Directing Technology/Maintain/Maintaining Technology

Maintaining Technology

The success of a schools technological infrastructure depends on how well its is maintained using any of the preventive, diagnostic, updating,replacement, and repair procedures that a school or district has in place. The maintenance services can be provided by in-house technology specialists or through a third party outsourced contractors or volunteers. In any case,documenting of trends and patterns in the use of applications or equipment will be an important part maintenance.

Provisions for Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance refers to the schedule of planned maintenance actions aimed at the prevention of breakdowns and failures in the school districts technology infrastructure. The goal of various preventive maintenance tasks such as updates and upgrades to software and hardware, backup and disaster recovery procedures and networking monitoring is to preserve and enhance equipment reliability and performance.

Recent technological advances in tools for inspection and diagnosis have enabled even more accurate and effective maintenance. The ideal preventive maintenance program would prevent all major system failure before it occurs. Long-term effects and cost comparisons usually favor preventive maintenance over performing maintenance actions only when the system fails.

Software Maintenance Agreements

Maintenance agreements with the software developers are negotiated during the initial purchasing of license. Such agreements are usually not free of charge and require a fixed monthly or annual maintenance fee. This in turn will provide the school district with necessary documentation, support and updates to software. For example many school districts will purchase Apple Maintenance Plan or Apple Care Protection Plan [1] for up to 36 months with all of their new Apple computer systems so as to be eligible for major upgrades to OS X and iLife Suite. Similar agreements are also available for window products.

Backup and disaster recovery procedures

The Technology Director and Backup

Backing up the technology is a crucial role for the technology director. Knowing everything is secure prevents catastrophic failure in the school district. The backup should be onto removable media and stored with the technology director. "Training users to take the time to carry out a regular backup procedure will protect them from a variety of problems related to virus infection or machine failure. If regular backups of data are made, even if a virus infects a machine or the machine is compromised in some other way, critical information and work will not be lost" (p. 70).

How can the technology director ensure that appropriate backup procedures are regularly carried out? "The technology director must work with the network administrator to ensure that a disaster-recovery plan is in place, equipment and software are appropriate for regular backups, and the system is monitored regularly. Users must also be trained to follow appropriate backup procedures for important files and data" (p. 103).

Real-World Backup

This article illustrates backup in a school district setting in Massachusetts. This case provides insight for technology directors on how to investigate different types of backup. It is important to note how cost is a driving factor and how speed in recovery helps the school district secure their data, two driving forces for any technology director. Here is the link to the article: Storage Technology News

Another article comes from a Microsoft case study involving a school district in Northern California. This is a brief excerpt from the article: Tracy Unified School District in northern California wanted to streamline the work involved in daily backups and file recoveries. The small IT staff spent an inordinate amount of time backing up e-mail messages and documents every day for the district’s 22 schools and could spend days recovering accidentally deleted files or messages. The district deployed Microsoft® System Center Data Protection Manager 2007, a disk-and-tape backup system, to replace two tape-based systems. Today, Tracy Unified School District rests easier knowing that its Microsoft messaging and collaboration workloads are safeguarded by a Microsoft backup solution. The IT staff no longer worries about backups and has decreased its backup-related work by six hours per week. Students and staff receive recovered files faster, and the district has reduced backup-related costs by more than U.S.$40,000 annually. This is the rest of the article Tracy Unified School District

These two examples offer a glimpse into what schools are doing to backup their sensitive and important data. There will always be new companies creating new systems for backup. Technology directors must not be hooked by promises from those companies. Their job is to find the best backup system that has a proven track record of reliability.

Disaster recovery procedures

It is important that school districts prepare for possible emergency situations, in order to minimize disruptions to daily activities in schools. They should consider what type of back-up and preventive strategies would be appropriate for each aspect of their activities. The back-up and restoring can be very expensive and complex processes that will depend on specific systems and how quickly we need to restore. Naturally, the technology director needs have a written plan that outlines recurring backup and recovery procedures from both natural and man-made disasters. An assessment all the business applications should be performed in order to understand the risks and include them in the disaster recovery plan. The following graphic shows some of the areas that are covered in the disaster recovery plan for a school district.

The disaster recovery plan should be clear, concise, and easy to implement in an emergency. One way to achieve this is by having checklists and step-by-step procedures where possible. Moreover, it should be made available for the stakeholders and tested annually or biannually.

Server Backups

Backup refers to “a copy or duplicate version of a file, program, or entire computer system, retained for use in the event that the original is in some way rendered unusable.” Backup copies of data is created for all the data stored on the school servers so as to allow for fast and easy disaster recovery without the need to reinstall the operating system or applications. It is common for school districts to backup data at a single location and stores copies at off-site. It is common practice to have automated backup devices attached to all the servers or to have access such a utility over the network architecture. This technology enables files to be backed up on a regular basis without user intervention.

Backup VS Restore

A backup is a copy of one or more of your computer data files. Backups are stored at a location that is physically separate from the location of the original files. You can back up your data manually, by copying files from your hard drive to another hard drive or to removable media, such as CDs or DVDs. You can also use backup software to automate the process of backing up your files. If you use backup software, you don't have to worry about remembering to back up your data on a regular basis. Example: Performing a backup of important data onto a flash drive.

A restore is the process of recovering data from a backup, either manually or using backup software. A restore can be as simple as recovering a single file, or as complex as recovering your system and all of your files. Examples: If you accidentally delete some files, you may be able to restore them from a recent backup.

Even the smallest school district has numerous amounts of data that needs to be protected from loss. Whether it is a backup or restore, the technology director is responsible for making sure there is a regular backup on all data and that the people responsible understand how to restore that data.

General Backup FAQs

This site offers answers to backup questions that most technology directors will face. Here is one example of a backup question a technology director would face:

What media should you backup to? When you back up your data from your hard disk to another medium such as CD, floppy disk or another hard disk drive you have to ask yourself questions about the data capacity, security and convenience of the medium you are backing up to.

Removable media like CD, DVD, Floppy, Zip, Jaz and tape are the most secure way of making backups providing you store your backup disks in a physically separate location to your computer. There's no point storing backup disks anywhere near you computer because in the event of fire (and possibly theft) you'll lose the backup disks as well. However storing removable media in a physically different location poses practical problems of access as well as potential confidentiality problems stemming from the fact that other people might discover your backups and from them gain access to your confidential data. Encrypting backup data sets is a good solution to the latter. The other problem with removable media is that their storage capacity is not very large. In round numbers CDs can store a maximum of about 700MB, Jaz drives about 1000MB and DVDs about 2500 MB. This is small compared to modern hard drives which may hold 120,000 MB (120GB) or more. This limited data capacity means you will usually need several CDs or even DVDs to backup the data. This means in turn that you have to be physically around while backups are being made to change the disks. It also means that the disks must be properly labeled. Yet another implication of multi-disk backups is that if one disk in the backup set becomes accidentally scratched or damaged, the whole backup set may be unreadable.

Fixed media includes options like backing up to another partition of your hard disk, to another physically separate hard disk in your PC or to a hard disk on another PC via a network. Fixed media backups are normally faster, don't have the data storage restraints of removable media and don't require you to be in attendance while backups are made. However there are real security problems. Backing up a different part of your hard drive may be convenient but if your hard drive fails you'll lose your backup as well. Backing up to a different hard disk in your PC may be fast but if your PC is stolen your backup will be useless. Backing up to a different PC using a network is an excellent solution provided the other PC is in a different location. Not everyone has this option available to them.

Click here to find out more Backup FAQs

Network Maintenance

Network Monitoring Software MRTG.org [2] nagios.org [3] InterMapper [4] Zenoss [5] Other Network Monitoring Software [6]

Servers

Network maintenance or in general referred to as network management includes all those activities including software tools, methods, procedures related to keeping the network and the services provided on the network up and running smoothly. School districts usually hire highly skilled staff and expensive software tools to maintain their local and wide area networks. It includes monitoring the network to spot problems as soon as possible, ideally before users are affected. Network monitoring is another vital responsibility for the technology director. By having a breadth and depth of understanding about network monitoring, the school district will be able to run on an efficient and safe network. For more information regarding monitoring, check out Network Monitoring

Most large school districts with several buildings and departments use a single directory to efficiently administer and manage the network services. For example an Active Directory (AD) service can greatly increase the collaboration and improve administrative functions by providing remote administrative functionality.

Upgrade or update

System upgrade or update is considered as preventive maintenance task. There are several benefits or reasons for updating and upgrading software applications.

• gives the opportunity for the support staff to focus on a common platform and hence maximize the resources.
• provides access to new features that are available.
• fixes bugs that may be present on the system.
• provides security updates that can be critical to keep individual systems or network protected.

The system upgrades or updates are done at pre-planned time intervals as most of these tasks make the systems unavailable for the end users. So most school districts update or upgrade during summer break or any other school holidays.

Upgrades and updates also come with complications and potential risks. For example some updates to software or operating system may require updates to infrastructure including hardware. It may also come with unresolved problems and organization may become participants in the debugging process. Some organizations therefore adopt a philosophy that they will only upgrade or apply updates after certain time or one release behind the "leading edge".

Corrective Maintenance

Corrective maintenance refers to all the actions that are required to restore a defective system/software application to working condition. Certified technician usually work at school district or in the school building depending on the size of school to perform corrective maintenance tasks such as repair and restore. On the other hand, some small school districts may opt to have external maintenance agreement. The technology director will perform a cost benefit analysis in order to understand the risks and benefits of each solution before deciding to outsourcing maintenance services.

Internal Maintenance

Technology director is usually responsible for assessing in-house capability to deal with any potential problems and make the decision on providing internal maintenance services. As in business organizations the decision is not purely based on financial benefits, but also on fixing problems in a timely manner to avoid disruptions. There are several systems that are critical to the core mission of school - teaching and learning. Failure of any such system or network services can disrupt entire school. With internal maintenance it is possible to avoid monthly maintenance fees and inturn save money. The technology @ Your Fingertip [7] guide from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES [8]) has some useful questions to consider.

Also Gartner [9], a leading information technology research firm, provides a Web-based Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Tool [10] that help school districts and other educational institutions better understand and manage their technology environment and related costs.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is an alternative to in-house managing of hardware, software, installation and other services. Outsourcing or what is known as external maintenance agreements are similar to insurance policies. This enables the district staff to focus on the core mission of schools, teaching and learning, rather than worrying about solving technical problems. Districts are able to get the best of the resources and services by outsourcing the maintenance contracts to single vendors who will provide complete life-cycle solution to reduce the complexity of managing the large number of systems in schools.

Hardware Rotation Plan

Computer equipments has a limited useful time. Most districts technology budget will account for this fact and include some form of hardware rotation plan. It is also common practice to keep an inventory database of technology equipment that is used for long-range planning of hardware rotation. A simple rule of thumb is to set a budget to upgrade or replace 20% of total computers each year so that nothing more than five years old remains on site. In order to avoid the cost and all the hassles of discarding older computers, some districts may opt to lease the computers for three-five years. At the end of that time, either return the computers or lease new ones - in either case the organization is never paying for old machines.

Equipment Replacement

Due to rapid changes in technology, there should be constant upgrades and replacement of computer hardware. One average, equipment replacement should be every three to five years. In considering the replacement and upgrade of existing technology equipment, the district will use the following information as an informal guide in determining the need for replacement: Network electronics and PDAs- 2 years.Laptop computers, network servers and video cameras-3 years. Desktop computers and digital cameras- 4 years. Computer monitors and flatbed scanner- 5 years. Televisions and video projections- 6 years. Network printers, overhead projectors and computer carts- 8–12 years (p. 73). As technology progresses and improves, the life cycle of the technology equipment will change. Some technologies will increase in time of use and may be able to play a large part in the district for time to come. Nevertheless, we should be mindful of how fast technology is changing. It is more important for all stakeholders to understand how to properly maintain the equipment in order to extend its use.

Life Cycle FAQs

The following questions and answers are provided by SUNY computing services. This information may be useful for technology directors because it answers general questions regarding the life cycle of school technology. These ideas can be used in the k-12 arena, or at least provide new insight for technology directors.

"Q. What happens to my old computer after you replace it? May I keep it? A. To date every reclaimed computer as part of the lifecycle has been redeployed in areas of need. The CTS Helpdesk keeps a list of requests for additional/new computers. You may request to keep your old computer, but areas of need are filled first.

Q. Do you transfer my documents/data to my new computer? What happens to the information on the old one? A. Yes, we do attempt to transfer as much of your information as possible. Further, we hold onto your computer or its hard drive for a period of 4 to 6 months in a secure location. After that time, the old computer is erased and redeployed.

Q. Do you transfer my programs to my new computer? A. Programs cannot be copied, they must be installed from the original media. If you would like us to reinstall any software, please leave it with your computer at the time of lifecycle in your area with a note indicating so.

Q. Are there any implications of getting a laptop vs. a desktop? A. Aside from a smaller screen, the largest drawback of a laptop is service. CTS can get virtually any part for a desktop computer shipped to us overnight. Almost every part for a laptop requires that it be shipped back to the vendor for service. If your laptop fails, you can expect to be without it for up to 10 business days. Further, vendors do not include saving your data as part of the warranty service. Laptop users must be very careful to maintain good backups because CTS may have no way to backup information before it is returned for service!

Q. The specs between Macs and PCs differ, one has a larger hard drive and/or RAM than the other! Is there a bias towards a particular platform? A. No. We cannot control what vendors decide their minimum specs are. We try to fairly spend the same amount of money for the base price on each computer and match configurations as closely as possible. Sometimes one or the other vendor chooses to include more RAM, a bigger hard drive, or more USB ports for the same price. This is the way of things in the electronics world and is out of our hands."

Equipment Repairs

What happens when a computer’s hardware or its software fails in some way? There are several things to consider here and the issue is obviously quite important. This entry shall look at the area of day-to-day update and upgrade in a separate category below. Large companies often have the advantage of having an in-house computer shop where computers can be brought or mailed and repairs and upgrades to hardware done and software reinstalled or machines reimaged. All but the largest schools will not have the benefit of such a separate department. Things the tech director needs to think about are: how does the end user notify the technology department about a problem with his/her computer (by phone, by email, by some web-based form)? How does the technology department log such calls (so as it have a record and also prioritize them (when there are more than a few requests, prioritization must kick in, though end users may not be told of this)? What process will be in place to provide users with spare computers when theirs will not be available for an extended period of time? Who will actually fix the computers or handle software issues? What, if any, spare parts will be available to make quick repairs?

As for logging these calls about hardware or software failure, this has already been addressed to some extent above. Inventorying software like Intelli-Track and others have built in software to connect trouble tickets with the hardware/software database. As Frazier and Bailey point out, this is not only a way to log work orders or trouble tickets, but also a way for tech directors and helpdesk techs to see how the same or similar issues were fixed in the past and also to run reports on problems and speed of repair to make a case to a school board for extra staff or even for vendor contracts. Another good call tracking database program is Clientele, by Epicor, but not as good on inventory.

As for how users will contact the technology department about a failure, Frazier and Bailey make several suggestions, but some directors have found through experience that end users like to speak with a person as opposed to emailing someone or filling out a form on-line. End users may always come back with the response “how can I fill out a form if my computer is down?” Tech directors must prioritize problems by some well thought out process; however, having a trouble line that an end user can call, even if a message will have to be left, seems like a better option. An important consideration will be how well the director or techs follow-up with that user. Larger schools will have the capability to hire a helpdesk tech or two so that end users can always get a real person on the phone. Helpdesks, actually, do not have to be that large and techs do not get paid that well, comparatively speaking, so often the case can be made fairly easily with a school board to start one. Perhaps two part-timers can be hired (who together then cover the whole day) to avoid paying benefits. Helpdesks will also free up the tech director to respond to end user issues like password resets or how-to questions. Who will repair the computers and fix the software? This question is obviously something the tech director must address. The options come down to going in-house or going external. Really, reinstalling or reimaging a computer will nearly always be done by the school itself because, simply put, it is their software and no one else knows what applications they run on their computers and in what exact configuration. For hardware, some schools have opted to go for the (typically) 3-year warranty contract that comes with many computers today and many of these contracts also extend to onsite service. Dell, for instance, will send a tech out within 24 hours to replace parts, such as a motherboard, hard drive, or video card as long as the machine is under the 3-year warranty period. Apple has a similar program, discussed here. See two articles in the Vanguard Report p 23 here and here that talk about how two medium sized school districts combined a small in-house helpdesk with a local vendor contract (i.e., other than the manufacturer) for a nice cost savings and good turn around time. As another contributor to this Wiki on maintenance issues has stated, the Gartner group has a nice TCO calculator on their website that will broach some of the issues and tradeoffs in this whole area and allow one also to see some relevant numbers.

One last thing concerns spare computers and spare parts to have on hand. It will be important to have spare computers on hand that are already imaged to use in the event that a tech cannot repair a particularly important machine in a reasonable or feasible period of time. The figure as to how many to have on hand is 3% of the total computers in the district. Spare parts also need to be on hand such as keyboards, mice, and printers. What exactly to keep on hand as spare part will be determined by the kinds of things the entities contracted to do service for your district will be doing and how fast they will be doing it.

Updating, Patching, and otherwise Securing Computers

This topic will be dealt with from the standpoint of software and also from the standpoint of the end user computers (workstations) as opposed to servers, since the latter are less in number and may also present unique issues that have to be dealt with on a more individualized basis. Other parts of this Wiki also will address network maintenance as well as hardware upgrades and life cycle issues in general for end user computers.

What things might have to be updated when it comes to the software on end user school computers? The following is a typical list, but may not be comprehensive:

1. Security and operational related updates to the operating system.
2. Security and operational related updates to other software, such as Microsoft Office applications and specifically educational applications; the latter are usually required much less often.
3. Updates to anti-virus and anti-spyware programs (definitions), typically done daily.
4. Routine maintenance run on computers, like defragmentation and cleaning of mice and keyboards and CD/DVD drives. (Often done during summers.)
5. Detecting unlicensed software on computers.
6. More in the area of training, informing users about what they should and should not click on, email safety, and general good Internet practices.

Backups run on end user computers and on servers will be addressed in a different part of this Wiki.

How can all these things be accomplished or managed? Many directors would probably agree that there has yet to emerge the one good solution, especially for points 1. and 2. above. Many large companies use Computer Associates’ Unicenter to manage software delivery to the many end users in their purview as well as to detect and even remove unlicensed and illegal software. See Flash demo of CA Unicenter software delivery here. The cost for licensing such software usually makes it prohibitive to even the largest school districts. There are other ways to do things, but not with the same immediacy as what Unicenter might be able to achieve.

As for 1, 2, and 3 above, settings can be built into the image that assist in doing these updates in a more or less timely fashion. Not every update is as crucial as every other, and software vendors will usually alert one by email or Web as to what is more pressing or absolutely critical. When doing the image, both anti-virus and anti-spyware programs should be included and the auto-update setting turned on for “daily.” There are several very good AV and anti-spyware programs available today, including Avast, AVG, and Sophos; Sophos is particularly useful in that it is both comprehensive and also has an anti-spyware function and firewall built into it. Here is a website that includes a nice compendium of AV and other security related applications. When selecting the software, one must pay attention to licensing fees for schools but also for number of machines used.

Updates for both the Windows and MAC OS’s can be achieved by turning on the update mechanisms built into each of them. (Whatever updates cannot be done through the built in updater will usually have to wait until regular summer time maintenance.) In many corporate settings, this works fairly well and computers can be configured so that administrative rights are not needed to perform them. Users can be instructed in training sessions that clicking yes to do these updates as they appear on their computers from time to time is a good thing to do. When facing a particularly critical update need, communication should go out district-wide as to what is going to happen.

As for updates to Microsoft Office, or whatever office package is employed, the same updater can be turned on for that package in the imaging process. It might end of being less intrusive for users to turn off these updates and save them for a summer time maintenance, since they usually are not critical ones. The updates for other software programs might be more problematic because there is no ability to update them automatically. Thankfully, such updates are usually quite infrequent. Users who run these programs can be emailed, en masse, to go to a certain website and run said file to update that particular software. The other routine maintenance mentioned above (defrag, cleaning drives and lenses, etc.) will usually be done during a regimen in summer time.

Concerning keeping computers free of unlicensed software, one would think that the rights managements schemes mentioned above would prevent anything from getting on a machine other than what was intended by the technology department (or if it had to disappear after a reboot). Nevertheless, somehow or other end users sometimes get around such measures or the software in place fails to perform as it should and there can arise a potential audit issue. Thus, it is important here to mention a program like Novell’s Zenworks that can equip the tech department in finding and even disposing of unregistered software. On this page is found other such applications and a page full of very practical helps on security for school districts.

Finally, while this chapter does not address training, some of the things discussed here concerning virus and spyware prevention and security will be supplemented greatly by teaching end users some basic tips on Internet navigation, email usage, and password creation. Training should be held and supplemented by easy to read cheat sheets that lay out what to do and not to do when it comes to handling these kinds of network resources. The page referenced above on security tips lays out some clever quizzes that can actually be given to teachers to drive home the points made.

Excursus on Software Licensing

Basic rule is that for every software application, there needs to be:

• An end user license agreement (EULA)
• The media
• Proof of purchase (usually the invoice)

One computer, one license Concurrent use rights for operating systems are not available, nor are secondary use rights (sometimes referred to as the 80/20 rule) offered for portable or home use.

You do not own the software: Software is older under copyright laws; the stipulation is that you are licensed to use the software.

Penalties for non compliance:

There may be fines of up to $150,000 per infringed title Total $250,000 per organization and 5 years in prison

Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) is the trade group and watchdog for software industry and does audits

Common types on license violations:

• Sharing software licenses between computers
• Legal upgrade of product on top of unlicensed full version of product
• Computers accessing server based systems without correct network access license

From Education World:

1. Commercial software represents the majority of software purchased. In general, commercial software licenses stipulate that

• the software is covered by copyright.
• although one archival copy of the software can be made, the backup copy cannot be used except when the original package fails or is destroyed.
• modifying the software is not allowed.
• decompiling (reverse engineering) of the program code is not allowed without the permission of the copyright holder.
• developing new work built on the package (derivative work) is not allowed without the permission of the copyright holder.

2. Shareware software licenses allow purchasers to make and distribute copies of the software but demand that if, after testing the software, you adopt it for use, you must pay for it. In general, shareware software licenses stipulate that

• the software is covered by copyright.
• although one archival copy of the software can be made, the backup copy cannot be used except when the original package fails or is destroyed.
• modifying the software is not allowed.
• decompiling (reverse engineering) of the program code is not allowed without the permission of the copyright holder.
• developing new work built on the package (derivative work) is not allowed without the permission of the copyright holder.

Note that selling software as shareware is a marketing decision that does not change its copyright status. 3. Freeware is also covered by copyright and subject to the conditions defined by the holder of the copyright. In general, freeware software licenses stipulate that

• the software is covered by copyright.
• copies of the software can be made for both archival and distribution purposes but that distribution cannot be for profit.
• modifying the software is allowed and encouraged.
• decompiling (reverse engineering) of the program code is allowed without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.
• developing new work built on the package (derivative work) is allowed and encouraged with the condition that derivative work must also be designated as freeware. That means that you cannot modify or extend freeware and then sell it as commercial or shareware software.

Ways to detect illegal software:

Auditnet.org has a tool called PCProfile ($195 per organization regardless of number of computers; provides a list of executable files on a machine and the description of the application; is supposed to be good on bandwidth)

End of Life

When a piece of technology has reached the end of its use, there are several things a technology director should do: 1) Return the technology if it was leased-for example, if a school leased a copying machine. 2) Disposal of the technology- if a keyboard is no longer usable or out of date, then it can be disposed of. 3) Sell the technology- After computers have been used for several years, the school district can make them available for purchase by the students at perhaps a subsidized cost. 4) Transfer the files to the new system- for example, pertinent information about attendance, grades, etc. 5) Delete the items that are no longer in use from the district inventory- Once something is not being used by the district, it does not have to be inventoried. These guidelines will vary from district to district.Every day technologies will reach their end, the procedures in place allow the technology director to have an efficient and expedient way to remove the old and bring in and immediately incorporate the new technologies.

Research on End of Life

This older 1997 study presents information about the numbers of computers that would be found in landfills due to recycled electronics. Here is the abstract of the study, A widely cited 1991 study predicted that nearly 150 million personal computers (PCs) would be sent to landfills by 2005. Taking into consideration newer end-of-life disposition options now available, the general premise of the original study is reconsidered. Many fewer computers are being sent to landfills, as many more are being recycled as markets forused computers and electronic equipment develop. Many are still being stored, despite the unprofitable nature of storage. The updated model suggests that nearly 150 million computers will be recycled in 2005– the same number initially predicted to be landfilled. Instead, we predict that only 55 million will be landfilled. In addition, the equivalent of 15 million PCs will be landfilled from the unused portions of the 150 million recycled computers. In essence, the computers sentenced to death in landfills in 1991 have been given a second life in newly established recycled electronic goods markets. The article can be read in its entirety at End of Life Article

The State University of New York at Potsdam also provides a detailed and thoughtful illustration of the life cycle of computers. Potsdam Computer Life Cycle After looking at this site, technology directors will be able to see the specifications for software and a timetable.

This wiki on the OLPC gives insight into their product life cycle. OLPC With the wave of OLPC making its way into schools, technology directors will have more information on how to manage OLPC computers.

Further reading

Two companies that supply software to lock down laptops in event they are stolen:

Absolute company

Safeboot company

A Beginner's Guide to School Security

Good websites on software licensing issues:

The global resource for auditors with links, tools and resources developed for the benefit of auditors. This link is great for solid beginner information on software licensing.

Microsoft Licensing Home page See Microsoft Sample Product Use Rights document here.

International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers Especially good on software licensing issues.

Wikipedia entry on Open Source License

Glossary of legal terms in technology

List of software licenses

See this wikipedia entry on enforceability:

Wikipedia entry on EULA

Further reading

• Minimizing hard disk drive failure and data loss
• Wikibooks:Information technology bookshelf