what the bottom line is all about. Plus, it's not like PC makers decided not to improve PCs a few years ago and retired. PCs keep improving, almost to the point now where they are over-powered and the software needs to catch up. Same reasoning with desktop phones. A majority of large companies may replace them, but most smaller companies are not going to bother with the switching over to VOIP or mobile. The cost is still too high.
Most of them are eyeing Surface tablets as the spur they need to get rid of laptops, but you have to keep in mind that most CIOs are thinking beyond hardware.
When you use VDI, your hardware doesn't really matter, except your graphics card and network connection. You can set up a full-on VDI workstation with minimal specs and have it perform at the capabilities of a monster machine.
Users who are monitoring alerts and sending feedback just need email. They can use their own devices for that.
Users who admin servers just need to be able to remote to them. Again, own device.
Users who serve customers just need an interface to the application and their email. Tablet with a dock can accomplish that.
The key is to get hardware that supports what the user really needs to be able to do to be effective at their job, rather than getting boilerplate hardware configurations where it's too much for some users and not enough for others.
When you use VDI, your hardware doesn't really matter, except your graphics card and network connection. You can set up a full-on VDI workstation with minimal specs and have it perform at the capabilities of a monster machine.
Users who are monitoring alerts and sending feedback just need email. They can use their own devices for that.
Users who admin servers just need to be able to remote to them. Again, own device.
Users who serve customers just need an interface to the application and their email. Tablet with a dock can accomplish that.
The key is to get hardware that supports what the user really needs to be able to do to be effective at their job, rather than getting boilerplate hardware configurations where it's too much for some users and not enough for others.
"You can set up a full-on VDI workstation with minimal specs and have it perform at the capabilities of a monster machine".
Yes, if you are the only one using the VDI host. Since that model destroys VDI's cost justification, it just doesn't stand up.
Create a VDI in something other than an elementary school classroom. Have people do work on it: Using Microsoft Office, surfing the web, leveraging development tools, using Line of Business applications. Invest in those monster servers and storage that are required. Then buy two for redundancy. Then you'll discover how your cost-benefit is heavy on the costs and short on the benefit... you'd just spent $4x to get .5 performance.
Yes, if you are the only one using the VDI host. Since that model destroys VDI's cost justification, it just doesn't stand up.
Create a VDI in something other than an elementary school classroom. Have people do work on it: Using Microsoft Office, surfing the web, leveraging development tools, using Line of Business applications. Invest in those monster servers and storage that are required. Then buy two for redundancy. Then you'll discover how your cost-benefit is heavy on the costs and short on the benefit... you'd just spent $4x to get .5 performance.
I'm referring to the accessing client, not the server. The accessing client does not need to be a super powered machine.
Performance on the backend - a server strong enough for vSphere can easily handle View clients. Lots of them. The only bottleneck is the company internet and the user's internet access. LAN bypass mitigates half of that when they're in the office if you have a separate external AP.
Does it cost? Of course. But so what? Why would you spend $2000 a machine x 1,000 machines = $2,000,000 when you could spend $300 x 1,000 machines = $300,000 and use the 1.7 million to build up the VDI stack? Your robustness skyrockets when you learn how to shift dollars away from pointless purchases. But a lot of IT don't think long term. They keep thinking they need to buy stronger and stronger Core-based machines, more and more RAM, etc. instead of really thinking about what they need going forward.
Performance on the backend - a server strong enough for vSphere can easily handle View clients. Lots of them. The only bottleneck is the company internet and the user's internet access. LAN bypass mitigates half of that when they're in the office if you have a separate external AP.
Does it cost? Of course. But so what? Why would you spend $2000 a machine x 1,000 machines = $2,000,000 when you could spend $300 x 1,000 machines = $300,000 and use the 1.7 million to build up the VDI stack? Your robustness skyrockets when you learn how to shift dollars away from pointless purchases. But a lot of IT don't think long term. They keep thinking they need to buy stronger and stronger Core-based machines, more and more RAM, etc. instead of really thinking about what they need going forward.
the bulk of offices is if the company spends a fortune to upgrade their Internet access and supplies everyone with two monitors and a decent VOIP headset to use, as well as installing a method to connect the VOIP system to the phone network for dealing with people who don't use VOIP phones.
As for the PC, how do they expect individuals to create and work with all the documentation and work related data files they use at the moment if they don't have a PC or something just as powerful?
Oh, I just worked it out, they only interviewed the CIOs of marketing companies who only have outside agents spreading the BS around.
As for the PC, how do they expect individuals to create and work with all the documentation and work related data files they use at the moment if they don't have a PC or something just as powerful?
Oh, I just worked it out, they only interviewed the CIOs of marketing companies who only have outside agents spreading the BS around.
"Oh, I just worked it out, they only interviewed the CIOs of marketing companies who only have outside agents spreading the BS around."
Vested interests (i.e. "iDevice" and other gadget makers).
Vested interests (i.e. "iDevice" and other gadget makers).
device - - the iCrapper
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