NASA has dealt with some fairly complicated technology problems over the years.
Getting people to the Moon. Keeping astronauts alive hundreds of miles above Earth. Building a laboratory in space. Maintaining that laboratory while it travels around the planet at roughly 17,500 miles per hour. Figuring out how humans eat, sleep, exercise, communicate, perform experiments and fix things when the nearest Best Buy is several hundred miles straight down.
And apparently, at some point, NASA also had to deal with another great technological challenge.
Too many laptop chargers.
Seriously.
Tom’s Hardware recently highlighted an interesting bit of International Space Station history involving the laptops NASA sent into orbit. Different laptop models naturally came with different power adapters and connectors, which created an annoying problem aboard the ISS. Bringing a collection of different chargers into space meant additional equipment, additional weight and additional things that could fail.
NASA’s solution was surprisingly simple.
Instead of continuing to accommodate a bunch of different laptop chargers, the laptops themselves were modified so they could all use the same type of power connection aboard the station. Older modem ports, which weren’t particularly useful aboard the ISS anyway, were removed and replaced with a standardized “cannon plug.” That allowed the laptops to connect directly to the station’s DC power system using the same connection.
Basically, NASA standardized the laptop chargers.
And while most businesses don’t have to worry about whether an extra Lenovo power brick is going to add too much weight to a rocket, there’s actually a pretty good lesson hiding in this story.
Because one of the easiest ways to make technology unnecessarily complicated is to let everybody have something different.
The Office Junk Drawer Problem
You’ve probably got one of these somewhere.
Maybe it’s an actual drawer. Maybe it’s a shelf in the server room. Maybe it’s a plastic bin somebody labeled “computer stuff” sometime around 2017.
Inside are six laptop chargers.
Three of them have barrel connectors that are almost the same size but aren’t.
Two are USB-C.
One belongs to a computer nobody remembers owning.
There’s an HDMI cable. A VGA adapter. A mini DisplayPort cable. An Ethernet dongle for a laptop that hasn’t been used in years. A power supply with absolutely no identifying information on it. And, for some reason, a phone charger from approximately the first Obama administration.
Nobody throws any of it away because somebody might need it someday.
This is what happens naturally when technology is purchased one device at a time without much thought about the environment around it.
A laptop dies, so somebody buys another laptop.
A new employee starts Monday, so somebody goes online Friday afternoon and orders whatever can arrive tomorrow.
There’s a sale at Costco.
Amazon has something with good reviews.
An employee insists they need a Mac.
Another employee wants a Surface.
Somebody else already owns a Dell dock, so they buy another Dell.
None of these decisions are necessarily terrible by themselves.
The problem is what happens five years later.
Now you don’t have an office full of computers.
You have an electronics petting zoo.
Everything Works Until Something Doesn’t
Most technology standardization sounds incredibly boring when everything is working.
If everybody has different laptops but everybody’s laptop turns on Monday morning, who cares?
The Dell works.
The HP works.
The Lenovo works.
The MacBook works.
Nobody is standing around the conference table saying, “Boy, I sure wish these computers were more standardized.”
Then somebody’s charger dies.
Suddenly the boring decision matters.
You grab the charger from the empty desk next door. Wrong connector.
There’s another one in the supply closet. Right manufacturer, wrong voltage.
There’s a USB-C charger in the conference room. It physically fits, but it isn’t powerful enough for that laptop.
Amazon has the replacement, but it won’t arrive until tomorrow.
Now an employee who is being paid to work is sitting around with a laptop at 4% battery because a $60 accessory failed.
That’s a pretty silly reason to lose productivity.
And chargers are just the easiest example.
A docking station dies and the replacement doesn’t support the same monitors.
A laptop fails and the spare can’t connect to the employee’s dock.
A new computer arrives without an Ethernet jack, but the desk is wired.
A monitor only has DisplayPort while the replacement computer only has HDMI.
Someone works from home and discovers their company charger can’t be used with the spare laptop IT sent them.
None of this is exciting.
That’s exactly the point.
Good technology planning eliminates a tremendous number of problems that were never interesting enough to deserve anyone’s attention in the first place.
Standardization Doesn’t Mean Everyone Gets the Exact Same Computer
When I talk about standardizing technology, I’m not suggesting that every employee in a business needs an identical laptop.
That wouldn’t always make sense.
The person answering email, working in QuickBooks and opening PDFs doesn’t necessarily need the same computer as somebody running CAD software, editing video or working with giant spreadsheets all day.
Different jobs have different requirements.
The goal isn’t identical equipment.
The goal is compatible equipment.
Maybe a business settles on one manufacturer and two or three computer models.
A basic laptop for most employees.
A more powerful version for people with heavier workloads.
Maybe a desktop option for employees who never leave the office.
But wherever possible, those computers use the same USB-C charging standard. They work with the same docks. They use the same monitor connections. They run the same version of Windows. They have similar warranties and replacement parts.
Now when something breaks, you have options.
That’s where standardization starts paying for itself.
The Spare Computer That Is Actually Useful
Every business eventually has a computer die at the worst possible time.
It never seems to happen to the laptop nobody uses.
It’s always the person with a presentation in two hours, payroll due tomorrow or seventeen things open that they swear they absolutely cannot close.
This is where having standardized equipment can turn a potentially miserable day into a minor inconvenience.
Imagine ten employees use compatible laptops and docks.
One laptop dies.
Instead of scrambling to order a replacement and rebuilding somebody’s desk from scratch, you can take a spare laptop, connect it to the existing dock, sign the employee in and get moving.
Their monitors work.
Their keyboard works.
Their mouse works.
Their charger works.
The desk itself doesn’t care that a different laptop showed up.
That doesn’t happen by accident.
It happens because somebody thought about compatibility before there was a problem.
Compare that with an environment where every employee has a completely different setup.
The spare computer is an HP.
The employee’s dock only works properly with their Dell.
The HP charger disappeared two years ago.
The employee has two monitors, but the spare only has one HDMI port.
Now the computer failure has turned into a shopping trip.
This is the difference between technology being managed and technology simply accumulating.
Saving $75 Can Get Expensive
Price shopping is another reason businesses end up with random equipment.
And I understand it.
If Laptop A costs $1,000 and Laptop B costs $925, it seems obvious that Laptop B is the better deal.
Sometimes it is.
But businesses need to look at more than the purchase price.
Suppose Laptop A works with the docks already on every desk. You already have spare chargers for it. Your IT provider knows the model. It carries the same warranty as the rest of your equipment. Your existing accessories all work.
Laptop B saves you $75.
But now you need a $130 dock.
The charger isn’t compatible with the spare chargers you already own.
The employee needs a different video adapter.
And when the machine has a problem three years from now, nobody remembers why this one computer is different from everything else.
Congratulations.
You saved $75.
This happens all the time because technology purchases are often evaluated individually instead of as part of a larger system.
For a home user buying one laptop, chasing the best sale might make perfect sense.
For a business buying the seventh laptop in an office, compatibility may be worth more than the discount.
The Same Idea Applies to Printers
If you really want to see the consequences of refusing to standardize anything, take a look at office printers.
One employee has an HP.
Another has a Brother.
The front desk has a Canon.
Somebody brought in an Epson from home because they liked the color better.
There’s a label printer connected through USB.
The copier is leased from another company.
Every device needs a different driver, different toner, different troubleshooting process and sometimes a different utility installed on the computers.
Then somebody asks why printing is complicated.
Well…
You built the United Nations of printers.
Sometimes there is a perfectly legitimate reason to have different equipment. A receptionist may need something completely different from the accounting department. A warehouse may need labels. A medical office may need specialized scanning or printing functions.
But when there isn’t a reason, standardization reduces headaches.
You can stock the same toner.
Employees know how the controls work.
Drivers are consistent.
Replacement devices are easier to configure.
IT doesn’t have to rediscover how a particular printer works every time somebody needs help.
Again, none of this is glamorous.
Nobody is going to put “we standardized the printers” on the front page of the company newsletter.
But it saves time.
Software Can Become the Same Mess
Hardware is only half of this problem.
Businesses can accumulate software in exactly the same way.
One employee stores files in OneDrive.
Another uses Dropbox.
Someone else started using Google Drive years ago.
A manager has Box because a client invited them to it.
Someone keeps important documents on their desktop because they don’t trust any of them.
Now somebody leaves the company and nobody knows where their files actually live.
The same thing happens with communications.
One department uses Teams.
Another likes Slack.
Somebody texts everybody from their personal phone.
A vendor convinced one employee to install WhatsApp.
Half the staff responds to email.
The other half doesn’t.
This isn’t necessarily a technology failure.
It’s often a planning failure.
Every additional platform introduces another account, another password, another place data can live, another subscription, another thing somebody needs to learn and another thing that can eventually break.
Businesses sometimes treat software like a buffet.
If someone wants another tool, just add it.
Eventually you end up paying for six different ways to do essentially the same thing.
Standardization means stopping occasionally and asking a very simple question:
Do we already have something that does this?
That question can save a surprising amount of money.
There Is a Security Benefit Too
Standardization also makes technology easier to secure.
Let’s say a business has 30 computers.
If those 30 systems are relatively consistent, it’s easier to know what “normal” looks like.
They should be running the same operating system.
They should have the same security tools.
They should receive the same updates.
They should follow the same policies.
They should have similar configurations.
Now compare that with 30 computers purchased randomly over eight years.
Some run Windows 11 Pro.
Some run Windows 11 Home.
One is somehow still running Windows 10 because a particular program supposedly needs it.
There’s a Mac somebody brought from home.
Three computers have local administrator accounts because an old software vendor demanded it.
Two use different antivirus products because they came bundled with something.
One machine was set up by somebody’s nephew in 2022.
That’s much harder to manage.
Every exception becomes another thing that has to be remembered.
And eventually, somebody forgets.
Security loves consistency.
When equipment is standardized, updates, configuration changes, replacement schedules and security policies are much easier to apply across the company.
That doesn’t mean every machine has to be a clone.
It means there should be a reason when something is different.
Standardization Makes Support Faster
This is probably the part I appreciate most from the IT side.
If I know what equipment a business uses, solving problems becomes much faster.
If you tell me, “The docking station stopped working,” and I already know what dock your company uses, we’re halfway there.
I know how it connects.
I know which power supply it uses.
I know what firmware it needs.
I know whether we have another one available.
I may already know the weird little quirk that model has when Windows decides it doesn’t want to detect monitor number two.
Now imagine the opposite.
“What kind of dock is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What kind of computer?”
“Black.”
“Who makes it?”
“Microsoft?”
It has an HP logo.
Now we begin the archaeological dig.
Can you turn it over?
Is there a model number?
Can you read me the tiny writing?
No, not that number.
The other number.
Technology support becomes significantly easier when the environment isn’t full of surprises.
And easier support usually means faster support.
NASA Had a Much Better Reason Than We Do
To be fair, NASA’s motivation was a bit stronger than avoiding an emergency trip to Office Depot.
Sending equipment into orbit is expensive, and space aboard a spacecraft isn’t unlimited.
Every unnecessary adapter is additional mass.
Every extra connector is another potential failure point.
Every incompatible accessory complicates logistics.
So NASA took laptops that weren’t originally designed for this environment and modified them to use a common power connection. The original machines dated back to an era when built-in modem ports were normal, and since those modem connections weren’t useful on the station, NASA had a convenient place to install the standardized power connector.
That’s pretty clever.
But the principle isn’t exotic at all.
NASA looked at a bunch of equipment that all performed the same basic job and asked:
Why are we carrying nine different ways to power these things?
Most businesses could benefit from asking the same sort of question.
Why do we have four brands of laptops?
Why do we have three cloud storage services?
Why are employees buying their own monitors?
Why are there five different printers?
Why does this one computer require an adapter nobody else uses?
Why does every conference room work differently?
Why do we have six versions of Microsoft Office?
Sometimes there will be a perfectly good answer.
Sometimes the answer will basically be, “Well… that’s just how it happened.”
Technology Has a Way of “Just Happening”
This is one of the most common things I see in small businesses.
Nobody intentionally designed the technology environment.
It grew.
The company started with three employees.
Then it became six.
Then twelve.
Somebody needed another computer.
Then another printer.
Then remote access.
Then cloud storage.
Then a second location.
Then someone started working from home.
Each individual decision solved the immediate problem.
Five years later, nobody can explain the whole thing.
That’s normal.
Businesses focus on running their businesses. Most owners aren’t sitting around developing a five-year workstation standardization strategy.
But there comes a point where all of those little independent decisions start creating friction.
That’s usually when it’s worth stepping back and looking at the environment as a whole.
What do we own?
What do people actually use?
What should we keep?
What should eventually be replaced?
What models make sense going forward?
What could we standardize without disrupting anybody?
You don’t necessarily fix everything at once.
In fact, I usually wouldn’t recommend that.
You simply stop adding to the chaos.
Standardization Can Happen Slowly
This is important because “standardization” sounds expensive if you imagine replacing every computer in the building tomorrow.
That’s usually unnecessary.
Suppose you have 15 laptops from five different manufacturers.
You don’t need to throw away 12 perfectly good computers.
Instead, you make a decision.
Starting now, new laptops will come from a particular business-class product line.
As older machines are replaced, the environment gradually becomes more consistent.
A few years later, maybe twelve of the fifteen systems use the same family of docks and chargers.
Nobody endured a giant forklift upgrade.
Nobody threw away useful equipment.
You simply made smarter replacement decisions over time.
The same thing can happen with monitors, networking equipment, printers and software.
Technology becomes more manageable because every new purchase moves the business toward a plan instead of away from one.
That’s the part that matters.
Boring Technology Is Usually Good Technology
There is a tendency in technology to chase whatever is newest.
Newest laptop.
Newest processor.
Newest cloud service.
Newest app.
Newest gadget.
But businesses don’t make money because the accounting department has an exciting charger.
They make money because employees can sit down and work.
The best technology infrastructure is often incredibly boring.
The Wi-Fi works.
The printer works.
The files are where they’re supposed to be.
The computer turns on.
The employee’s monitors connect.
The backup happened last night.
The security software is running.
Nobody had to think about any of it.
That kind of boring is beautiful.
And standardization is one of the ways you get there.
When ten computers behave similarly, supporting them becomes predictable.
When replacement parts are interchangeable, failures become less disruptive.
When employees use the same basic tools, training becomes easier.
When IT knows what is supposed to be there, weird things stand out.
It’s not exciting.
Neither is having the right size wrench when something breaks.
But you really appreciate it when you need it.
If It Works 250 Miles Above Earth…
I love this NASA story because the technology itself isn’t particularly extraordinary.
NASA didn’t invent some revolutionary new laptop charging system.
They looked at an annoying compatibility problem and removed it.
Different laptops needed different chargers.
That meant extra equipment.
Extra equipment meant extra weight, extra complexity and more opportunities for something to go wrong.
So they standardized it.
That’s it.
And that’s exactly why the lesson translates so well to ordinary businesses.
Your office doesn’t need NASA-level engineering.
It just needs somebody occasionally asking whether all of this technology actually makes sense together.
Because buying technology is easy.
Managing a random collection of technology for the next five years is the expensive part.
A little planning today can mean that when a laptop fails three years from now, the replacement slides into the existing setup without turning Tuesday morning into an adventure.
That’s worth something.
At Geek3, this is part of what I help businesses with. Not just fixing computers after they break, but helping make sure the technology around the office actually makes sense together in the first place.
If your office has slowly turned into a collection of random laptops, chargers, docks, printers and whatever somebody happened to buy when they needed it, you’re definitely not alone.
But you also don’t have to keep doing it that way.
Sometimes the smartest technology decision isn’t buying something newer.
Sometimes it’s simply making sure the next thing you buy works with everything you already have.
After all, if standardizing laptop chargers can make life easier 250 miles above Earth, it can probably make things a little easier down here too.
