Why don't business laptops have SSDs as standard?

Sunbed · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:01

In my organisation the favoured option for any computer problem that is too awkward to fix is to reset my entire Windows exchange profile, thus have me reinstall all my programs and spend hours getting my settings back to how I like them. This combined with all the time I spend waiting for the laptop to start-up/shutdown must add up to A LOT of time wasted.

Surely there is a business case for insisting on SSDs in all laptops? As they make such a difference in performance, why are they reserved for use in 'ultrabooks' only?

If I conservatively assume that an SSD saves me 1 minute every day from starting up windows, loading programs, fixing the occasional error etc, it would have paid for itself in 11 weeks based on my hourly rate I charge to projects. I have assumed the SSD costs £50 and I didn't even account for the HDD it replaces. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

I put this in GD because it's more of an IT procurement query than a technical one.

Richdog · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:02

My business has SSD as standard in non-ultrabook laptops, and I know many other companies that now do too. Maybe your company IT just sucks a little?

GravyMonster · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:05

Because the cheapest option wins. No exceptions.

Caged · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:05

Dell E7440s have SSDs. Stop buying cheap crap

Sunbed · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:10

I should have mentioned... Public sector. This might be why.

markweatherill · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:11

Sunbed said:
SSD costs £50

How big of an 'enterprise standard' SSD will £50 get these days?

Craig321 · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:12

Spunkey said:
Because the cheapest option wins. No exceptions.

This generally. Unfortunately a lot of MDs or the people with the power to spend the company's money don't see passed cheap when it comes to technology.

Fortunately it isn't like that here and I have a 500GB and 120GB SSD in my laptop, plus every other machine in the company has a minimum of a 256GB SSD

. It's been that way ever since my boss was talked into buying an SSD for his laptop and saw a huge improvement

markweatherill said:
How big of an 'enterprise standard' SSD will £50 get these days?

Don't know about 'enterprise' but £60-70 will get you 256GB.

scorza · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:13

It's the same here in the private sector, bean counters rule the roost.

Richdog · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:14

markweatherill said:
How big of an 'enterprise standard' SSD will £50 get these days?

You only need around 160GB for a business laptop, any more means you are keeping too much data on your machine and puts a huge strain on company backup systems.

LordSplodge · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:15

1. You need better IT department at your place.
2. My works laptop has an SSD, a PCIe one, but I'm lucky and have a 13" Retina MacBook Pro as my machine at work.

Yaayuh! · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:20

Depends if there's a business case for one. Some companies also have strict policies on support and hardware budget for roles.

I am the IT department where I work. I can spec laptops with or without, but of late I have been choosing the cheapest drive option and purchasing an SSD separately and swapping it out, much cheaper that way.

Craig321 · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:21

Richdog said:
You only need around 160GB for a business laptop, any more means you are keeping too much data on your machine and puts a huge strain on company backup systems.

Depends on the business.

Woden · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:22

You guys are lucky. I have to work on a Wyse terminal that connects remotely to a WinXP session. He'll I still have to use Office 2007.

matt_fsr · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:23

Some businesses be stupid.

To many a beancounter, a laptop is just a laptop. Why pay £600 if you can pay £400?

Yaayuh! · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:23

Craig321 said:
Depends on the business.

Very true. I work for a design company, we need quite a lot of storage space.

Curio · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:26

I spend a lot of my time dealing with full SSDs in laptops. Users seem to think "SSDs are cool - I can just fill it up with garbage even faster!" :mad:

elmarko · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:29

I have similar issues in my field, but with server space & decent compute power.

They are happy to pay contractors £600+ a day but then skimp out hugely on the hardware making everything take twice as long as it needs to.

It took us close to a year to force them into getting us a 64b operating system so would could utilise the extra RAM. Sadly my employer don't factor in wasted time into the costs.

Saying that the only reason I post on here during work-hours is pretty much due to the slow system speeds & long query/model timings.

Richdog · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:32

Craig321 said:
Depends on the business.

Well it was obviously a general statement, of course there will be situations where more is needed, but comparatively very rarely vs the average corporate business laptop.

Trifid · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:34

markweatherill said:
How big of an 'enterprise standard' SSD will £50 get these days?

You don't need enterprise class SSD for a end user device as no critical data should be stored on it.

Haggisman · 4 Aug 2015 at 15:34

Richdog said:
My business has SSD as standard in non-ultrabook laptops, and I know many other companies that now do too. Maybe your company IT just sucks a little?

This...

Rossi~ said:
Depends if there's a business case for one. Some companies also have strict policies on support and hardware budget for roles.

And this...

In our company, developers get i5/i7 with 12GB+ RAM and an SSD, virtually everyone else gets an i3 with 4-8GB and a mechanical drive.

If you're having to "reinstall all of your programs" then it sounds more like provision isn't being made to backup those programs, in which case you should either a) get your IT dept. to update the laptop image with the required programs, or b) stop installing programs that shouldn't be on your laptop in the 1st place