Why Life Cycle Management?
As large an installation of administrative computers as Mount Royal has requires a proactive approach to managing these resources. There are a number of risks associated with older computers that are considered when assessing a replacement schedule such as system security, slower performance, increased IT support costs, reduced user productivity, and hardware failures with user downtime. To avoid the security risks and problems associated with older computers, the university requires a strategy to refresh out of support computers. Computer life cycle management allows IT Services to provide proactive planning for the university allowing IT Services to factor the costs of computer replacement into the university wide budget over time, instead of waiting until unexpected computer failure. This practice results in greater security, improved system performance and productivity, lower support costs, and downtime.
Hardware
The university provides a managed computing environment to the faculty and administrative staff on campus. In an effort to provide computers that are compliant to current industry hardware and software requirements, IT Services maintains the life cycle management (acquisition, deployment, movement, and retirement) system of administrative computer assets. Faculty and administrative departments will work with Campus Computing Support (CCS) on the initial acquisition of these computers for their faculty and staff to which life cycle management will be applied. The objective of hardware life cycle management includes:
- Asset assignment and location management.
- 4-year recommended support for desktop and laptop computers.
- Technical support of peripherals until unit failure or industry mandated obsolescence.
- Environmentally safe disposal of retired computer equipment.
For further information on administrative computer life cycle management, please contact the CCS supervisor - Ian Leeson @ ileeson@mtroyal.ca.
Software
The university centrally manages software licenses for use on campus through the software license manager located within IT Services. Purchased software licenses are registered by IT Services and then installed via IT Services support teams. Software licensing and usage is validated through various management tools employed by IT Services to ensure audit compliance and proper reporting. Various software types are utilized on campus inclusive of the following:
- A perpetual license.
- An annual license with maintenance.
- A concurrent license.
- A site license.
- An open Source.
Regular review of software licensing occurs annually to ensure the university licenses are up to date in respect to software version upgrades and maintenance support. In the case of product retirement, the License Manager is available to work with faculties and administrative departments to source a suitable replacement solution.
For further information on software licensing, please contact the IT Services License Manager: licensemanager@mtroyal.ca.