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As the year progresses and performance demands on our curent fleet of devices increases, it’s getting harder for businesses to decide which technologies to adopt or which to avoid. The newest devices are coming out with a variety of enhancements like AI built-in, added security, and better performance. So we have a few questions for IT pros brave enough to answer.

How do you plan to deal with wear and tear this year? Is 2024 the year of band-aids and work-arounds? Or does IT get to eliminate issues? I’m poking fun on that second one, sorta.

#IAmIntel

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Given that we have zero computers compatible with Windows 11, for the next year, replacement would seem to be the wise choice.

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Systems that do not support Win11 will be replaced for my clients. AI to me is wait and I am thinking that like the Cloud it is being over marketed as as solution to everything.

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depends on current compatibility of the system and cost of repair vs replacement. Most of our users are running cloud programs so performance is usually not a problem even on for a several year old system. When we build their PCs we spec them well for the in-current available technology. Sometimes these computers go 6-8 years without an issue. The occasional power supply swap is usually the only issues our PCs see in their lifetime

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It’s the year of “wait and see” …

Since I’m on the EDU licensing, I get to run 10 till next year. All my machines can run 11, but I don’t have the time to take on that project this summer. Working on setting up SCCM to automate a bunch of that workload, and hoping that 12 is going to undo some of the stupidity of rearranging the deck chairs for no reason other than trying to look more “Apple-y”

Being a K-8, the AI stuff is going to remain turned off here. I prefer that they at least develop their own intelligence enough to know when the artificial is failing.

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Exactly - short of a hardware issue, no reason to upgrade. IF- let me say that again - IF some tech/application comes out that our company can greatly benefit from these new ‘ai’ features, then we could do a cost analysis to see where best to go.

As mentioned above - Windows 11 hardware requirements will be forcing some machines replacement even though everything works just fine on them.

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We will have to be replacing workstations with new ones since it’s a bit past time for it. Certainly won’t be keeping any of the stuff preinstalled on the systems though, we’ll be imaging them with one configured in house and with as much of the microsoft bloat as possible also removed. Then we’ll probably spend the next 5 years complaining about any of that crap that we aren’t able to get rid of

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We rotate our fleet out every 5 years currently. So, we just replace those that are due for replacement. Nothing fancy here and no need for some of the marketed new/improved capabilities.

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I am in a dilemma… I just got a new laptop a month ago. but then NPU’s where announced and I kinda want to try one

We usually rotate gear every 3 years. that feels like a long time to wait
LOL

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4 year rolling replacement program here, all Laptops get 4 years of warranty support & then are replaced as we tend to see Batteries getting to end of life at that point & it’s just not worth the hassle of changing them in the machines that we are getting.

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I, like some others, feel that AI is being over-promoted. It’s just like the cloud, where so many “jumped on the bandwagon” only to discover in a few short years that it was more costly than on-prem, and are now migrating back to non-cloud. We’re really glad we didn’t go “all-in” and stayed with most of our on-prem systems. I really think that AI is going to pan out to be the same.

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Maybe I’m the only one, but workstations, we do a slow rolling deployment on laptops. a certain number every year. That way we slowly rollout the older equipment.

As for server equipment, and backup software, and storage, most of that is about 4 years old now, and has been upgraded once. Next fiscal year we’ll probably be replacing some of it (mostly storage area networks). This year is mostly batteries and battery backups in critical systems, printers (that are older, we have about 25% of our small printers that need replaced).

I personally prefer slow rollouts over large replacements every so many years. It’s easier to manage and if you run into a hiccup on the design of the new version it doesn’t affect as much.

Our Big focus is on contracts software and infrastructure. We’re trimming where we can, and trying to hold our vendors pricing to keep costs down. Big rollouts are in replacing aging software systems like MDR, logging, and reporting tools, and operational efficiency software

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Makes sense! Let us know which devices you choose for your fleet.

#IAmIntel

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You’re right, there is a lot of talk about AI, cloud, and gaming out there.

#IamIntel

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That’s a great point about development first. It seems that technology can be a distraction from the learning process.

#IAmIntel

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Thank you everyone for your replies!

Considering that many organizations have hybrid networks, it’s not surprising the slow roll out strategy seems to be the best plan for many organizations.

#IAmIntel

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We just did an internal refresh for all new laptops for our internal team. All vpro machines. We provide this service for our clients as well. We aren’t looking at AI built in, I don’t personally see the need when if we wanted to we can do co pilot or other AI tools. For our business needs that is not needed but we bought machines that should hopefully last a couple years and updated everyone docks.

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I understand how you feel with all of the attention on AI. What I am seeing is that ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) are creating software that can only run on AI enable platforms. I expect to see more ISVs market their software to businesses and saying that the software performs better with AI hardware.

So, I’m wondering if this new software they are creating would run on non-AI platforms and what type of performance can we expect if we try to do it. Interesting times are ahead of us!

#IAmIntel

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I think we have plans to try the new snapdragon PCs(hopefully). When it comes to new vs fix it really is just a balancing act of which cost the least amount of man hours and/or money!

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Does the fact that I am still running a couple of 32bit systems answer the question?

In fact, to stick a cracker up your clackers… The AI applications run much better on IE
I have tried almost every browser & most of our applications (especially the EDGE AI) do not run well on most current browsers.
Using port 8592; Brave sees every application as a hack & throws up shields, Chrome just blocks most functions (both, despite settings otherwise). Ol’ firefox gives it a good go, but fails to communicate properly with the devices (HTML4.98??).
Old IE jumps right on board, allows FULL function, across HTML5 & other ‘mystical updates’.

How many others have found issues with ports & advanced functions, in modern browsers? Firefox have had port 85 blocked, since it was given an assignation about a year or so back.

I often have to use the unassigned Http/RTSP ports, many are getting confused in modern browsers - this is not a good future for applications like AI.

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