Every PC User Should Understand Their Computer’s Life Cycle

At a young age you learned about the circle of life. Despite the fact that computers aren’t alive, they do have a life cycle all their own. Every user should be aware of their PC’s life cycle, since you’ll care for and interact with your computer differently at each stage. To help you make the most out of your PC’s lifespan, we’ll go over all four cycles.

1. Procurement
For your purposes, your PC’s life cycle begins when you procure it; an investment that shouldn’t be taken lightly. After all, a workstation is a specialized tool that accesses sensitive information and it needs to work in conjunction with other components of your network. By overlooking this fact and doing something rash like purchasing a value pack of PCs from your New York electronics store, you may end up with an inadequate machine that hinders productivity.

When purchasing workstations for your company, you’ll want to invest the time required to fully understand just what kind of machine you need. This will require input from the teams and departments that will use the computers, as well as IT professionals in order to guarantee that what you’re getting is compatible with your IT infrastructure (and will remain compatible for years to come). When you’ve finally selected a PC with adequate specs that suit your needs, you’ll next want draw up a well-constructed purchase contract with your computer vendor. Then, you’ll be able to introduce your new PC to the office and the next cycle will begin.

2. Deployment
Before the PC can be incorporated into your company’s operations, it first needs to be configured to do what you need it to do. This will require working with IT to perform such tasks as; properly configuring the hardware, developing the system image, migrating all needed data and apps, as well as installing the PC at the user’s desk. If this deployment part of the life cycle is rushed or installing important functions are overlooked, then it will create issues for the next cycle.

3. Management and Operations
This is by far the longest running life cycle of a PC, and, if the computer is maintained properly, you’ll be able to successfully extend this cycle. In this cycle, IT support plays a critical role and helps maximize the computer’s operational efficiency in a variety of ways, including but not limited to:

• Help desk/end-user support
• User training
• Asset management
• Configuration management
• Vendor management
• Break-fix repairs
• Software updates
• Patch management
• Security
• Data backup

Such a list may seem a bit overwhelming, which is why Suffolk Computer Consultants has made it easy to outsource the care and maintenance of your company’s workstations. We employ remote monitoring and management tools that allow for our trained IT technicians to remotely oversee the care and maintenance of your computers. This includes catching issues early and resolving them before they turn into major problems that cause downtime, as well as on-site visits to resolve break-fix issues, should the need arise.

4. Retirement and Transition
All good things must come to an end. That’s what we see with every life cycle and the PC life cycle is no different. When you’re ready to move on to another machine, it’s your responsibility to properly dispose of the old unit. Gartner explains, “Lack of clear policies or poorly designed processes can expose a company to various risks. In the event of litigation or investigation, the company disposing of the PC bears the burden of proof for showing that appropriate procedures were followed for disposal. Best-practice PC disposal processes provide an audit trail documenting the serial-numbered inventory of disposed PCs, certification that proprietary and personal data has been removed and made unrecoverable, and transfer/reuse of software licenses, where applicable.”

Suffolk Computer Consultants can assist you with this last cycle too. We can wipe your PC’s old hard drive so that sensitive data can’t be recovered and accessed, as well as properly recycle your old computer and other technologies in order to minimize the environmental impact. Like with the previous three cycles, your business will benefit by having trained IT professionals assist you with this final cycle, especially when it comes to making absolutely sure that the data on your old computer can’t be recovered and result in a data breach, identity theft, or other worst-case scenario.

Whatever stage of the life cycle your PC is in, Suffolk Computer Consultants can provide professional assistance and support. Call us at 631-905-9617 to learn more.