Your IT manager thinks it's your fault [BT broadband office]

Your IT manager thinks it's your fault

Posted 10 September 2007 at 8:37AM by Simon Dickson in IT systems and support

A survey of European IT managers in smaller companies confirms what we've all suspected: your IT manager doesn't like you. Silicon.com reports that nearly a third of respondents said employee behaviour was their most frustrating problem, and a quarter said their fellow employees were responsible for security problems. And whilst employees admitted to spending half an hour per day looking at non-work related websites, suspicious IT managers reckoned it was more than that - totalling four hours in the typical week.

I actually have a lot of sympathy for IT managers. Like football referees, we only notice them when they make a mistake, and then we tear them to pieces. But they're fighting an uphill - and in all likelihood, a losing battle.

Take the example of USB memory sticks / keys / whatever you call them. (Actually... what do you call them? Leave a comment.) They have long since replaced the floppy disk as the preferred means of file transfer from one machine to another. But as USB prices have fallen, things move to another level. You don't have to look too hard to find a 4GB stick for under £20 - that's plenty of capacity to run a full-on operating system like Ubuntu Linux, with plenty of room for file storage too. If you were already worried about users bringing in infected files from home, things just got a whole lot worse.

Meanwhile, 'web 2.0' is taking away the need for anything on the PC, other than a web browser. Email, file sharing, instant messaging - all can be done quite happily, and indeed often better, via the web. And whilst you can (and probably should) have some kind of content filtering tool on your company's net connection, it takes considerable effort to keep any blacklist of banned sites up to date. They can't win.

Tags: it management, linux, lockdown, support, usb, web 2.0

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Comments

1. At September 10, 2007 12:30 PM, Anjanesh wrote:

controversial topic this.
on no account should users be encouraged to swap files on usb sticks at all ; that does not prevent people from emailing stuff to themselves.
Content filtering might work- just ;but it will be a complex scenario where IT departments (already under pressure as cost centers) have to justify time / effort spent on constant monitoring and plugging loopholes.
No system is foolproof; why not allow a sandboxed approach to running external programs on company networks ? I believe netware which serves out OS over the network ( instead of localised OS) has some additional features in this area.
A bit more open approach by in- house IT department via better communication with 'mere mortals' would help.

2. At September 10, 2007 1:48 PM, David Wealleans wrote:

Serves them right. Users have spent years trying to make us use a tool with imposed restrictions (a bit like making us swing a hammer in a 6 inch space), while IT specialists daily look for ways to make the tools even harder to use. Now increasing user sophistication and new technology is making IT departments less and less relevant. Hurrah!

3. At September 10, 2007 3:21 PM, Garth Oelofse wrote:

This is a problem not only with in small companies but right across the board that i why companies have produced software to managed there systems.

I know of a number of applications on the market today that will help them.

If they need more info please let them contact me.

Regards

Garth Oelofse
Independent IT Infrastructure Consultant & Solutions Architech

4. At September 12, 2007 8:08 AM, Pam wrote:

Firstly, I call them "USB Thingies," but that's probably just me.

Personally we use them all the time at work and have never experianced any trouble. Having said that, I don't think anyone here would know how to put a whole operating system on a USB thingie.

5. At September 12, 2007 2:02 PM, Simon wrote:

'Thingies' - er, thanks Pam. ;)

Yes, I had a feeling this would be controversial. But Anjanesh is spot on; even if you banned the use of USB thingies, and even if people obeyed the ban, they would quickly find a workaround. Certainly I've emailed stuff in to myself, when I've needed it.

I can't imagine life without USB thingies. I'm regularly dealing with files several megabytes in size; and arguably, from a sysadmin's point of view, USB thingies are better for the office network's performance than email or web download.

As I say, I don't think the IT managers can beat us... so they'll have to join us. I can't immediately think what that means in practice, though.

6. At September 13, 2007 10:21 AM, Anjanesh wrote:

USB thingies are easy enough to configure with an entire operating system mostly linux and even a compact version of windows.Or you could even run your own personal application suite off the drive(aka mozilla application suite ). Possibilities are endless...
As for workarounds, with widesprad use of ajax technologies (like google chat within browser) and shared workspaces the need for a dedicated client side application for most purposes is diminishing.
Origianl quote 'web 2.0' is taking away the need for anything on the PC' - is very much true.

7. At September 13, 2007 1:36 PM, Bob Roberts wrote:

I prefer 'dongle', one of those names you can't really imagine being the best from the list of possible names, but they decided on that one just so people would have to go to a shop and ask for a 'dongle' while trying to keep a straight face.

There seems to be a fine line when it comes to restrictions in the workplace.. too lax and users find a work around quite easily, too strict and users can't do anything at all, including their daily work. At the end of the day, I don't see the harm in giving a little access to the user.. as long as they aren't stupid enough to abuse it.

8. At September 14, 2007 12:05 PM, Mark wrote:

I go for USB Stick myself.

As the Technology manager in a small company (10-15 users) I may be in a different boat to those questioned, but I have to disagree with the view of it being the employees that cause me frustration. If they are doing something wrong then I haven't documented how to do it correctly well enough, if they don't understand something then I need to train them better. The thing that frustrates me more is when I get stupid things wrong or incompatibility issues between computers & peripherals.

9. At September 14, 2007 2:05 PM, Anjanesh wrote:

interesting viewpoint from Mark..shows other side of the fence.I did'nt realise IT dep was taking flak for training. Do you have system failures due to user's oversight ? just curious to know.

10. At September 17, 2007 12:00 AM, Simon wrote:

Good to see Mark taking a purist's view of usability: 'if you can't use it properly, it's my fault, not yours.' Hear hear.

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