Managing personal desktop computing at Argonne National Laboratory
The increasing number of personal desktop computer users, coupled with rapidly changing personal desktop computer technology, has increased the demand for computing services at many computing centers. However, for many computing centers, budgets have not increased as rapidly as the demand for services. These centers can use several methods to help balance increasing demands and fixed resources. Providing personal desktop computing recommendations and encouraging users to follow them are effective means of meeting demands for computing services, even while operating within a constant or slowly growing budget. Providing personal desktop computing recommendations reduces evaluation costs, shifts the burden of evaluating personal desktop computing products, and encourages expertise. Making the acquisition of personal desktop computer hardware and software easier benefits the user as well as the computing center. Users receive evaluated products for which they can obtain assistance from the computing center, while computing centers encourage the use of recommended products. Computing centers can also encourage and nurture personal desktop computing users groups. These users groups identify areas of need, participate in the evaluation process, and help reduce the demand for computing center resources. This paper discusses issues associated with managing personal desktop computing, proposes guidelines for instituting a management program, and discusses our experiences with managing personal desktop computing at Argonne National Laboratory.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31-109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 5291507
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8509140-1; ON: DE85014976
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Conference of the ACM SIGUCCS user services ''Pulling It All Together'', Toledo, OH, USA, 30 Sep 1985
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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