14 DAY TRIAL // The Redmond Company does not push Windows Vista as the ultimate solution for decreasing desktop TCO expenditures. Because simply deploying Vista will be equivalent to only getting the job half way done, according to Microsoft. The actual key TCO savings is accompanying Vista with best practices associated with decreasing IT labor costs. With this in mind, Microsoft has even made available a Infrastructure Optimization Self-Assessment Tool to asses the identity and access management, desktop lifecycle, security and networking, and disaster recovery of a corporate IT system.
The Redmond Company is basing its recommendations on the results of a study performed by IDC on 141 US companies deploying 1,000-20,000 PCs. Based on the findings of the study, IDC created four levels of IT infrastructures: Basic, Standardized, Rationalized, and Dynamic. The sole difference among them is related to the IT Labor costs to manage each machine per year. While at the Basic level, expenditures reach $1,320 per PC per year, with the Standardized level, the costs drop to $580 per PC per year while at the Rationalized tier, they drop as low as $230. In this context, the Dynamic level will decrease expenses even further having a fully automated management, dynamic resource at its basis.
Additionally, IDC calculated the amount of savings per PC for three specific best practices: standard desktop strategy $110; centrally managed PC settings and configuration $190 and comprehensive PC security $130.
"What does this have to do with Windows Vista?" asks Alex Heaton, Windows Vista Security Engineer. "Windows Vista has some specific new technologies that in concert with better IT processes and management tools can help organizations achieve these best practices and increase their level of infrastructure optimization."
These technologies are User Account Control (UAC) and Windows Vista Imaging. "The main function of User Account Control is to enable people to use Windows without having administrative privileges, which enables the Centrally managed PC settings and configurations best practice. And a big part of the standard desktop strategy best practice is using a minimal number of corporate PC images-ideally one. The new imaging technologies in Windows Vista enable organizations to do just that," reveals Heaton.