Before Purchase - what to discuss with supplier?

Question

Limited IT knowledge - 20 years of Macs.
Inherited a Xserve and server 10.4.
Basically users are filesharing- generic logon to sharepoints - Macs are 'hotdesked' and have machine location as Account Name.
Merger means we have a design office of 5 , satellite offices with photographers , admin staff.
Opportunity, and I daresay a need, to improve security - budget for new Xserve and New server software.
What do we need to discuss with supplier/
Currently desktops are not uniform, software packages are 'fairly' standard but mix of 10.4 and 10.5, Adobe CS, CS2, CS3 - and there are actually production reasons for retaining the older versions.
Management suggest the server 'manages' the desktops for uniformity - can this be done (like schools?) or would this choke workflow if implemented? Does it impose a load on the server?
Anti virus stratergy?
Password policies?
any other thoughts?

Answer 1

I support a design studio where five Macs are hotdesked (shared among multiple employees with one login account on each computer) without a management server. Employees leave active files strewn all over the Desktop and occasionally organize them into folders with their names. This was not ideal until affordable Hard Drives and Time Machine came along. At least, now all files are backed up.
I understand the need for different versions of the OS and Adobe CS's. It is not worthwhile to make identical setups for all the different workstations. Also because of the collaborative environment, and general disregard of tech protocols by the designers, they tend to work better if they didn't have to log in and out of accounts every time they just want to tweak something for 3 minutes. So, I decided to forgo the "one login per user" and decided to hotdesk one user ID for the whole computer (and one administrator ID for installing software and printer drivers).
As for anti-virus, I cannot recommend any off the shelf software - as they create a mess while trying to protect your computers. For some reason, Anti-virus software and DTP/Graphic softwares have the highest probability of complications.
As for passwords, I prohibit anybody from password protecting/encrypting any file on the computer (encryption is allowed for data being sent outside). I believe government agencies have this policy also in order to retain continuation of service when an employee leaves. Thus, preventing anybody from leaving anything personal on the computers.
Now, you might want to do something about the remote/satellite offices. These should probably be (almost) identical computers with the newest hard/software that are heavily managed. The question is, how do they connect to the server? Are they plugged in ALL THE TIME? Are they notebooks that only report back to the server once in a while? You might want to come up with a plan for remote desktop support, so you can take over the controls over IP.
But
If your company is growing fast and thinking of expanding, you should start building a "one login per user" policy, use network home folders on the shared machines, and managing the workstation settings on a server. It imposes a lot on the server and mainly the network (with those 300MB PSD files) so you probably want to upgrade your network more than any other hardware. When your office purchases computers, they should be replaced in multiples, so at least two computers can use the settings you create on the server. The main purpose of managing the workstations should be to improve workflow and reduce overall management costs. If every user had to work harder to use the new system, then something is wrong.