The enterprise need to change how it provides services to the desktop.  What services do the users really need from us and how can we continue to provide them?

Internet/Intranet Web Services

More and more of the services we use are based on the big bad Internet standard W3C.  The enterprise needs to deliver these services with out proprietary tools that limit what computing systems they can be run on.    see: http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/.  Oh and maybe we should start moving some of this out of our costly data centers and on to systems like Amazon EC2.

Email

The Internet community has developed email standards that serve millions of accounts.  IMAP/POP and SMTP deliver email to client computers with lowest cost and in the most effective manner.  The time when an enterprise can afford to supply email from internal system has left us.  Tools such as Gmail/Postini or Zimbra can deliver email without the need for any infrastructure or staff.  Just move the MX record folks.

Calendaring

Calendaring is an interesting problem.  The enterprise seems to think that Notes or Exchange can deliver the goods, yet neither of these can deliver free/busy to the extended family that is our supply chain.  Since standards such as CalDev are not deployed, we have to fall back to something like Salesforce.com and Google Calendar or Zimbra to fix this now.

Instant Messaging

Instant Messaging is both the bane and the boon for end users, we hate it but we have to have it.  What works out in the real world: XMPP / Jabber.  You can put your own in and link out or just use what is out there depending on your needs and fears.

Desktop applications such as word processing, data management, etc..

The desktop software industry would make you think that you have to run Windows so that you can have the applications you need.  While I am a bit of a Mac fan boy mostly due to a bit of ego and the enjoyment of fine hardware the software that Apple supplies fills the needs of many many individuals.  The only issue for Mac in the 2009 enterprise is the fact that we have to run on the existing hardware that we cannot afford.  While there are some who  actually need Microsoft Office as well as some who need Photoshop, the vast majority do not.  Open Office is the great wedge we have to fill this gap.  Open Office is also a big stick and being a large software package it needs significant support.  Systems like Google Docs are now good enough for most work and the collaboration tools they provide go way beyond anything commercially available.

File storage

There are two major needs for file storage: First is for end users to keep stuff around for others and to share.  Second is for backup of local data.  While it is a grand vision to keep all of your data in the Cloud with Google Docs, Dropbox, or Backpack; users will make files and want to manage and keep them.  The enterprise must provide services to manage that data.

Computing to support the above items

As you can see from the above list of services the actual desktop does not really matter that much.  If it supports a standards based browser such as Firefox, an email client like Thunderbird and some sort of networking you are in the the pink.  Today the key is the cost of ownership and what you need to support that desktop are where you get hit!  What do we really need to do in the enterprise, Count-em, Authenticate-em, Update-em. We have to stay away from targeted solutions that limit the OS we are using.  Looking at the existing hardware in the enterprise we are limited to something that is x86 based.  In the final analysis Linux is the right tool for the time.  You need very little to be a Linux shop:  LDAP, SYSLOG, maybe SAMBA, and wine for the needy.  For now, no viruses, no spyware, etc.; how much money and time does that save?

Pull down Ubuntu 8.10 and install it!  Start a project to really save money in your enterprise!  The savings here are real as are the productivity gains, the improved user satisfaction, and complexity reduction.  Overcoming the inertia and thinking differently about your services is hard.  The morass of legislation along with corporate governance rules may scare some off of this but simplifying your environment and freeing up resources to improve the speed of the enterprise is the goal here.

If you do this please help by contributing resources to the community.  It pays you back instantly!

- Bob