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| Lab-Wide Group Looking into Issues of Computer Standards |
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The Lab's Computing and Communications Services Advisory Committee (CSAC) and the Information Technologies and Services Division (ITSD) have established a joint working group to assess various issues relating to standards for desktop computers. The group's mission is not to come up with standards to be imposed, but to investigate the impact of standardization on the quality of support of the computer environment at LBNL and make recommendations in that regard. Other areas that would benefit from a more standardized approach are data backups and computer security. "The benefit of standardization is that, for any given dollar, our scientists would receive a higher quality of support and products geared toward the standard implementations -- but this would be at the expense of reduced support for nonstandard implementations," said Sandy Merola, ITSD director. "On the other hand, providing high quality support for all desktop configurations is just too high of a tax on our scientific programs. So, for the desktop computer, we must seek the right balance of quality of support and freedom of choice. We intend to be responsive to the needs of Berkeley Lab scientists in this decision." Currently, the Lab defines a standard load of software only for desktop computers. Servers and real-time systems not subject to standards. The working group's first steps will be fact-finding efforts to:
The group will then identify issues related to implementation of present
or revised standards with regard to enhancing the LBNL computer environment
and support. These issues include:
Finally, the group will make recommendations to CSAC and ITSD. See future
issues of Computing News for more information on the group's efforts. |
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