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rMBP - work justification

N

n0id

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 11, 2008
38
0
I need some help from the macrumor community!

I need to come up with justification to get approval to use a rMBP at work. Below are the details:

- We are a unix/windows environment.
- I am the sole sys-admin, who manages all systems on the virtual/windows side. We have a unix admin for the unix environment.

- I will be purchasing the laptop with my own money
- I will be supporting it myself
- I will be migrating my current windows laptop into a VM to be used on the rMBP, and with the superior hardware, it should run much better than my 4yr old HP
- I wont be installing any company software on the macbook... the only thing used will be a network connection for DHCP. Company related software/items will be ran from the migrated VM.

As i said above, our entire company uses an app that runs on top of Unix. We are also 95% virtualized with vmware, that holds our entire windows environment (servers, exchange, citrix, SQL, etc...). And VMware is just an OS on top of unix (like mac)

My argument, is that they company already entrusts a unix OS, and i will be using it exactly how our vmware enviroment is used.


Are there any other valid arguments/points I have missed that will help my cause?
 
Yea, you missed the main one actually...

"Uhh... Im the mutha****ing Senior Admin".
 
He included the main one:

- I will be purchasing the laptop with my own money

End of argument
 
There are really no valid arguments to backup your decision as far as I can tell... in the end, realistically speaking, it brings no real benefit to your work or to the company ( it could actually just raise additional concerns... although at it's core it's Unix, it is still most likely quite different from what you're using now which of course could lead to potential problems that you'd not experience on the current system ). It's also not as if you'd suddenly be twice as productive or previous problems suddenly just disappear if you start using OSX or your own hardware ( be it whatever ). I honestly don't think you can convince them like that. At best, you should just tell them: "I prefer working on my own notebook, which happens to be a Mac... so, are you Ok if I'll work on my own hardware from now on?"

If they agree to it, then they'll ideally also make you sign something that kinda states that you'll not be allowed to use any pirated software / files on your notebook, but if you are caught, it's completely your responsibility and you'll pay the full fine or whatever + additional clauses to keep their asses covered.

I'd personally let you use it, but only after you sign a paper like describe above... I wouldn't want to end up paying for your possible ****-ups and I would definitely add a clause that would allow me to force you to use company hardware instead of your own if I consider that your productivity ( or whatever else ) or the company / whatever related to the business is affected in a negative way because of you using your own hardware.

But that's me of course...
...your superiors might think different, be more permissive, ignorant or heck of I know what ( high? ). ;)
Anyway, nothing that you have stated so far is even remotely supporting your case IMHO...
 
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tillsbury said:
He included the main one:

- I will be purchasing the laptop with my own money

End of argument
Click to expand...

Which, to me, is a pretty bad idea. The only personal asset I use for work is my phone and that's just for email, it's going to get super sticky and complicated if the OP leaves the job for whatever reason.
 
Interstella5555 said:
Which, to me, is a pretty bad idea. The only personal asset I use for work is my phone and that's just for email, it's going to get super sticky and complicated if the OP leaves the job for whatever reason.
Click to expand...

Not really... It's his personal belonging and not company property, so he should be leaving with it no questions asked. Problems could result only if bad decisions were taken from the very start... like: not only using your own phone ( device ) but also your own personal subscription. So once you leave, all clients / people you were in contact will have a wrong number to call which will lead to problems / frustration on both sides. Obvious solution ( from the very start of course ): it can be your phone, but the number you're using should still be the company's and that number ( SIM card ) should be returned once you leave the company.

Really... there are just too many things to take into account and it's not really worth the hassle. If it were a small company / a startup with a few employees, it could have happened that your boss is more flexible... but the bigger the company, the more bureaucracy and more asses there are that need to be covered. IMHO, it's not even worth bringing such a subject up... maybe only for fun but definitely not insisting on the topic if you don't see any positive reactions from your peers / superiors.
 
Does your company have a BYOD policy?

Is your company in a regulated industry (e.g. banking, healthcare, insurance), or a company that transmits data to Europe? A lot of times it will be harder to make an exception since they will need to be able to prove to a regulator that they adhere to data security and privacy protection standards. It sounds like the VM itself will adhere to those standards since it will be a copy of your existing setup, but you might want to address how your Mac will adhere to it. For instance, do you require remote wipe? Find My Mac is fine for customer use but might not pass muster for your company. FileVault 2 is pretty good, but they might not want you to let Apple store the decryption code.

Also, Thunderbolt worries some IT departments because it is essentially a naked PCIe port that a crafty person could use to override password protection. Again if your data is encrypted that may help overcome that objection.
 
Just a last thing: Try putting yourself in their place... Why would they / the company take any chances when you can just sit at your desk and do your stuff on the same hardware just as you did until now and as everyone else does? If they loosen the grip, other's will want to be using their own desk, chairs and who knows what from home tomorrow just because: "well, you let that other guy use his Mac, why can't I use my own stuff too?"

Be realistic... the only way you can convince them are numbers. If you can't prove with numbers that they'll clearly win from this deal, there's no reason why they'd care that you like your shiny toy more than what they are already providing ( only exception as I stated: small companies / some guys from some weird ( ehm *creative* ) field / startups that haven't yet grown to love the wonders of bureaucracy and ass covering ).
 
Interstella5555 said:
Which, to me, is a pretty bad idea. The only personal asset I use for work is my phone and that's just for email, it's going to get super sticky and complicated if the OP leaves the job for whatever reason.
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right, sorry I misread OP and thought he was looking for justification to get one. There's no way on earth I would ever let anyone (particularly a techie) bring their own computer to work. The security implications are just bonkers, particularly when they leave. Ditto phones, they use the work provided one for work and there's no interaction between a personal phone (off during office hours) and a work phone (off outside work hours).
 
tillsbury said:
You're absolutely right, sorry I misread OP and thought he was looking for justification to get one. There's no way on earth I would ever let anyone (particularly a techie) bring their own computer to work. The security implications are just bonkers, particularly when they leave. Ditto phones, they use the work provided one for work and there's no interaction between a personal phone (off during office hours) and a work phone (off outside work hours).
Click to expand...

Word, I'd actually like it if they just gave me another phone, but having a $200 phone allowance and them paying for my data plan is good enough, even gives me no excuse not to passcode lock since we're on exchange. That's the other thing, they can easily kill the email on the phone, if you have personal property with (likely) highly valuable company information on it...well, again, it's not going to be pretty when they and the company separate.
 
I wouldn't do it. Buy your own Mac sure, but don't bring it to work. They should supply you with a laptop if your 4yo HP can't do the job. If it's still doing the job then this is a case of "want" and not "need."

Luckily I get a new laptop every 3 years and that's not a minute too soon.
 
tillsbury said:
You're absolutely right, sorry I misread OP and thought he was looking for justification to get one. There's no way on earth I would ever let anyone (particularly a techie) bring their own computer to work. The security implications are just bonkers, particularly when they leave. Ditto phones, they use the work provided one for work and there's no interaction between a personal phone (off during office hours) and a work phone (off outside work hours).
Click to expand...


I dunno. I admin over 700 servers from a machine of my own. Considering most access is SSH and RDP, I actually have precious little company data on my machine. More than willing to wipe it on the way out the door. I carry a rMBP, a iPad and an iPhone and they're all mine.

Just as bonkers when you think about it allowing a company laptop to go home where it could easily get imaged to another machine or backed up in it's entirety to a portable drive. It's all about a level of trust - don't hire sketchy admins.

Sure, if you work in a SCIF or on a classed network I agree, but you'd have other processes in place then anyway.

But to the OP: If you access the way I do a rMBP is a waste, as RDP and SSH aren't exactly retina friendly. RDP in particular scales like crap.
 
ha!

Orlandoech.com said:
Yea, you missed the main one actually...

"Uhh... Im the mutha****ing Senior Admin".
Click to expand...

Which should be followed with (assuming he's speaking to a group):

"Who else in here is the mutha****ing Senior Admin? Anyone? Yeah, that's what I mutha****ing thought."

Then he cuts a line of coke on the conference table, quickly snorts it, then stares everyone down for 5 seconds or so, and walks out without saying another word.

I'd work for that guy. In a heartbeat.
 
id never bring my own computer to do company business, especially if the company is big enough to have an IT department and policies. Let htem pay for whatever you use at work...
 
leave the security concerns on the side - each company have its own policy, and it's for you to check and comply with your company security policy.

if you bring your own device, everyone else would want to do the same, now imagine managing 100's of different types of devices, with no standard implemented, that by itself is a nightmare for you being the mutha****ing senior admin, lol :D

you will end up working and supporting a variety of Ubuntu's, red hat's, lindows, windows, mac osx, etc.... and you cant stop anyone from bringing whatever they wish any longer, cause you did first......

i wouldn't open that door on myself if i was you.... stick to the policies and standards.....

unless you standardize a policy for what and how people can use at work, how to treat problems, defects, support requirements, etc....

if your own laptop crash, you have no obligation to repair it, do you ? and if the company start relying on that piece of hardware to be productive at work, who will pay for the repairs ?

besides, you are contradicting yourself by migrating your existing windows machine to a VM running on the Mac, and saying you will not install any company software on the Mac, by migrating your machine to the Mac, you are already pre-installing all the software on it.
 
n0id said:
I need some help from the macrumor community!

I need to come up with justification to get approval to use a rMBP at work. Below are the details:

- We are a unix/windows environment.
- I am the sole sys-admin, who manages all systems on the virtual/windows side. We have a unix admin for the unix environment.

- I will be purchasing the laptop with my own money
- I will be supporting it myself
- I will be migrating my current windows laptop into a VM to be used on the rMBP, and with the superior hardware, it should run much better than my 4yr old HP
- I wont be installing any company software on the macbook... the only thing used will be a network connection for DHCP. Company related software/items will be ran from the migrated VM.

As i said above, our entire company uses an app that runs on top of Unix. We are also 95% virtualized with vmware, that holds our entire windows environment (servers, exchange, citrix, SQL, etc...). And VMware is just an OS on top of unix (like mac)

My argument, is that they company already entrusts a unix OS, and i will be using it exactly how our vmware enviroment is used.


Are there any other valid arguments/points I have missed that will help my cause?
Click to expand...

I would forget migrating the 4YO HP to a VM on the new rMBP, and P2V it into your current VMware environment, then RDP into it from your rMBP to work.

You won't have ANY work-related apps anywhere on the rMBP that way, and if you need to work from home, that's what VPN is for.

So, the main concern here is for you to get management buy-in to allocate the Storage, RAM, and CPU requirements for the VM that will be created with your P2V conversion.

Another option is to deploy a virtual desktop instance for you and RDP/VPN into that (i.e.: VMware View, if you guys are using that as well.)

FYI: VMware ESXi (which is what I suspect you guys are running there) is not "VMware on top of UNIX". It is a Type 1 hypervisor, meaning it IS the operating system. VMware Workstation is what you would mean by saying "VMware on Linux" (if you're installing it on a Linux system) or "VMware on Windows" (if you're installing on a Windows system), and is a Type 2 hypervisor. VMware Fusion is the OS X variant of VMware Workstation, and is still a Type 2 hypervisor.
 
Last edited:
I think you shouldn't buy personal laptop for company use... first of all it's a waste of money!

Second depending on what company you work for you will have security audit issues for sure.

I'm a win/esx sysadmin in pharmaceutical company in europe and we have our laptops replaced every 4 years (HP elitebook ones... yuck!), I also wish I could get a Macbook pro but there is absolutely no justification for that :)

Also we have everything encrypted and bluetooth disabled :D

They are pretty scared of data theft since we as sys admins have access to pharmaceutical trials data, etc :)

Actually I don't know if I should even be writing this :D
 
n0id said:
I need to come up with justification to get approval to use a rMBP at work.
Click to expand...

Weird request...
Normally, you would be here looking for pointers how to convince your company, that:
-your 4yo HP has to go
-your new machine should be a quad-core, SSD-equipped machine with 4 million pixels in screen real estate (think of the amount of concurrent terminal windows) and that the OS shoud be Unix-based

- - -

Notwithstanding that you might like the rMBP, taking it to work makes little sense and is fraught with potential conflict. Don't do it.

RGDS,
 
odonnelly99 said:
"Who else in here is the mutha****ing Senior Admin? Anyone? Yeah, that's what I mutha****ing thought."
Click to expand...

You don't know how many Senior Admins there are there. I remember a mate of mine proudly telling me he'd been promoted to Vice President of Merrill Lynch. I don't know why, but I asked how many Vice Presidents there were in Merrill Lynch. "Errrr, about 5,000...". Slightly less impressive...
 
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