Discussion on:

Move toward simpler IT systems with Chrome OS

Have you seriously considered deploying Chrome OS and Google Apps in your organization? What are the stumbling blocks? Would making such a move really simplify your IT management?

terrible idea. so google can give your data to obummer and his evil crew. no thanks

Is any discussion safe from conspiracists and political pundits spoon fed distortion of the political atmosphere?

That being said, I think this is a fantastic idea for a small organization. Not only would the system be easy to maintain, the productivity of the team would increase at a fraction of the cost.

Do you really trust your data with a 3rd party?
Especially Google?

Places where people don't actually use their computers for much of anything, and places that make **** loads of money and can get multiple fibre lines to an office.

Small business? No way, typical residential and commercial internet would not work for more than 1 user simultaneously, and would be horribly slow with just 1 user.
Don't believe me?
According to speedtest.net, I am in the top 75% of internet speed for Canada.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2479658050.png
Why would I want to move backwards in speed?

Big business? Why give away control to google if you can afford to control it yourself?

And finally, if I was going to dump Microsoft, I would go Linux or Apple, An online only OS is just stupid.

How is Chromes auto update feature different from that of Windows or Linux? Windows does give more control, but if you want updates that will happen silently in the background and install when you switch off at the end of the day, they will. Linux and Android are much the same.

As everything else in the article can be achieved with any of the other popular operating systems, this appears to be the only thing that justifies the title Move toward simpler IT systems with Chrome OS.

Has Andy Wolber ever bothered to properly deploy Windows computers?
First, if you have as many as fifteen computers, maybe it's time to have an image of your own ready instead.
Install Windows, install updates, install applications, do some adjustments. Create image. Deploy to the 15 computers. And of course no bloatware to remove. Oh what bloatware? Last 3 systems that I worked on [2 Dell and 1 HP] had almost nothing in bloatware. Closest was Office 2010 STarter edition.
Andy: Take a course or learn how to deploy computers. You could use the same image for multiple organizations [as long as you don't insert the serial number when building the image].
Finally, you want small organizations/companies to drop their infrastructure and switch over to Chrome OS?
Who is this benefitting? You probably to support them.

Actually, I'm very familiar with Windows imaging, deployment, etc. I mentioned it in the article because in my experience most SMALL orgs -don't- properly deploy systems or use WSUS for updates, etc.

What's interesting to me about the Chrome OS environment is that endpoint/client deployment is amazingly simple once an org has made the migration of data and apps.

And, yes, I think we're already seeing individuals and startups move 100% to the web.

Did you say that really fast, or really quiet, you know verbal fine print...

Archetypal propeller head thinking.

It's obvious from the comments that most of the comments come from people who have absolutely no idea how Chrome OS works or how it can be managed. Most of you are stuck in this ridiculous Windows world where end users are supposed to know how to design and build the car to drive the car. On what planet do you goobers live? Snap out of it.

"But small organizations typically dont have access to the expertise needed to create disk images or push managed system updates. Many small organizations dont choose to purchase these consulting services, either."

I submit small companies without IT resources or the financial assets to hire them most likely don't have the expertise to move to the web either. I further submit the acquiring the expertise to create and deploy system images is cheaper than getting / buying the skills necessary to migrate to the web (especially if you already own the server, Windows clients, and software).

I'd be interested in seeing any studies that look at this issue!

Every study I've typically seen shows SMBs perceive benefits of moving at least some specific systems to the cloud (most often email, calendaring, etc.). And I do track lots of studies re: cloud, economics, etc. -- see my bookmarks: https://www.diigo.com/user/andywolber/study%20cloud.

But I haven't see a cost comparison of the "get the support/expertise you need" for a conventional setup vs. "get the support/expertise you need" to move to the cloud.

Anyone have any good economic/cost data to share?

The vendors bought you a good lunch as well then?

The effort involved in switching OS is never identified correctly by those who want to make the switch. If it was, no one with anything worth switching would do it.
They've already decided that it's worth doing. They don't want to hear problems they want to hear solutions, yada yada yada.

The cost of doing it for anyone with any real embedded IT in place, vastly outweighs any benefit real or otherwise from doing it over a period any competent business person would deem sane.

You should switch to Chrome and the cloud is no different to "Go Linux" There is no justifiable business case, tell it like it is. You don't like Bill, you think Stallman is a commie, you will get paid a shed load of money for doing it.

Just stop with the crap already.

Would Chrome be a suitable solution from scratch, maybe. Would it be something you might want to hybridise with and move towards, maybe.

Just up sticks and switch in toto is bollocks.

Sorry.

gut tends to be way more reliable than someone trying to sell you something...

only rigid control of their emotions allowed them to manage several clicks to wrong vote button.....

Still if you can't beat 'em join 'em....
I just reversed all your votes. Irritating isn't it?
Except for my posts..

I may get really sad and create another user and do that as well.
While I'm doing that. I might as well do another round of votes.
Hmm that gives me an idea I wonder how many me's I could add

I was thinking on a set of aliases how about Wad Sanker1 to 1000?

If they can't take the time to tell me why they voted me down, I can't take the time to shive a git about their opinion.

Sold that facility to google for the amount of money their opinion is worth.

About the same as a git I should think...

Sometimes I pink them enough they actually work up the bollocks to post back, then I can slaughter them again.

It's fun.

For using a colour to describe someone, and for the word bollocks, which is funny sounding.

and raise you a pos.

Speaking of neg and pos, a neutron walks into a bar and asks, "How much for beer?"
The bartender says, "For you, no charge."

An old farmer was relaxing on his verandah one evening, watching his rooster in the yard running around chasing after the hen.

They circled the yard half a dozen times, the **** in what seemed to be fierce pursuit of the hen...

Suddenly, the farmer's wife threw some scraps into the yard. The hen kept right on running, but the rooster stopped for nourishment.

Sadly the farmer lamented and said, "Good Lord in Heaven, I pray that I never get that hungry"!!!

Two of my biggest rivals negging each other out of future contention.

One isotope says to the other, "Have you lost weight? You look positively lighter!"

I'm here all week! Tip your liberal arts major!

I have deployed Google Chromebooks and/or Google Drive as a *complimentary* offering in a number of schools. The online collaboration is great. Would I REPLACE my existing Windows client computers with Chrome OS? Not a chance. It just doesn't offer the functionality most staff and teachers require. For students, however, it has worked very well.

I hate "moving parts" in a system - the more of them the more points of failures, difficulty in resolving issues, and a greater sense of urgency placed on malfunctions with the small parts. In an ideal scenario, all apps and data would live in centralized, highly controlled, very-well maintained, and very reliable data centers such that a user could pick up any sort of computing device to run their apps and access their data without skipping a beat. If a device craps out, you just use a different device, or easily "plug" a new one into the system. This is a Utopian solution that cannot yet be achieved in the small business environment. What is a small business? The example was given of businesses with only a few PCs, and for the most part that is representative of my typical client which ranges from 3 to 25 computers. I can tell you that moving to the cloud is not even close for my customer base due to these reasons (as much as I wish I could):

1. Cost - Fully hosting a business in the cloud is VERY expensive when compared to the REAL costs of what a typical small business actually spends on IT over a 3-year period. Yes, some parts of cloud computing are reasonably priced and many of my clients are using "pieces" of it such as email, email security, cloud storage and online backup.

2. Internet speed and reliability - in my area Internet speeds are on the upswing thanks to services being offered by Comcast, Verizon, and a few others, but only in the larger communities. A lot of customers are in areas where DSL or slow cable is the only option, and speeds likely won't be faster anytime soon. And the number one concern I hear from business owners regarding "cloud computing" is "what do I do when the Internet is down?" (a far too common occurrence in the northeast). I actually have one customer with redundant Internet connections, but that's because the nature of his business is online, but all of my other clients an appropriate alternative is either not available or doing so is too expensive. Without redundant Internet or highly available connections, apps and data need to have local availability (such as what some of the cloud storage vendors provide, or even with email systems such as Exchange/Outlook and Google Apps).

3. Line-of-Business App availability - the "traditional" LOB apps that my clients use are simply not available as "web-apps," at least not in the fully-featured form that my clients are accustomed to. Quickbooks, Peachtree, MAS90, etc. would all have to be in the cloud, along with many other industry-specific apps such Time Matters, Camelot, SoftPro, and others. Until this happens, my clients need Windows clients and a Windows server at their physical location. I wish it was cost effective to host their server(s) in a data center in a virtual environment, but it just isn't.

And finally, perhaps someone can educate me on how they make it cost effective and practical for these small clients to have an "image." Doing so requires a volume licensing for a Windows client OS and Office Suite. Comparing the costs of buying OEM licenses vs. MS volume license costs, and what it adds to the expenditure of one or more new PCs, owners across my client base would justifiably laugh me out of town. The imaging strategy also doesn't work well for small clients because they don't switch out their PCs every 3 years - they will run on their systems for 5+ years!

can be done without a volume license using SysPrep and Norton Ghost.