HP Rolls Out Device-as-a-Service for PCs, Printers (eweek.com) 75
HP says it plans to provide companies with personal computers and other devices as part of a service. Corporate customers of HP's new initiative dubbed "device-as-a-service" will be able to pay a fixed monthly fee per employee for devices, eliminating the need to pay the retail cost upfront for hardware. From a report on eWeek:The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company unveiled a DaaS (device-as-a-service) initiative, one that has already been up and running with several of its clients for the last few months. As more and more millennials come into the work force, they expect to see light, fast, small, and up-to-date tools to use, because that's what they're used to, and their tools are like a badge of honor, HPI's Vice-President and General Manager of Support Services Bill Avey said. "Older employees might want bigger screen and keyboards. The point is, work tools need to fit the work force, and as workforces become more diverse, the tools must adjust fit the needs," Avey said. Otherwise, Avey said, employees will find workarounds in so-called shadow IT (using their own laptops, smartphones, tablets and applications) to get the job done -- which is always a nightmare for enterprise security professionals.
Um... isn't this just a lease? (Score:1)
and this is different from mainframers, how? (Score:2)
IBM, HP, DEC, etc all did that on "too big to carry" equipment.
yep, just a lease (Score:2)
and the lease fee ensures a higher level of profit, as HP becomes a finance company as well as equipment supplier. I'd avoid it like WinX
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It may be flexible, but it's still just a lease.
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Of course it's not just a lease. It as "-as-a-service" right there in the name! That means it's 10 times more expensive than something that's "just a lease".
This sounds familiar... (Score:5, Insightful)
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I was thinking the same thing.
Perhaps the differentiator is that they set up and manage the devices too?
That sounds like a whole different nightmare though.
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I worked for years for a healthcare company that used Compaq / HP as their managed services provider right down to desktops & laptops (network hardware was mostly Cisco with some 3Com and Foundry ). I would rather have you all killed than suffer such a fate.
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I was thinking the same thing.
Ditto. Now get off our lawn with your new-fangled as a service nonsense.
Just a lease (Score:2)
Perhaps the differentiator is that they set up and manage the devices too?
Still a lease. Might have a service contract attached to the lease but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
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Re:This sounds familiar... (Score:5, Funny)
How low can HP go? (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing like going from basically founding Silicon Valley to competing with the likes of Aaron's and Rent-A-Center!
Just shut down, HP, you're embarrassing yourself.
Hardware isn't expensive (Score:5, Informative)
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Any computer without moving parts shouldn't wear out. Hell, most PC's with some moving parts don't fail for the first 20 years or so.
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And yet, solid-state electronics with no moving part fail fairly regularly.
You act as if you've never actually had your hands on any 20-year-old hardware: 20 years ago, computer stuff regularly broke within a couple of years: I know this because I was fixing them 20 years ago. That which is still left is simply at the other end of the MTBF scale.
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And yet, solid-state electronics with no moving part fail fairly regularly.
Only if by "fairly regularly" you mean "almost never". ICs may become obsolete, but they don't "wear out". Even solder cracks or whiskers are very rare on modern SMT boards. Computers fail when the HDD bearings wear out, or when you drop it and crack the display, not because of the electronics. Most replaced computers are still functional, they are just no longer cost effective in terms of productivity and power consumption.
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Except for the RRoD, YLoD, over a decade of unscrupulous bad/underspecified capacitor guffaws, the continuing lead-free solder fallout from RoHS, and electron migration slowly killing things like IC radio transceivers, I guess you're right!
This stuff will last FOREVER!
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False, there is no continuing lead free solder fallout.
Tin's habit of whiskering is well understood and has been for decades. Probably half a century by now. In fact, it's exactly WHY we initially used an alloy of tin and lead - lead seems to control, but not prevent, whiskering to an extent. Plus, being cheap, well, we stopped looking after that. But even leaded solder whiskers. It's something we've known about and control for.
The only thing RoHS did was re-
fans getting clogged up / failing as well. (Score:2)
Fans getting clogged up / failing as well.
PSUs going bad.
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Electrolytic capacitors have a limited life span and will eventually, inevitably fail whether they're used or not.
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We had a full HP shop using the enterprise gear. Great stuff, easy to work on and the only desktop that broke got tossed out of a second story window, so that was an HR issue.
The HP enterprise laptops held up well for the hell some of our engineers gave them as they hopped the globe.
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Yeah, that *might* be plausible - if you never change operating systems.
So 20 yrs, hmmm, you're still on Windows 95?? How's that working out for you?
All computers can fail (Score:3)
Any computer without moving parts shouldn't wear out.
The might not "wear" out but they do fail. Moving parts are just one failure mode among many.
Hell, most PC's with some moving parts don't fail for the first 20 years or so.
Since very few PCs remain in service for 20 years I'm not really sure where you are getting this data. Yes there are some out there but the average age of a PC is supposedly around 5 years [statista.com]. Laptops tend to wear out sooner than desktops. Even if the machine could remain alive for 20 years the software in most cases would be obsolete and unsupported long before you reached 20 years of service. A Windows PC from 2
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I see 10-20 year old computers in use all the time. "Obsolete" equipment doesn't evaporate, it gets refurbished and resold to people who can't or don't want to afford the latest and greatest.
Most of those computers run Win 7, but a substantial number run Linux.
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Everything fails, but most solid state parts have a MTBF of 100+ years. The compound and your anecdotal failure rate may be slightly higher, but given the staggering number of computing devices being sold every year and the fact that repair shops are almost non-existent and never were that good of a business model (I've worked for quite a bit of them), I would say that the majority of computing devices never failed.
Even spinning hard drives only have a 1% failure rate over their life spans. Most of the elec
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Repairing computers stopped being economical when the cost to repair, including labor, came close to or exceeded the price of a new box from Wal-Mart. Simple fucking economics.
I do admire your ability to present nonsense as fact, though: "Even spinning hard drives only have a 1% failure rate over their life spans" carries about as much truthiness as "HOLDS UP TO 50 POUNDS, OR MORE! "
Re:Hardware isn't expensive (Score:5, Interesting)
> Where do I buy this magical hardware that doesn't wear out, exactly?
Amazon, Dell, Newegg, HP
Most hardware these days lasts long enough to become obsolete.
There's always been a huge resale market in old office machines that are still perfectly functional. These machines haven't worn out. They're just a little behind the curve or have been fully depreciated by the accountants.
I myself have contributed to the sales decline of PCs by upgrading old office machines.
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After $dayjob got bought by a multinational we did a "refresh" of our fully HP shop (aerospace) to Dell. CFO let us give away the "old" HP desktops and laptops to employees. Many happy campers with i5/16GB/480GB SSD machines now that will last them, and be very usable, for many years. Of course IT kept the i7 and Xeon boxes.
The copier scam cometh again... (Score:1)
Seriously, this is how the copier industry used to operate. It went under for a reason.
Silliness...
About time... (Score:2)
Thank you, HP, for saving us all!
(insert eye roll here)
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Thought you were serious at first with just the one line summary displaying.
Clicked reply just to say "802.1x".... but instead I'll only chuckle.
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While I got a chuckle out of your comment I'll just mention that you don't need to be able to get on the network in order to get sensitive corporate information on employee's devices.
People will forward emails to their personal account or upload something to dropbox or just start work correspondence with their personal email. Happens all the time.
The best way to fight against this is to make work machines as useable and user-friendly as possible... so there is less incentive to try to move work onto a pers
Re:About time... (Score:4, Informative)
there's just no possible way to prevent rogue Mac, Linux and Commodore 64 computers from joining secure domains and having complete access to the network
Well, yes, actually, their is. It's called 802.1x and can provide authentication for all capable devices on the network.
In addition, you can also use NAP to limit who can get a DHCP address.
Or there are port level MAC filters on the switches.
You could also firewall your servers from the LAN and use ACLs based on MAC addresses, IPs or L7 rules.
I am sure there are more methods you could choose from, but those are the few I could thing of off the cuff.
My rule of bum^H thumb (Score:4, Funny)
If you see "X as a service", especially in an advert, replace X with "sodomy".
Because you are so totally going to get fucked up the arse. And charged for it.
The World Of The Future: You Own NOTHING (Score:5, Insightful)
Talk about your dystopian futures! All the above of course is mere fiction. It's more like something I'd expect from the world of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash than anything in the real world. But it doesn't mean that some corporate types don't have these thoughts, either..
Just wait for the rent a car ding and dent bs to c (Score:2)
Just wait for the rent a car ding and dent bs to come. Just hope they don't give a system with an 5-6 year old HDD that wears out and then you need pay the full price of a new disk + an lost of use fee.
Mod parent up, please. (Score:3)
It's already happening with software and electronics; it's already happening with cars (especially Teslas); it's starting to happen with everything else (i.e., everything infected with "IoT" bullshit). The DMCA and other parts of copyright law are being used as a lever to usurp actual property rights, the Uniform Commercial Code and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. Where does it end?
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You can thank millennials for that.
Ask them - they LIKE not owning stuff. Why own a movie you'll only see once? Just pay the rental and be done with it. Ditto music - why buy music - just rent it - far better to have more songs to listen to than a few songs you really like.
Ditto phones - why buy a phone
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I might be in the same boat. I'd rather have my music/movies/TV shows on a relatively small server (and backed up to a couple of binders full of BD-Rs in my office desk) than sprawled across lots of shelves.
At some point, I'd also like to digitize the books I have and thin out that collection considerably...p
Stereotype people much Bill? (Score:2)
"As more and more millennials come into the work force, they expect to see light, fast, small, and up-to-date tools to use, because that's what they're used to, and their tools are like a badge of honor," HPI's Vice-President and General Manager of Support Services Bill Avey said. "Older employees might want bigger screen and keyboards."
I want a pony -- a small one that gets bigger as I get older.
Isnt this called a lease? (Score:1)
What in the actual fuck? (Score:3)
As more and more millennials come into the work force, they expect to see light, fast, small, and up-to-date tools to use, because that's what they're used to, and their tools are like a badge of honor
Or how about they use the right tool for job, as determined by people who have actually been doing the fucking job? And how is a tool, be it a computer or airhammer or ratchet or saw a "badge of honor"? What the hell is this stuffed suit babbling about?
Older employees might want bigger screen and keyboards
Unless the "job" is posting on social media all day, watching cat videos, or sending pictures of your junk to strangers you meet on apps, what real work can anyone of any age or demographic actually get done on a mobile device? If your job involves creating content, code, spreadsheets, documents, really anything at all, how can you do it efficiently without a real screen and keyboard? I really doubt "millennials" or anyone else are so special that they can be productive pounding on a sheet of glass like a monkey.
Disaster-as-a-service (Score:2)
When I read the headline I thought it said "Disaster-as-a-service".
Even though it's been 3 years since I worked for them I think the 13 years that I did spend there could be best summed up by that phrase.
NSA will be pleased (Score:2)
"... as a service." (Score:4, Insightful)