As a CDW security enterprise architect, I spend my time traveling the country helping our customers meet the security challenges they face on a daily basis. This allows me to work with organizations across various industries and to work in almost every area of cybersecurity — from identity and access management and security operations to governance and risk management.

My wife and I are looking into renovating our home, but the truth is that we don’t know where to start. Do we need to bring in an architect, or can we work directly with a contractor? The problem boils down to an old truism: You don’t know what you don’t know. I frequently see a similar sort of confusion when school leaders set out to revamp their learning spaces. That’s why we created the CDW Blueprint to Design™ initiative.

It may seem easy to buy a simple technology tool such as a laptop. But many questions can swirl around even such a modest purchase.

When CDW works with organizations on hardware purchases, we talk about how staff members plan to use the devices, how much memory they will need and other factors such as processing power and applications.

Recently, I helped set up a demonstration of a video collaboration huddle space at an East Coast law firm. My partner and I expected the lawyers to use the equipment for a couple of minutes to test it out with their colleagues in another office, but two minutes stretched into five, and five stretched into 25. As the call went on, steady voices rose to angry shouts. However, when the legal team emerged from the room, one of the managing partners looked at us and said, “Please move forward with the project.” Then he walked away.

What’s worse than warranty work? Box fails. Is it the power source? A bad fan, blade or card? Either you need a new box or technical support to fix the current one. Every IT manager has been there, and every IT leader wants it fixed immediately. There may not be a more mundane workflow in IT and a bigger drain on valuable IT resources (well, maybe help desk). Every manufacturer offers some type of warranty service with software support and equipment replacement.

Many organizations have embraced software-defined innovations such as the software-defined data center and the software-defined WAN, taking advantage of programmability and automation to simplify the management of their networks and other data center resources. What’s been missing, until recently, was a way to achieve the same benefits at the access layer of the network.