Twas the day after Christmas and all through the halls
All the end users were flooding the help desk with calls.
While my BYOD policies were still up in the air
Everyone brought their new little devices like they didn’t even care.

When all of a sudden I knew something was the matter.
I could hear my T1 failing from all the internet chatter.
I ran to the help desk and threw open the door.
The techs were all lying in the fetal position curled up on the floor.

The phones were atop of the new-fallen employees below
I knew our department had reached an all-time low.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But half our employees with new smartphones to their ear.

Now Microsoft! Now Samsung! Now Google! Now HTC!
On Apple! On Nokia! On Motorola! On LG!
From the front of the desk, to the end of the hall
There were more tablets than I could ever recall.

With my hand on my head, as I was turning around,
My CEO came down the steps with a bound.
Without consulting me, he went straight to work.
He was so clueless he looked like a jerk.

He went on to say we needed to tackle this pup,
He demanded that we get all of these devices up.
Needless to say, he wanted everything “wired”
And that was the beginning of the day I got fired.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my pathetic attempt at poetry. However, I have to say that much of what the poem states is going to be a sad reality for many IT departments after Christmas this year. IT managers are being bombarded by the numerous types of devices that are entering the thresholds of their companies and many have no idea what to do about it. To be honest, I believe in a lot of ways it is a losing battle. Not so long ago, IT departments were responsible for determining the type of technology that was used in the workplace. A lot of this was because technology was harder to configure back then. Having remote access away from the campus network took a lot of effort to get configured. Today, the internet is much more available and the ease of using devices makes it to where the end users really don’t need an IT trainer to get them up and running. This is a very freeing thing for the end user, but it starting to become an out of control nightmare for the IT manager.

What Do You Choose?

One of the most difficult things for IT these days is standardization. Remember the days when you could buy a set of computers with a standard hardware and software set? If you needed to buy an extra one, it was still around 6 months later. This is no longer the case. Technology is moving so rapidly that your desktop PC is pretty much obsolete the day you buy it. Sadly, it appears the tablet market is moving that direction too. Wasn’t it like 6 months ago when the iPad 3 was released? However just this week, Apple announced its 4th generation iPad. This is a rather discouraging turn of events, not only for IT managers, but for end users as well. Every day I am hit with some question about the up and coming Microsoft Surface tablet and how it compares to the iPad. Seriously folks I don’t have a crystal ball. Microsoft was kind enough to put the new Windows 8 Operating system out there as a preview and it seems stable enough, but am I going to stick my neck out on the line and tell my boss this is the tablet we should deploy in the field? I don’t think so. Microsoft has been out of the hardware business for a while now, with the exception of the Xbox. It seems to me that Microsoft is just muddying the waters. How can any IT manager make an honest assessment of the Surface tablet when it has no record to stand on? On paper, it looks awesome, but what is this thing going to do in 6 months? Will it start freezing up during Skype sessions? Will the battery hold up? These are questions that are yet to be answered and quite frankly, seem to be necessary information before I move an entire organization that direction.

That just barely scratches the ‘surface’ (pardon the pun) of the choices available right now. The iPad is a pretty stable beast and has the iCloud available for backup. This is nice, but how easy is it to do business on? Can your foreman in the field easily update an Excel spreadsheet on it? You also have the Androids to contend with. The models and price ranges are all over the map. To name a few, you have the ridiculously expensive Samsung Galaxy, two versions of Kindle Fire, Google Nexus, and the list goes on and on. I am honestly surprised my grocery store hasn’t come out with its own store-brand version of an Android tablet. I guess the point I am trying to make here is that IT is having to deal with all of these devices making their way in to the business’ front doors. All of these devices can pretty much do the same things. The hard part is deciding which device has more staying power and will provide more stability in the work environment.

Conclusion

The tablet/smartphone industry believes they are doing a good thing by providing consumers more choice. However, I believe this Christmas shopping season is going to be one of the most confusing times for the average consumer. It’s also going to be a challenge for the salesperson in the big box stores who have to try to convince a customer which tablet is best suited for them to play Angry Birds on. I feel most sorry for the CIO’s and IT managers. On December 26th, all of these people are going to stroll into work with all of these nifty new devices expecting IT to make them work in their organization. For those CIO’s whose CEO’s haven’t taken seriously the need for a BYOD policy, they have a nightmare brewing on their hands I’m afraid. So if you show up to work after Christmas 2012 and the IT department is nowhere to be found, now you know why.