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Kevin Kohut
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Singing the Upgrade Blues |
| When exactly is an IT professional supposed to take the latest and greatest seriously? |
| by Kevin Kohut |
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4/30/2003 -- Recently I upgraded one of my clients from Office 2000 to Office XP. The main (in fact, the only) reason for doing this was an interoperability issue they were having with Access 2000 and an MDE application that used the Access 2002 runtime. To make matters worse, the MDE app was designed to work with SQL 7, while all the client's other SQL apps used SQL 2000. I got everything working properly, and the client, at least for the time being, is happy.
This got me thinking about the nature of upgrades lately. Did you know, for example, that Microsoft is slated to release some 24 new or upgraded software titles through the end of this year? All in addition to the myriad applications, servers, utilities, etc. it already offers. Some are getting all sorts of attention (can you say Windows Server .Net, or is it Windows .Net Server, no, wait, Windows 2003 Server -- oh, you know what I'm talking about!), while others just kind of happen.
For instance, if you've developed, installed or supported a Visual Basic application that involves database connectivity -- in other words, just about anything written in VB -- you most certainly have encountered Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC). Quick, what is the latest MDAC version: 2.5? 2.6? 2.7? Will an app requiring MDAC 2.5 work with MDAC 2.6? Which version of MDAC gets installed as part of an SQL 2000 install? With Office 2000?
Let's not just pick on Microsoft. Do you support Cisco routers or switches? Then you've had to deal with major and minor IOS versions, and their various flavors (switches vs. routers vs. firewalls, etc.). Or what about Netscreen and their ScreenOS? We've got a Net 5 at one of our home offices running version 3.0.3r5.0, and another one running 3.0.0r3.0. There's also a version 4 out there. Since we're not having any problems with either of these units we are hesitant to upgrade them. But then we have to also consider what Netscreen is officially supporting.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with all the software and hardware changes out there. As IT professionals we are pretty much at the mercy of the Microsofts, Ciscos and Netscreens of the world. Even so, there are some things we can do to help alleviate all the version headaches we are faced with:
1) Press for Business Solutions - Not Just Technology: Did all those folks who upgraded to Office XP really need to do so? While there's always situations where upgrading is the best approach (as was the case for the client I mentioned earlier), sometimes, it's just an excuse -- or worse, there's the "We need the latest version because it has this cool new feature" strategy. That's where my next tip comes in:
2) Educate the Users: Almost all of my clients wanted to upgrade to Office XP when it came out just because it came out, simply because it was the latest version. I was able to dissuade them by knowing how they used Office.
3) Take It Directly to the Vendors: Yes, Microsoft and Cisco are huge companies, but as a group we are hugely influential over the use of their technologies, and they should listen to us. For starters, don't underestimate the value of simply trying: Send an e-mail to the appropriate person and you'll be surprised at what can happen. For a larger voice (or for help trying to figure out who to send that e-mail to), get involved with other IT pros in your area through user groups, etc. It's amazing what you can find out when you schmooze with your peers, and you might get to know some of the folks at the local branch offices of various software and hardware companies.
This issue is much more complicated than what I've touched on in this column. For one, there are good reasons to upgrade. Vendor support is critical in many situations; sometimes you need to upgrade just to ensure that support is available. And if you make all or part of your living by selling software, no one can fault you for wanting to upgrade your clients. And we've all faced the opposite situation as well: The client who needs the upgrade who just doesn't want to pay for it!
So while there are many other factors to be considered -- and we IT pros already have much on our plates as it is --- with a little effort on our part, maybe we can do something to ease those upgrade blues. 
What are your upgrade pet-peeves? Post your thoughts below!
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Kevin Kohut has been involved with information technology in some form or another for over 18 years, and has a strong business management background as well. As a computer consultant Kevin has helped both small businesses and large corporations realize the benefits of applying technology to their business needs.
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More articles by Kevin Kohut:
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There are 23  user Comments for “Singing the Upgrade Blues”
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Page 1 of 3
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| 4/30/03: Phil says: |
Kevin, a pet peeve I have is that with technology in general, they are not realistic on certifiying deadlines or reason to certify. Novell for instance had a 5 CNE which covered 5 and 5.1. Microsoft will have a MCSE for Nt, 2k and 2003. Its getting to the point that these companies are making it harder to even stay competitive for us IT people because of the amount of money we spend to learn the technology. Only now, a few years after the release of 2000 are people moving to AD. I agree with your statement in that they should listen to what products of theirs are in demand and are in use. I can't see that many people doing 2003 MCSE exams due to 1) no jobs to use current 2000 skills and 2) not many have a few hundred to spend on an upgraded mcse exam that will prbably not incrase employment oportunities. Its the tech giants that are feeding the cert ideas and at the pace they are coming out with technology they are partly to blame for the way the tech field is. For instance, Steve Ballmer predicted that IT spending would remain flat through 03 into 04. If he really feels that way why are they releasing server 2003? I think many places are still running NT and have yet to go to 2000 even! All tech giants are guilty of the same stuff. Im going to tackle CWNA. Good to know vendor neutral wirelss and it doesnt expire in 1 year either |
| 5/4/03: cj from st. louis says: |
As much as I wish technology would slow down and give me some breathing room, I have to say that it's probably a good thing for all of us that it keeps progressing at such a staggering rate. Think about it for a minute - if the software giants weren't constantly producing upgrades that are more processor hungry and consume more memory, there wouldn't be any need to upgrade PC's. Development and sales at companies like Intel and AMD and then HP, IBM, Dell, etc. would stall and then fail altogether. The whole industry would collapse and many thousands of jobs would be lost. Personally, I find it hard to believe that a P4-2.4GHZ machine will become obsolete any time in the near future considering I'm still using a K6-2 333 at home that can adequately handle most of the things I need it to do. But the P4 will become obsolete because the giants will keep pushing increasingly resource hungry software and pumping life-blood into the industry. Granted, it's impossible to keep up with everything and we struggle like hell to even stay informed of the newest features of the upgrades for the OS or software that our companies use, but it's a lot better than not having jobs. At least hardware is getting much cheaper. I purchased a Netgear FR318 firewall router for one of my clients a year-and-a-half ago for close to $300. Now I need to upgrade it because it only allows eight internet connections and the upgrade is about $110 - the same price as the newest model that allows 254 connections and eight VPN tunnels. It's an easy choice. I'll buy the new model, sell the old one on e-bay and bill the client a few hours for my time. The money machine churns on, but I grab a little piece of it too. My biggest complaint is that a lot of the upgrades don't really contain any worthwile features and they have lots of bugs because they were developed and released too quickly. I do think the .NET release is really jumping the gun, and I'm sure it won't be widely deployed for some time. Especially since there is no way MS will discontinue support for 2000, which is the only thing that could possibly make a lot of companies upgrade. Most companies are finally getting rid of the last of their 98 machines and NT servers and are just now seeing the benefits of Active Directory on 2000 or XP clients. |
| 5/9/03: Wayne says: |
My end users usually indicate that they need an upgrade because it has some "cool" new features that they heard about. I've always been an advocate of change, so I never try to discourage these users. However my experience tells me that users in general have only exploited a fraction of the features in the current release. Furthermore it is likely that the "new" features that they hope to find in a new version are available, in some form, in the current version. Perhaps in these times of tight budgets, the IT consulting world should be assisting clients to better exploit what they already have? |
| 5/9/03: Anonymous says: |
One Comment" A BS in Computer Science is worthless these days. My Military experinece has landed me jobs quicker than my BS Degree. |
| 5/9/03: Anonymous says: |
Ha, don't you mean military preference, err veterans preference, that is? That helps more than your experience, per se. |
| 5/9/03: Booger from Pillsbury says: |
Yeah, Wayne but if an IT consultant does that, then none of the latest gadgets get sold to (gullible?) clients, and no money is made. |
| 5/11/03: Bill says: |
Most of my users are still on Win98. Their boxes were purchased to run 98, and are not anywhere near big enough to run any of the upgrades. Much of the software they want to run was designed for DOS on a 386! If it works, why break it? |
| 5/13/03: Costing Big Bucks says: |
Who would waste their hard earned money $$$ on 2000 certs now? Save your thousands of dollars for the 2003 exams, your going to need it soon enough. |
| 5/19/03: Anonymous says: |
I love Kazaa! Upgrades to new MS operating systems and Office suites are FREE! Woo hoo! Let's hear it for Big Daddy! |
| 5/19/03: Anonymous says: |
Ha! My dept. has pushed office apps so far to know how useless they are. Any upgrade that can offer anything over the previous release will always be welcome. Anyone who can perform 95% of all office features knows what I am talking about. |
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