Standardizing Your IT Infrastructure

This seemed like it was going to be over my head when I registered but the ideas were really quite interesting.

Standardizing Your IT Infrastructure is another chapter from the MaintainIT Planning for Success Cookbook being covered by the one-hour webinar. Some of what was covered -

• Standardization that minimizes cost, reduce burden on IT staff, avoid compatibility issues, and improves communication. The more variety you have in hardware and software the harder it is to troubleshoot problems.
• Standardizing hardware makes cloning equipment easier.

Tips for Standardizing

1. Buy in quantity (or buy groups for sections within the library)
• look for state or cooperative purchase discounts
• look for quantity discounts
• considering the Total Cost of Ownership - is it more cost effective to have all the same equipment because of the savings in staff time
  
2. Buy business-class computers
3. Plan ahead
4. Make technology inventories and track your assets
• try TechAtlas (it's free from WebJunction)
  
5. Make purchases centrally
6. Accept donations selectively
• refer to qualified refurbisher or recycler if you can't accept it
• seek donations from a reputable refurbisher
• be sure to get the software
• remember the accessories (keyboard, mouse, monitor)
  
• delete personal information
  
7. Adopt standardization policies
8. Use systems management software suites
• Help IT department handle routine tasks
  
• more cost effective on the larger scale