SOHO Computer Support
Small Office / Home Office Computer Support
Does your business have at least one personal computer?
Then you have a data center.
What is a Data Center?
Data Centers are the buildings and rooms where computers are housed and
operated. They are usually windowless, climate controlled, antiseptic places.
There are computers, rows of peripheral devices, and raised floors with miles of
wires running underneath the floor.
When the TV cameras show Data Centers, they usually scan the room, and then
they show a spinning tape drive, because it is the only thing you can watch
moving. Data Centers are often multi-million dollar centers.
In many ways, one PC brings the same problems and opportunities as running a
multi-million dollar data center.
What can you learn for your Small Office / Home Office business from those
that have run multi-million dollar data centers?
Why is a PC like a Data Center?
What is the difference between the telephone and the computer?
- The telephone is a utility that connects to an intelligent network.
(This is certainly changing quickly)
- The computer has intelligence built in.
What is the major philosophical difference between the two richest
Information Technology billionaires - Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Larry Ellison
(Oracle)?
- Bill Gates supports computers that run software based on Windows.
- Larry Ellison wants the intelligence to be centralized onto the Internet
which is accessed by Internet machines that are closer to telephones.
"If the Internet turns out not to be the future of computing, we're toast.
But if it is, we're golden"
What is the difference in shrink wrap vs. Application Service Providers
(ASPs).
- Shrink wrap refers to software that you purchase wrapped in shrink wrap
plastic. Shrink wrap requires someone to pull off the shrink wrap and load
the software.
- ASPs are application service providers that reside on the Internet and
can be accessed by computers, internet machines, and even PDAs and cell
phones. Larry Ellison has said "I hate shrink wrap".
The PC creates challenges and problems because is has software and data that
resides within it. It is a Data Center. It is the Bill Gates model.
If the SOHO is using a PC, then the SOHO has a data center and must support
the computer.
If the PC is a Data Center, what are the lessons from Data Center Managers
for the SOHO on how to support the computer?
- Define what the computers are for and what they will provide. Why do you
have computers? Are there other options? Define what the computers are
providing, and then set Service Levels to measure that.
- What is the environment? What about electricity? Is it too hot or too
cold? Check the fans.
- Determine the TCO - the Total Cost of Ownership. Is it a $1000 issue, or
a $40,000 issue?
- Create problem resolution procedures. If computers are required to run a
business, then how are problems handled. Problem procedures should be the same
from a busted mouse to a disaster. It is all one spectrum of problems, and the
dealing with those problems is called Business Continuity. Business Continuity
includes the following
- Uninterrupted and protected Power Supplies
- Security, Spyware, Firewalls and Anti-Virus
- Software Upgrades.
- Physical Security
- Periodic maintenance. Run the utilities to check and repair
the computer.
- A Network Administration used to go into a new site and run the defrag
utility on all the computers, make a small network adjustment, and show dramatic
improvement in one day.
- Running normal disk clean up utilities provided with Windows can fix
problems
- Set change control procedures. It is imperative to know what changed.
Heraclites, a Greek philosopher, once said you cannot put your foot into the
same river twice. You cannot run a program on the same computer twice. Computers
are changed by the programs that run on them. Control the software on the
computers.
What are the options for getting computer support for the SOHO?
- Go to Internet machines and ASPs.
- Outsource your data centers.
- Understand these lessons and run a good data center.
Wizard Creek Consulting can provide computer support to SOHO.
- Install and support PCs
- Install and support both wireless and wired Networks
- Install software
- Build custom Personal Computers for serious gaming
- Provide ongoing monthly maintenance of Office or Personal computers and
network
- Implement Shared Internet Access.
- Implement Business Continuity for PCs, with antivirus, firewall, spy
ware, and backups.
- Provide Systems Administration
SOHO Computer Support Reference
