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By Chris Angelini |
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business customers are careful, calculating creatures. They keep an eye out for value but often have a penchant for the finer things, too. Most of all, though, they want to buy technology that works well. If you sell them desktops, noise, stability, performance, and price all come into play. Servers must be dependable. When problems do surface, you're expected to be there—same day—ready to solve the problem. Such is life for the SMB reseller trying to offer value above and beyond what tier-ones provide. The problem, at least as it pertains to system sales, isn't one of service. Rather, most of my customers are quite frank in that they'd rather buy a brand name and have me work on it than take a chance on a whitebox. Understandable? Sure. After all, nobody ever got fired for buying IBM, right? Happy for the business, VARs and consultants grit their teeth, smile, and say thanks. There simply hasn't been a 100% satisfying, office-oriented desktop initiative for resellers to stand behind—until now. Just look at what Centrino did for notebooks. Standardization on a common chipset, processor, and wireless controller made it easy for system builders to construct great whitebooks with as many features as tier-one offerings. The same goes for Viiv and multimedia PCs. Though the program might be slightly before its time, Viiv gives the VAR community momentum where there really was none before. Recognizing that positive influence, Intel decided to make a move in what would otherwise be a market of vanilla business desktops, calling its new technology package vPro. Like Viiv, vPro represents the intersection of some timely hardware advancements, much-anticipated (and sometimes desperately needed) software titles, and good old fashioned marketing. Combining all three allows Intel to ensure baseline capabilities for its initiative, propel sales of new hardware, and empower resellers with a rallying cry: vPro, Intel says, is the future of the digital office. Chip of Choice From a hardware perspective, vPro consists of three Intel brand components: a processor, chipset, and motherboard. The platform requirements are much easier to fulfill than Centrino or even Viiv, and Intel's validation process is similar. Intel recently entered a new age with its Core 2 Duo processor. Much faster than the Pentium before it and more efficient to boot, the company is finally able to discuss speed and power-friendliness in the same sentence. Of course, Core 2 Duo would be the CPU best suited to usher vPro into the door.
Core 2 Duo introduces several benefits to the vPro program—many, surprisingly, brand new to the desktop. For example, the chip's Advanced Smart Cache consists of one large 4MB repository shared between both of the chip's processing cores. Cache allocation is determined dynamically and based on workload, enabling the greatest benefit to whichever core is working hardest. According to Intel, access latency to frequently-used information consequently drops significantly. Changes made moving from Pentium 4's NetBurst architecture to Core 2 Duo also improve the newcomer's perceived efficiency. A de-emphasis on clock speed throttles down Core 2 Duo's peak megahertz numbers, but a shallower execution pipeline massively improves work done per clock cycle. Intel sums those progressions up in its Wide Dynamic Execution technology and claims the end result is performance up to 40 percent better than Pentium-class chips. Some of Core 2 Duo's other features should be more familiar, though equally critical to vPro and business computing. Intel VT (Virtualization Technology) was previously available on select Pentium 4 models. It plays a bigger role in Core 2 Duo, though, and even more so as a component of vPro since businesses will deploy compliant machines en masse. Virtualization proffers two principal advantages to vPro: manageability and security. Intel is working with myriad third-party software vendors to develop self-contained packages that will allow you to deploy a user OS, such as Windows XP, and a service OS at the same time on one machine. To the user, nothing changes. The virtual appliance runs on a separate partition invisible to all except authorized IT. The possibilities for augmenting security through virtualization are many. You can deploy vPro platforms with IT tasks running on a virtual appliance, completely hidden from the user OS, including virus scanners, system updates, and backup software. Or protect sensitive business information by installing it to the virtual appliance, which proactively blocks unauthorized access from rogue software. And because that functionality is built into Intel's Core 2 Duo, it doesn't penalize system performance—one of the advantages over a software-only virtualization solution.
You'll also recognize Intel's Extended Memory 64 Technology from the Pentium 4. We still haven't seen 64-bit software take a firm hold in the enterprise, much less the business desktop, but there's no denying the transition is happening at a steady pace. At the very least, workstations deployed in a vPro infrastructure should have no problem taking more than 4GB of memory. Office-Oriented Logic The second pertinent piece of vPro is Intel's Q965 chipset, which incorporates all of the latest core logic functionality in a package purportedly optimized for the office. Perhaps the most visible value-add is the Q965's GMA 3000 graphics core, integrated as a means to cut back on the cost of discrete cards. Whereas most built-in solutions generally lack horsepower, the GMA 3000 represents Intel's most potent foray into true hardware-accelerated 3D and video. In fact, the GMA 3000 is already said to support the Microsoft Vista Premium logo program. The GMA 3000 controller also accommodates ADD2 cards—inexpensive drop-in boards that enable digital connectivity not usually available on motherboards with integrated graphics, giving resellers a great way to differentiate. For example, Wintec Industries' Pegasus ADD2 board is sold in single- and dual-DVI configurations in addition to an HDMI model that would be well paired with a large screen display. All three models sell for under $40, making them great upsells on productivity-oriented machines. Ample memory bandwidth is an understandable concern on a platform retrofitted with advanced graphics capabilities and a thirsty dual-core processor. So whereas Intel's former flagships topped out at DDR2-667 memory support, the Q965 stretches all the way to dual-channel DDR2-800, totaling 12.8 GBps of peak bandwidth. As with nearly all chipsets, Q965 is a pas de deux, consisting of memory controller northbridge and I/O-based southbridge, which also happens to be brand new. Granted, most of the ICH8's functions are evolutionary: six 3 Gbps Serial ATA ports instead of four, 10 USB 2.0 ports rather than eight, and so on. But a couple of fresh specifications add particular appeal in the context of vPro.
Quiet System Technology is one, balancing operating temperature ranges to make subtler fan speed adjustments. The other is AMT (Active Management Technology), an integral part of what vPro brings to the table. There are two capabilities that give AMT its SMB edge. First, a remote communication channel grants unfettered access to client machines regardless of system state. Existing software-only manageability solutions operate at the the OS level and are consequently accessible "in band" once a machine is booted. AMT is a hardware feature, so even if a customer shuts everything authorized IT can still push a patch, alter BIOS settings, or repair a damaged OS. The second component of AMT is a more secure block of nonvolatile memory used to store the encrypted vPro management engine, hardware asset information, and other data pertaining to third-party security apps. All three are carefully protected by an access control list that prevents hackers or viruses from controlling a vPro platform. Frankly, the asset management and inventorying capabilities of AMT are more beneficial to enterprise customers than SMBs. Where you'll really get mileage from AMT is in troubleshooting remotely. Servicing customers with offices out of town generally results in bills inflated by travel costs since troubled desktops are difficult to administer. AMT lets the remote VAR boot from a network drive and reinstall an operating system or diagnose a logged software error. Should some piece of hardware fail, AMT would record the make and model, taking any guesswork out of troubleshooting. vPro in the Channel When we first started talking to Intel about Viiv earlier in the year, one of our principal concerns was the role resellers would play. Viiv sounded like an easy target for tier-ones and less accessible to smaller channel partners. As it turned out, Intel was indeed interested in a channel push. The hardware, software, and validation tools emerged to put VARs on equal footing with big-name vendors. The same held true for third-gen Centrino thanks to VBI. And now, Intel has channel plans for vPro and explaining how it can help benefit SMBs. "The market for vPro is the same as the system builder market," says Steve Ichinaga, senior vice president and general manager of Synnex's system integrator division. "Educating customers on what vPro can offer will be one of the most important factors in making the initiative work, and that's where the channel really comes into play." According to Ichinaga, vPro will be made available to resellers in the form of hardware bundles—obviously, with motherboards and processors being the two requisite components of vPro, there should be no shortage of combinations capable of meeting the program's requirements. VARs can also expect to see software bundles that complement vPro's hardware infrastructure. Indeed, security and managability vendors such as CA and Symantec will be key in helping Intel realize its vPro vision. Synnex is so confident that vPro will make a splash with channel partners that the company has plans to adopt the initiative itself. "Intel presented vPro at our last SYNNEX national sales conference this past July and we saw immediate interest from those in attendance," says Steve Ichinaga. "Between the value in standardization, manageability features, and built-in security functions, we decided to adopt vPro internally." Distributors anticipate easy access to hardware and plenty of third-party software packages to go along with vPro systems. But Intel plans to handle badging directly. Resellers will craft a system built on qualifying vPro components, validate the resulting machine using Intel's Brand Verification Tool (visit www.intel.com/go/label for more on that), and order the offical vPro logo badges to go along with their whiteboxes. Winning SMB Business In an environment where a lot of SMB business ends up going to tier-one vendors, vPro may very well be the relief for which resellers have been waiting. My small business customers like brands, standards, and stability. Confident though many VARs may be in their product, quantifying those attributes isn't easy, and so sales are lost. Before you even consider the platform's other graces, vPro gives resellers a banner to stand behind, just like Centrino and Viiv. Of course, vPro offers more than just standardization. The benefits of virtualization are there, too, though they may take time to harness. AMT enables more immediately palpable advantages, especially for IT administrators working remotely. And naturally, the performance improvements built into Core 2 Duo begin to materialize from the moment your customer powers on. |
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