Future Proofing Your Computing Environment

• Plan for functionality
  • Assess your present and future needs, not daydreams
  • Look for workflow improvements
  • Consider ergonomic factors
• Financial Value
• Initial investment
  • life expectancy
  • look for price breaks as products mature
• Recurring costs
  • Internet connection
  • Power usage and heat loading
  • Service contracts
• Hidden costs
  • Printing
    • per page costs: laser toner is much cheaper than inkjet cartridges
    • reliability: inkjet printers need to be used daily - or print quality suffers
    • paper: copy paper costs much less than specialty papers or preprinted forms
  • Repair or throw away decisions
    • inexpensive commodity items are often cheaper to replace than repair
    • real costs may lie in installation labor
  • Ergonomic/human factors
    • bad designs can increase risks of repetitive stress injuries
    • equipment location
• Brands aren't everything
  • Stick with commodity parts - can you buy a replacement in town?
  • Beware "enhancements" that require special software
  • Brands such as Dell offer service contracts that may be very cost effective in home computing
• Use open standards
  • Compatibility with vendors and customers
  • Maintenance costs reduced
  • Customization costs often less expensive than development of a proprietary solution
  • Future migration
  • Open Source software will not fail if the software company goes out of business
• Long term value
  • VHS is still in use, but how many Betamax tapes do you own?
  • Can you still use your old data?