When Consumer PCs Start Compromising Your Business

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One of the great myths about PCs that you hear people repeat time and time again is that there’s no real difference between their home laptop and the one they use at work. They may be from different manufacturers and may be different colors, but they do the same job. You hear them say things like: “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck!” 

They’re implying that a PC is a PC – and they can’t differentiate between a consumer computer in their home and a business computer that they use for work.  Let me say clearly now: this just isn’t true. Consumer PCs and Business PCs are not interchangeable.

Business vs. Consumer Devices: 3 Differences That Make a Big Impact in PC Fleet

Typically, a consumer PC will be cheaper than a business PC when bought from a large retailer. And there must be a reason that it’s cheaper. Let’s look at some of those differences.

1. Higher failure rate due to cheaper parts: Business laptops are built to last longer. They, generally, have higher quality components that are tested more rigorously. They’re expected to experience more wear and tear. And organizations generally replace laptops less often than consumers do. Parts used in consumer PCs are often generic or made inexpensively. Business PCs generally use higher-grade materials and name-brand parts.

2. Lack of serviceability and reliability: As a consequence, if a person has been working all day on their home PC, it is more likely to break than a business laptop. A business PC will probably include hardware allowing the corporate IT team to remotely manage and fix software issues even when the operating system is down or when the PC is turned off (provided the PC has access to a network connection and a power source).

In addition, business computers are usually designed to be repaired. It’s easier to replace failing components and so repair a broken PC. Manufacturers and retailers tend to encourage customers to replace their consumer PCs with newer models rather than repair them. Because business PCs are better made than consumer ones, and they are expected to last, manufacturers usually offer much better warranty coverage than can be found on consumer PCs. Business models also tend to get priority support from the manufacturer, with optional on-site technical support that can be made available within hours. When a consumer PC fails, it’s up to the owner to send it away for repairs, and those repairs can take weeks.

3. Lack of tools and techniques for remote manageability: If staff is unable to use their consumer PC because of failing components, and the time taken to get it repaired can be quite lengthy, that means they’re probably stuck with being unproductive for a possibly long period of time and compromising the business because they can’t complete the work required. Similarly, if the IT team can’t access consumer PCs to fix software problems, the employees are again in a situation where they can’t do their work.

Businesses need to be able to manage their devices remotely. And therefore, they need to ensure that the appropriate technology is included in the PCs to manage and secure them on enterprise-class networks. Consumer PCs may or may not include the necessary technology, which can make it more difficult and more expensive for an organization to manage it. And this can compromise the business because end users may not have all the software they need or the right version of the software.

Learn More: 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Planning PC Fleet Stability 

Don’t Trade PC Fleet Stability & Reliability for Costs

The difference between consumer-grade endpoints and business-class endpoints may not always be obvious, but the end benefits and outcomes are. Granted, consumer PCs can get the job done, but they can only go so far. In order to grow business to new heights, especially in today’s context where an increasing amount of work needs to be completed digitally, employees need high-performance computers underpinned by reliable hardware technologies that are secure, affordable, and can be upgraded to meet future business needs without sacrificing agility. 

Given that endpoint resilience has never been more pertinent to organizations across every industry, IT needs business-class devices to better secure the increased vulnerabilities that come with distributed teams and home networks that have varying and sometimes unreliable security protection. 

The changing nature of work means employees spend more hours on frequent video calls and enterprise SaaS applications to get the job done. Remote workers are switching between Zoom, Slack, Office 365 applications and project management tools like Jira and Trello and if a laptop is unable to handle all of these applications, the productivity can drop significantly. 

Also, Gen Z, which makes up 24% of the global workforce, demands uninterrupted and secure access to workflows and data*. If a system crashes, resulting in system downtime, they expect quick remediation through advanced remote management technologies. 

Learn More:  5 Ways IT Ops Can Lead Workforce Productivity Outcomes in 2020 

Business-Class PCs Can Take Your Company Where Consumer PCs Can’t

Quality & Performance

Business laptops offer more configuration options than consumer laptops. For example, they may offer extra storage, higher-quality display, processors, battery, and keyboards. There’s usually more choice than on a consumer PC. So, typically, business computers are more powerful than consumer PCs. They often have more powerful processors and graphics processing units. 

They can have better cooling solutions and bigger batteries. Although this makes them appear more expensive than consumer models, it’s because business-class devices often need large amounts of memory and quad-core processors to handle tasks such as rendering, saving large graphics and documents, and networking with other computers. 

Consumer PCs are generally used for lighter tasks such as surfing, checking email, word processing and gaming, which means they need less memory space and processing power. They are not powerful enough to perform the work required as quickly as a business-class PC and this can affect business outcomes. In the remote work era, users depend on PCs for one key reason — cloud-based applications, that has become a must-have in the new reality. Widely dispersed workforces are spending more time on bandwidth-demanding video conferencing applications that require secure connectivity. Business-class PCs powered by the latest Intel vPro® technology are integrated with Wi-Fi 6 — a must for stable and more secure connections even in dense environments.  

Security When it Counts   

Business computers typically have security features integrated into their hardware that probably won’t be found on a consumer PC. These security features include biometric fingerprint scanners, smart card readers, remote desktop control software, and encryption tools. Obviously, consumer PCs without these features could compromise the business.

People working from home on their own devices are more at risk from phishing attacks that could download keyloggers onto their PC, which could then record and exfiltrate the information back to the hackers, compromising the business. If someone working from home isn’t getting fast, responsive performance for multitasking and data analysis, they may well be prone to do something else while they absent-mindedly open email or browse the Internet. 

This can lead to them clicking on an email attachment or a link in an email and their consumer PC becoming infected. And antivirus software may not be enough to prevent hackers from injecting malware into the code beneath their operating system.  This can compromise your business. Business PCs will probably have security technologies built into their hardware to help minimize the risk of firmware attacks and support mobile security and identity management.

This is confirmed by the 2020 Webroot Threat Report which analyzes threat activity to discover new trends across malware, phishing, cryptojacking, and more*.  The report found that consumer PCs are twice as likely to get infected as business PCs. Of the infected consumer devices analyzed by Webroot, more than 35% were infected over three times and nearly 10% had six or more infections. The report suggested that outdated operating systems (like Windows7) were being targeted by hackers. 

The report also found that 85% of threats hide in a user’s temp, AppData or cache and over half of threats (54.5%) on business PCs are located in a user’s temp folders. This risk can be countered by using a Windows policy to disallow programs from running from the temp directory. This highlights the risk businesses face by allowing staff to connect to corporate networks from consumer PCs.  

As threats move down the stack, systems powered by Intel vPro® platform provide IT with built-in technologies to remotely identify and resolve technical issues, helping reduce support costs and downtime. 

Reduce the Risk of Unintentional Data Leakages

Another, perhaps surprising risk to companies is from data breaches and hefty fines. A person working on their own laptop in their own home is unlikely to log out when they walk away from their laptop to answer the door, and this could lead to the visitor reading personally-identifiable information (PII) off the screen. This kind of data breach could compromise your company because of the fines imposed because of the incident.

Learn More:  Why Businesses Need to Take Hardware-Based PC Security Seriously 

Takeaway

While consumer-grade and business-class endpoint devices might appear to be the same, the choice significantly impacts the ROI. Business-class PCs designed to maximize the total cost of ownership (TCO) deliver big gains in terms of security, manageability and productivity.  Business PCs are more robust and powerful than consumer PCs, and they can come with hardware-enhanced security features that allow corporate IT to manage and secure them remotely. This can’t be done as easily with many consumer PCs. And these differences can lead to any business becoming compromised.  

_Notes

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Your costs and results may vary. 
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_{*Sources: 
Millennial Careers: 2020 Vision by Manpower GroupOpens a new window
The 2020 Webroot Threat Report Opens a new window}