Standardization for Nimble I.T.

One of the things that both frustrates and amazes me is the difficulty I often face in getting I.T. Departments to standardize. From my perspective, it seems to me that standardization is a no-brainer; if, on any machine, you know what the settings should be, then it becomes a lot easier to troubleshoot problems. If you are remote and trying to walk a user through something over the phone, it’s a huge advantage to know that all the icons and settings are the same so you can visualize what that user sees. If your hardware is all the same, it becomes easy to keep spare parts on hand. These are just a few of the many advantages that any I.T. department can reap if they implement standards on their networks.

Yet even with all the advantages, I’ve found it hard to sell Standardization to I.T. Staff in general. I suspect that this may be partly due to the common misconception among some I.T. professionals that by keeping things complicated and difficult they are making their position more valuable and achieving some level of job security, even though in practice this is rarely the case, and often has the reverse effect of making one “too valuable” to promote.

In my experience, I.T. Teams are far more effective when they are able to collaborate well, and by having a level and understood playing field (which is another advantage that standardization provides) everyone is able to understand how things are set up and contribute to mitigating risks, increasing efficiency, and solving any problems that crop up on the network.

Speaking of problems, another advantage to standardization is that it makes anomalies a lot easier to identify. When everything on your network is set up the same, rogue machines or applications stick out like a sore thumb.

Lastly, having standards makes mergers or acquisitions a lot less painful. It’s far easier to integrate when at least one side of the network is standardized.

If you are ever in the position to start a network from scratch, or if you are ever put in charge of a network redesign or upgrade, these are perfect opportunities to implement standards, and I would strongly encourage anyone in this position to consider setting and documenting standards right from the start. It will make your life a lot easier down the line.