The Cube Diver and the Crash Cart

They go by many names, but every company has one. Desktop support. Sysad. “The IT Guy/Gal.”

It’s that smart, dependable, slightly harried man or woman who gets the phone call when users crash their computers, accidentally uninstall their printer drivers, or spontaneously “lose” six months’ worth of work. These worthies are called cube divers, and while they’re very good at cleaning up users’ messes, they’d really rather be doing something else.

And if you’re their boss, you’d probably agree. Creative, capable workers should spend their time on more complicated tasks than taping down Ethernet cable.

“If you get good technical people, instead of just putting out fires they’re able to effectively improve the knowledge level of your staff, improving your productivity well beyond the cost of your IT department.” (Adventures in Troubleshooting)

But under tight budgets, companies will always try to do more with less. So instead of hiring a couple of programmers, some DBAs and network specialists, and a few people dedicated to desktop support, some organizations prefer to just let whoever’s around take care of those occasional user problems.

“Senior managers are now looking for a demonstrable return on their technology investments and, far from loosening the purse strings, most IT managers now say they are faced with the problem of doing more with the same or smaller budgets.” (Tagging Tech)

Even in those cases where a real desktop support person exists, their time would be better spent finding new solutions to common user problems — scoping out new purchases, implementing security updates, finding a new way to integrate departments and processes. Instead they’re stuck behind their crash carts, unplugging dead computers and plugging in new ones.

Fortunately, there are cost-effective measures that will eliminate the crash cart, greatly reduce downtime, and allow IT pros to do what they do best. With a comprehensive, centralized computing solution, nobody has to wait around for that next panicked user’s phone call. They know immediately when a workstation goes down. The user’s work isn’t lost, because it just fails over onto an available blade. The user might not even know there was ever a problem. But in the background a product such as ClearCube’s Sentral can proactively resolve issues on behalf of an IT group. It takes a little bit of time to get Sentral set up and configured, but after that it acts on behalf of the IT group to resolve critical situations and/or notify IT personnel when problems do occur.

This benefits the whole company and reduces the bottom line expense associated with providing and supporting computing infrastructure. Overall, that’s a win-win situation.