Computer Dealer News, May 12, 2006, Vol. 22, No. 7

Intel unleashes vPRO platform

Intel will offer the first samples of vPro, a platform for business PC customers, before the end of this quarter, building more management tools, virtualization and energy efficiency features into its desktop processors and chipsets.
5/23/2006 9:27:00 AM By: Shane Schick

The platform will include its Core dual-core CPU, the second generation of Intel's Active Management Technology (IAMT) and Intel VT virtualization features. Intel chief executive Paul Otellini said the “seed units” of vPro this quarter would be followed up by shipments in the third quarter. In 2007, Intel plans to build quad-core CPUs into vPro, and extend the virutalization capabilities of VT beyond microprocessors and into hard drives, I/O and other parts of the system.

“IT shops don't just go down to Circuit City and buy PCs,” said Otellini in announcing the seed units. “They run them in pilot mode before deploying them. This will give them a stable image program to make sure they have transparency and resiliency.”

Much like Centrino, which Intel introduced in 2003 to combine its Pentium M mobile processor and related chipsets for wireless connectivity, Intel hopes vPro will reinvent the desktop market. Although PCs still account for about 70 per cent of all computing systems sold, Otellini said, support costs have risen to twice the cost of the hardware. That means enterprise CIOs are forced to use IT staff to deal with power off problems, OSes that won't boot or “worst of all, having to bring the PC to the IT shop.”

The IAMT features in vPro, Otellini said, will address management challenges that companies face daily, including auditing a crashed PC, or remotely repairing an operating system that has shut down.

EDS has been working with Intel on vPro for the last 18 months and has already deployed it in some of the 400 customers with whom it works worldwide. Kim Stevenson, EDS's vice-president, said so far the platform allows her team to reduce desk-side visits by 50 to 75 per cent in some cases. It has also decreased the deployment time for mission-critical software by 90 per cent, she said.

“With my service desk agents, I can change the work they do, and integrate all those operations around PC updates, patches,” she said.

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