In a separate announcement, the company, which is based in Billerica, said it had won a five-year contract from the United States Justice Department to manage desktop computer networks.
Computer Sciences, based in El Segundo, Calif., will install and manage desktop computers, file-storage servers and systems to support Sears's Web sites and data networks, the companies said in separate statements.
Besides basic OS choices, SMBs may also look to explore new ways to provide and manage desktop computing in general.
mindSHIFT is said to serve more than 5,400 clients and 25,000 managed desktops nationwide.
Mobile use is accelerating faster than any expected, leading to some interesting issues for IT managers who have become accustomed to managing desktop personal computers and laptops.
With this changing dynamic in the workplace, IT workers should view their role as managing the mobile experience just as much — if not more — as managing desktop devices.
IT professionals and in-house tech guys tend to view their role as managing desktop devices with the ability to help with mobile when necessary.
If you want to play there, you need more than just easily managed desktop computers, you need something the techies can put in the server room to run it all.
The product fits alongside other solutions designed for the corporate crowd, like WorkDocs (previously Zocalo), an enterprise storage and sharing service; and Amazon WorkSpaces, a managed desktop computing service that lets IT provision cloud-based desktops for end users.
Companies with remote call centers were the first to use virtualization for desktop replacement; they were drawn to the technology because it made it easier to manage the desktops, since they became centralized in a single locale.
