Managing and supporting a desktop computer costs several times more than buying it initially. The $300, $500, even $1,200 the organization pays for the computer will be a marginal expense compared to what the organization will pay to support it over the 3 to 5 years of its typical life.

The costs arise from configuring, patching, and supporting the machines. According to a 2008 Gartner report, “for a large company, the cost of purchasing a desktop PC may be only $1,200, but, kept for four years, the total cost of ownership (TCO) could be as much as $5,867 per year.” Most companies I talk with pay substantially less than $1,200 for a desktop system, but the 5x TCO doesn’t change.

There are a number of things companies can do to drive down desktop TCO. Some, such as desktop virtualization, have been noted here previously. Another approach uses various PC life-cycle management (PCLM) tools, according to Gartner.

Gartner reports that a locked-down and well-managed desktop PC can be 42 percent less expensive to keep than an unmanaged one. This means that the desktop that cost $5,867 per year might, if well managed, cost only $3,413. Still, multiply the desktop TCO by the number of desktop computers you have and the number gets very big, very fast.

Faronics Technologies, a software tool vendor, did its own survey around desktop TCO and the use of its tool, Deep Freeze, which intercepts writes to the hard drive, tracks changes, and restores the original configuration when necessary. It found that Deep Freeze reduces IT support costs while increasing computer availability. Specifically, the respondents reported 40 percent fewer support tickets per desktop compared to organizations not using Deep Freeze, amounting to over $52,000 in annual savings per 1,000 computers. You can check out the Faronics study here.

Faronics products fall into the category of desktop imaging tools. In effect, these tools capture an image of the desktop configuration. Then, if something changes, such as a user doing something he or she shouldn’t, the tool can roll back the change.

This kind of software isn’t expensive. Faronics runs about $50 per computer for the enterprise version, which can drop to $20 with volume discounts.

There actually are a number of desktop imaging vendors. Symantec is the big name in the category. Others include Acronis and Persystent.

But there are other ways to lower desktop TCO. You can simply lock down the desktop, preventing users from loading new software and changing settings. Or you can deploy diskless PCs, which prevent users from loading and running software that doesn’t come from the network server.

Similarly, you can eliminate CD/DVD drives, disable USB ports, or use operating system controls to tightly constrain what users can do. You’re left with what amounts to a PC-like network terminal that runs the user’s applications but doesn’t let the user do the things likely to increase desktop support costs.

Would I like to work on such a locked-down, highly constrained PC? Heck, no. ###