Service Management for Dummies®

Chapter 13. Desktop and Device Management

In This Chapter

• Looking at the client management universe

• Understanding the five process areas of client management

• Moving from physical to virtual computers

• Fulfilling service-level expectations

A long time ago, before laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and cellphones, life on the desktop side was very peaceful. Customers all had terminals on their desktops that were more or less directly connected to a central computing resource. There was no user software to upgrade; there weren't many applications; user support wasn't too demanding. The only color that IT had to worry about was the pleasant green of the mainframe terminal.

But one day, a big, disruptive event occurred: The personal computer broke into the organization. Users were delighted with this sparkling new productivity tool, but they weren't particularly adept at taking care of it or even backing up the precious data that they created on it. Even when these wonderful devices were networked in local area networks, their management generally was the responsibility of each department and had little or nothing to do with IT.

The PC was enormously successful. Having delivered personal productivity applications, it displaced the mainframe's green screens and then became the platform for many client/server applications and networked applications such as e-mail and file sharing. At that point, the world of desktop management changed dramatically because it had to. The PC became ...