Efficiency, performance, and security; the three priorities that new IT investment should focus on

As the broader economy and business environment continues to recover and rebound, there is an opportunity for IT leaders to leverage increased budgets to strategically invest in and prepare for new approaches to enterprise technology.

As noted by Spiceworks, the majority of businesses are increasing IT spending, with a particular focus on modernisation. “The hybrid work era, which coincided with the standardisation of the cloud as the backbone for enterprise operations, has put in motion renewed demand for software and services to modernise organisations’ technology infrastructure,” the report notes.

In other words, leaders are taking the opportunity of increased spending in IT to prepare their environments for new ways of working, that better integrate cloud and on-premises computing. With hardware, this means a renewed focus on three areas: efficiency, performance, and security. To help businesses capitalise on that opportunity, Intel has designed its vPro platform to deliver meaningful gains to enterprises across all three priorities.

Performance

Hybrid work environments require higher levels of performance, as remote employees rely more on video collaboration, and the organisation looks to more intensive applications like AI, and edge deployments.

Because the vPro platform is powered by the 12^th generation of Intel Core processors, it delivers the significantly improved performance needed to make these environments seamless. Intel’s stats show that the mobile processors deliver up to 27 per cent faster application performance, the desktop processes achieve 21 per cent faster application performance, and, for example, this translates to a 23 per cent faster application performance while using Microsoft Excel during a Zoom video conference call.

Efficiency and Sustainability

Last year, Deloitte research found that more than half of consumers now expect companies to take meaningful steps towards reducing carbon emissions and improving sustainability. With IT contributing a considerable amount to the power draw of the typical company, finding efficiencies through the IT refreshes becomes an effective way that the organisation to show proactive steps towards sustainability.

One of the key features in the vPro platform is the Intel Active Management Technology (Intel AMT) that allows organisation to remotely manage the energy consumption of devices by shutting inactive devices down, and reduce the need for remote callouts or deskside visits. Intel estimates that this saves around one million kilowatt hours of energy consumption for every 20,000 devices managed this way, and additionally, by eliminating the need for separate energy management software, saves organisations by $25 – $75 per device.

Security

Adapting a hybrid and flexible approach to work changes the security dynamic. No longer is the traditional “perimeter” defence going to be sufficient, as organisations house data in clouds off-site, and employees work remotely and outside of the boundaries of the organisation. Addressing this security challenge requires a renewed focus on endpoint security.

Intel provides new security features thought vPro which are designed to renew that endpoint security layer. Intel Threat Detection Technology (Intel TDT) provides ransomware detection at the hardware level, allowing for the immediate response before the infection can spread.

The vPro platform also has features to detect living-off-the-land and supply chain-style attacks with a “zero trust” approach, in which AI automatically detects anomalies when applications are behaving unusually.

The vPro Suite Explained

There are four key branches to the Intel vPro solution, designed to bring the functionality of the suite across all platforms, and for all verticals:

• Intel vPro Enterprise for Windows has been designed for enterprises and managed service providers that are looking after large fleets of devices.
• Intel vPro Essentials is the solution that Intel uses to provide SMEs with the core security and device management capabilities available to enterprises. 
• Intel vPro Enterprise for Chrome OS has been designed to bring the efficiency of Chromebooks to enterprise environments by boosting their performance, stability, and security features.
• Intel vPro, An Evo Design combines two of Intel’s flagship products to deliver the company’s vision around security, performance, and management to mobile business environments.

Combined, Intel is pushing the vPro solution to be the ideal opportunity for a refresh of the IT environment, delivering the performance required of the modern mobile, edge and hybrid-driven organisations, while also being mindful of the changing dynamics around efficiency and security.

For more information on vPro, click here.