Am I over reacting?

[dmj]

Hello, I'd like to hire a consultant that will say what I want them to say, which is spend no money as we wasted it and don't want to tell anyone. You will? Excellent

 

That's literally what management consultants are for: When it all blows up, it's not a management failure because that's what the consultant recommended. They are hired to deflect blame for a decision that had already been made.

 

SLT are not willing to plough more money in, reduce the number of computers, or change the operating system. The only thing left to them is to defend that position, so from that point of view the consultant route seems reasonable. Personally I think they should cut their cloth to suite the budget and just ditch windows.

[IT_CoffeeNeeded]

below tl;dr = of course consultants are in it for themselves, wouldn't trust a thing they say. Also if you are the ICT Tech - if it all goes wrong is it really your responsibility ultimately? I am just ICT Tech so ultimately nothing is my responsibility as I am not in a network manager position. They would have to make me a NM then I would dictate where the spending goes. Otherwise my advice is my advice and you ignore at your own peril.

 

My story

We actually had consultants advise we replace our servers and switches which were around 3 years old, to solve a slow network problem. The real problem of course we were using 6+ year old Intel Celeron laptops with rotational HDD's around the days of Windows 7. They said don't worry about the computers. Obviously their margins/levels of work are much better doing servers/switches.

 

Replacing our servers/switches would have done nothing as the load was negligible, the "network was so slow" was because the struggling laptops/desktops were stuck at 99% CPU taking 5+ minutes to even get to a stage where they'd booted up to connect to the network in the first place.

 

I said basically - if you think the switches and servers are the problem - go ahead - replace them - you will get no help from me at all, I will stay well away from it you can handle everything yourselves. Suddenly they gave in, all got new computers (decent i3's / i5's but the SSD being the important bit) and my reputation went up so much the governors sent me a letter of thanks (that I hadn't pissed £30,000k+ up the wall as we replaced everything, desktop and laptop)

 

That's a nice story to hear, that they put faith in your recommendations and they realised you were correct and thanked you for it.

[msi_school]

The hidden cost is the forcing TPM hardware, without the registry hacks.

We used to buy 'perpetual' licenses. £30 would do us ten years (the lifetime of the OS), so we could afford to upgrade the hardware. Now it's just a rip off.

 

TPM2 was released in 2014 and Windows 10 in 2015, windows 11 was released in 2021 and these requirments where announced before that, all OSs are released with minimum required hardware and Microsoft got a kicking for making these too low with Vista.

 

I can understand why you are upset with this change but I still dont think it was hidden.

[Ditto]

Hello, I'd like to hire a consultant that will say what I want them to say, which is spend no money as we wasted it and don't want to tell anyone. You will? Excellent

 

I think I can help. I can also set my hourly rate suitably extortionate so you know just how good I am. Travel, living and sustenance expenses will be equally high. Please PM for more details.

[mthomas08]

Security updates aren't important...

 

Let me get this list of schools that suffered breaches.

 

Once upon a time, I worked at a school that ignored Windows Updates.. we suffered viruses galore and it cause dmajor problems site wide... to all.. 300-400 PCs....

 

Any consultant ignoring windows updates.. is questionable... remember the NHS shut down? Ugh.. just UGHHHH

[speakercon]

I think the only problem here is the managements competency/attitudes and you can't fix that. The only option imo is to move on when it suits you and leave them too it.

[Chris_Cook]

As above, Lost productivity, Cyber security, and will it hit something/someone when I finally lose my marbles and throw it out the window? Also do the windows open wide enough, or will the window get broken in the process?

 

I'm told a rubber mallet is good for finishing off old and unreliable equipment - doesn't leave as many dents.

[Koldov]

RE: firmware updates on older hardware, if you've got the latest version on, even if that's 7 years old, it's "up to date", no? Not arguing that it's an okay position to be in, but in terms of Cyber Essentials, is there anything to disqualify there?

 

Interesting play on words, I'd think 'up to date' would mean up to the 'current date', I thought there'd been a few holes in BIOS/UEFI over the years that have had to be plugged. I don't know what the % is, or even the chances of someone using a BIOS/UEFI exploit is these days.

 

Just playing 'Devil's Advocate' really to see if there was any more weight the OP could put behind his case...

 

Oh and I also remember someone on this very forum saying that 12 year old computers were a security risk because of it...

 

EDIT: Not delved deeply into any RPA/Cyber Insurance or Cyber Essentials wording to know if it would disqualify you, but still waiting for clarification about this statement:

 

The schools funding is reliant on cyber essentials

Edited February 11, 2025 by Koldov

[chazzy2501]

TPM2 was released in 2014 and Windows 10 in 2015, windows 11 was released in 2021 and these requirments where announced before that, all OSs are released with minimum required hardware and Microsoft got a kicking for making these too low with Vista.

 

I can understand why you are upset with this change but I still dont think it was hidden.

 

Yeah and most people quote a 8th gen intel or 3rd gen ryzen but many 1st tier PC makers included TPM2.0 in earlier PCs. I know that the HP Prodesk G4 (intel 6th and 7th) came with a TPM2.0 so would also work. That's 2017! 8 years ago!!

[mthomas08]

Purchasing the Windows 10 extended licences for the security updates is a waste of money. And the risk of a virus/cyber attack is low so its worth the risk to save money.

 

I mentioned this to the SBM, we were discussing the state of some schools and issues in our surrounding areas. He has quite a bit of knowledge outside of T&L.

 

He had a heart attack. The risk alone is serious and aware of local schools suffering serious breaches. I'd be in serious trouble if I had that attitude of.. don't bother updating....

[KK20]

My opinion. I have been in this situation.

 

1) Risk assessment. Cover your backside.

2) LTSC 2019 buys you another 4 years. Gotchas? Teams app, make sure that future Office 365 desktop apps are covered in your risk assessment.

3) 8th gen i3 refurbs. Stopgap if necessary. Alternatively, chat with other local schools regarding them getting rid of kit. I knew a local school throwing out 100 stone 8th gen all in ones. They were installing chrome os flex on them and giving them to whoever wanted them. chat with local banks, solicitors firms. You will be amazed that companies PAY to have perfectly decent kit removed, you can even chat with their IT about removing the SSDs and putting cheap ones in yourself, offer to pay for the secure drive disposal. Chat with local hospitals about shredding hard drives, they often have hard drive shredders. welcome to modern IT network management on a budget.

4) Look for another job.

 

Make sure you have a working immutable backup, unfortunately you cannot do this easily in VEEAM community edition but at least wasabi is cheap. At least you can kick all desktops off the network and spool up a full domain restore in VEEAM very quickly if you get breached.

Edited February 24, 2025 by KK20