Intel Unveils Broad Initiative To Cut Costs Of Business Computing

Wired for Management Initiative Delivers Range of Products and Industry Alliances; Goal: Reduce Total Cost of Ownership of a Managed PC by 15% in First Year

In a day-long Business Computing Forum, Intel announced the Wired for Management initiative, a wide-ranging effort to advance the managed PC as a means of reducing the total cost of ownership of business computing, including costs for system management and support. The initiative will include new Intel hardware and software products, joint work with other companies, industry standards efforts and other programs that will target reductions in the most expensive element of business computing: labor.

Kicking off the effort, Intel today announced a new LANDesk® management product for PC help desks; a series of Pentium® Pro processor-based server platforms with built-in management capabilities; the availability of a hardware monitoring chip to track PC health; and new sources of guidance for customers on manageable systems.

Addressing an audience of several thousand at Madison Square Garden, Andy Grove, president and chief executive officer of Intel, described current and emerging solutions that enable organizations to better manage and control computing costs without sacrificing the adaptability that has made PCs essential for business today.

“Intel has been a pioneer in making the PC manageable," said Dr. Grove. “The Wired for Management initiative is an intensification of our efforts to make PCs universally managed. We plan to achieve our goal of a 15-percent reduction in the total cost of ownership of business PCs over the next year through the comprehensive delivery of management-enabled products, including chips, platforms and applications software.”

Intel’s Wired for Management initiative focuses on advancing three areas:

• Instrumentation in hardware and software to allow PCs and servers to be remotely recognized and acted on.
• Desktop management applications that provide the tools to remotely install, configure, manage and repair connected PCs.
• Enterprise management integration to enable enterprise systems to effectively manage PCs and servers.

Supporting these advances are Intel’s Pentium ® Pro processor, which provides 32-bit support, adaptability and headroom for growth, industry standards such as the Desktop Management Interface that ensure cross-platform management capabilities and high-performance operating systems like Microsoft Windows* NT and Windows95* that enhance stability and enable robust 32-bit business applications.

New Products, Technologies and Alliances

A series of new server platforms, based on the Pentium® Pro processor, offers built-in management hardware and software to make the systems easier to remotely monitor, diagnose and repair.

A hardware monitoring chip is now available on Intel motherboards to track environmental conditions such as temperature and voltage and pass that information to management software such as LANDesk Client Manager to anticipate and respond to problems. Two new information sources provide guidance on manageable systems: a Managed PC website soon will be available, and “Guidelines for Buying Manageable Systems,” a kit providing checklists and system-purchase guidance to customers.

These developments follow several other related announcements in recent weeks: new LANDesk technology to allow the unattended remote installation of operating systems in networked PCs, to be introduced in October as LANDesk Configuration Manager; an alliance with Computer Associates to link LANDesk Server Manager PRO with CA-Unicenter TNG enterprise systems management software; and a new agreement between Intel and Tivoli Systems Inc. to establish a new level of integration between enterprise and workgroup management for comprehensive end-to-end solutions.

Joining Intel in describing the Wired for Management vision today were executives from Compaq, Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft and Tivoli Systems. In addition, some 20 other suppliers, including PC manufacturers and software vendors, participated in a demo showcase following the main session.

Those who cannot attend today’s event at Madison Square Garden can view the presentations in real time at URL http://www.audionet.com/events/intel/sept24/.

Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is committed to advancing the managed, connected PC for high-performance business computing while reducing management and support costs. Information about Intel is available from the company’s site on the World Wide Web at URL http://www.intel.com./pressroom.

More information

• Intel Networking Press Kit
• Read previous Networking related press releases.
• Additional information on Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.