Support for decentralized computers

ABSTRACT

The extraordinarily rapid advance of microelectronics is causing a rapid drop in both the cost and economy of scale of computing equipment. In less than a decade, the powerful economic incentive for centralizing the production of computing cycles has reversed. Simultaneously, the productivity of computing professionals has not kept pace with inflation, and it appears that staff productivity gains will be difficult to achieve in a decentralized environment.Distribution of computing equipment is making support for the individual computer user more difficult in the following ways:-- There is a need for support of multiple types of small computer hardware.-- There is a need to maintain multiple operating systems and versions of applications software.-- There is little knowledge and experience in providing documentation, user training, and consulting support in a highly distributed multi-architecture computing environment.This paper outlines Cornell's response to the challenge of decentralized computing. The paper details the rationale, planning, organization, financing, and staffing for the new Decentralized Academic Computer Support group in Cornell Computing Services. In addition, the responsibilities of that group and its interaction with the other groups in Computing Services is described. Finally, attention is given to the relationship between Computing Services and the Cornell community regarding small computers.The accelerating trend of decentralizing the production of computing cycles presents user support groups with both a challenge and an opportunity. Failure to respond will result in more expensive and lower quality computing for the university community as well as declining utilization of user support services.