Laptops and Notebooks Don’t Have All the Fun

Managing the Changing IT Landscape: All-in-One PCs and Desktops

by Chris Peters, member of the IT Center

I’ve been spending a lot of time focusing on mobility, but there’s also been a lot of change around desktop PCs. Just last week I blogged about how notebook PCs are the top choice for college students and most households.   

However, not every job or task at work or home requires mobility. In fact, I still have two desktops in my home and know of several in use around the offices at Intel. Think of segments like finance, research, engineering, and graphic design, where many workers rely on high-performance desktop PCs to get their jobs done.

The good news is that desktop PC design (like laptop design) has come a long way, and the days of the huge tower, thankfully, are gone.

Small and Mighty Desktops

Since space constraints and power bills are a common issue for many businesses, workers are getting squeezed into smaller offices, cubicles, or shared work spaces. As a result, desktop PCs are being designed with smaller footprints that don’t compromise performance or power. Additionally, many IT organizations are evaluating virtualized desktops as a cost-effective option to address today’s remote management challenges. 

Let’s explore the top three use cases that are great for desktops in business.

1) All-in-One PCs: Compact and sleek, this is an ideal business solution for anyone who needs a smaller footprint but still cares about design and performance.  All models are made to cut clutter with flat-panel monitors, a single plug-and-play cord, and wireless keyboard and mouse.

2) Tiny desktops: These small form factors have an ultracompact footprint with a quiet, energy- efficient design. The Dell and Lenovo models are examples tiny desktops that operate as standalone PCs or as shared PCs with virtualization. This solution brief on the Lenovo ThinkCentre* M92P Tiny illustrates some flexible use cases.

image source: lenovo.com

3) High-performance graphics with multi-screen display: Fast performance and high-quality visuals remain the focus point for high end desktops ideal for CAD drawings and other design or interactive modeling work. And built-in enhancements provide high-definition, 3-D, and graphics performance for any task with support for multiple monitors.

Will Tabletops be Relevant for Business?

Yet another new design is the tabletop, where very large flat-screen computers are being introduced. While these have been primarily positioned for gaming, I’m wondering about their potential in business applications. The innovative, touch-based interfaces seem ideal for fields like architecture and engineering.

image source: www.switched.com

Do you think the tabletop design is relevant in an enterprise setting?

What kinds of business applications would work best?

Please comment below, or tweet me: @chris_p_intel or @IntelITS with #AllinOnePC

Chris
@chris_p_intel
#ITCenter #AllinOnePC