IT managers need to know how to sift through all of the conflicting data to figure out what we really need to buy. Here's how.
The need for new hardware seems to constantly plague IT departments. Servers fail. Our clients constantly request new functionality without any clear understanding of the underlying hardware concerns. Leases run out, forcing us into replace-or-purchase decisions. New technologies refuse to work properly with older equipment, despite the manufacturer's warranty that everything will "play nicely together." How do we sift through all of the conflicting data to figure out what we really need to buy?
There are as many ways to work out the answers to the above questions as there are managers forced to make these decisions. However, all of us have specific triggers that cause these decision points to appear, as well as several generic decision parameters we plug our unique situations into. By balancing the factors of the triggering event with the various parameters, we can come to some kind of understanding about what kind of new hardware we actually need to purchase.
Triggering events
We don't generally wake up one morning and say, "let's go out and spend a million dollars on new desktops! That sounds like a great idea!" The need to buy new hardware, to deploy it, and to add it to the maintenance schedule comes about because some factor in the IT environment has changed. These changes come from a variety of sources, each requiring a slightly different approach to the analysis.
Common trigger events include:
