Outsourcer Offers Windows Vista Upgrades -- From Offshore

[OhioChick]

HCL Technologies says its Zero Touch desktop deployment service for Microsoft Windows Vista is completely automated and will allow businesses to cut Vista installation costs by 40%.

By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek

Dec 1, 2006 03:00 PM

India-based outsourcer HCL Technologies has introduced a service under which it will remotely upgrade business computers to Windows Vista from its offshore facilities.

The company said Friday that its Zero Touch desktop deployment service for Microsoft Windows Vista is completely automated and will allow businesses to cut Vista installation costs by 40%. The service also covers installation of packaged applications designed to run atop Vista.

While some businesses may balk at the notion of having critical systems upgraded from an offshore facility, HCL says the process is risk free. The company's Zero Touch service includes a robust back-up and restore capability that promises "zero tolerance" for data loss, HCL says. The service also meets all ITIL standards for system upgrades, according to HCL.

http://www.informationweek.com/outsourcing/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196601008

[Ezlivin]

1. Hell, let's just leave the OS and the application on a remote server

and use a terminal to access it. Save your documents locally and forget about ever having to worry about updates/upgrades/patches to the OS.

Is anyone else starting to think that our idea of an OS and where it needs to reside is getting a bit outdated?

[OhioChick]

2. I Agree. n/t

[w4rma]

4. I like the control and relative privacy that locally installed applications have.

But, I do see many many many uses for workstations working on remote servers.

[Katzenjammer]

12. I just don't understand it. Everyone wants to re-invent slow, insecure computer access

You'd think it was a plot by people who want to eavesdrop on traffic and rummage through everyone's files without the inconvenience of breaking into multiple locations.

[Pavulon]

3. Nice

do they support all the stuff that stops working after the upgrade.

NOTHING is risk free. Anyone who is not a technical moron would dismiss this outright.

[Solon]

5. Most businesses won't even upgrade to Vista till at least 2008 at the earliest...

Hell, many still run Windows 2000!

[WritersBlock]

7. Sad but true.

The place where I work is a large IT company, and our machines are running -- or more like walking -- W2K.

(With 128 MB RAM on IE-based web programs, but who's bitching? I like hourglasses.)

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled topic.

[Pavulon]

11. because it works,

Many shops run it because it is stable. MS extended service for it runs for several more years. W2k3, r2 seems stable but client software is a bit softer. Why pay someone to upgrade you machines when you can do it in house for little effort.

[fedsron2us]

6. The service meets all 'ITIL standards'

Oh Lord preserve us.

ITIL and ITIL standards are registered traded marks of the Office of Government Commerce linked to the British Treasury department.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITIL

Since Her majesty's Government has a long track record of screwing up major IT implementations and currently has several ongoing computing disasters on the boil I am not sure this is much of a recommendation

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/14/it_tyranny/

[Paulie]

10. ITIL is just a set of best practices

IT projects going in the toilet when using ITIL processes like release and change management generally isn't the fault of ITIL processes, it's the project management that's the issue. A whole different framework (PMI's PIMBOK is an example).

I'm ITIL Foundation Certified. It's a great framework for standardizing delivery of services, with a common set of processes and jargon. Wish we had ITIL in the US years ago, would have saved lots of headaches.

[fedsron2us]

13. Glad you like it.

If ITIL is not stopping crappy IT delivery what the hell is its point. It is the product not the bloody process which is important. When the crap hits the fan in IT it is always amazing how it is the fault of Project Managers, Developers, Testers etc never the Process wonks who are always careful not to dirty their hands with the business of getting the systems to work, yet feel fully qualified to tell everyone else how to do their jobs. This is just another example of the bureaucratic gobbledegook that is slowly throttling innovation out of the IT business. It is part of the relentless march of the suits over the technicians.

http://www.cio.com/leadership/buzz/column.html?ID=4186

I work in an organisation where ITIL is all the rage and the processes are scrupulously followed but I do not see any sign that the customers end experience of the IT applications is any better than when it was a decade ago. Despite the fact that problems are meticulously recorded, trend analysis is done, changes are micromanaged and releases are subject to endless review by management many of the systems are still clunkers. No one seems to notice that he process experts responsible for managing these areas do not have a clue about how the applications actually work in the real world so their decisions are often worthless. It also does not help that so much money and time has has gone into ITIL that there is none to spare for specifying, designing, testing and implementing the applications properly in the first place.

[zreosumgame]

8. we will do like we have for IE 7 and other 'upgrades'

that will need 6-12 months to get enough patches done to actually be usable :argh: anyone who takes this service sight unseen is in the wrong job.

[ShockediSay]

9. One of the risks of outsourcing nt

[high density]

14. An OS upgrade that is "completely automated???"

HAHAHA!!!!!!

But some bean counters out there are dumb enough to buy that shit. Most or all of this stuff can already be done with group policy in a Windows domain.