Wanted for dead or alive PCs: Intel vPro technology

The CIO-level business angle on the latest tech

Released in 2006 as a feature set of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, vPro technology has been winning its followers slowly but is now set to explode. It has helped that Intel has also embedded the technology in its Centrino processor for mobile PCs. Today, most of the major PC hardware manufacturers have business model PCs embedded with vPro, and the top purveyors of systems management software have developed the interfaces to complement the processor technology. In addition, enough customers have deployed PCs with vPro to give Intel some great proof points of the value.

You haven’t heard of vPro technology? Well, you aren’t alone. It’s another one of those Intel technologies that is under the hood, unseen and unsung, but the buzz is starting to build.

As part of the Core 2 Duo and Centrino processors, vPro technology adds management, security and reliability capabilities at the silicon level so that you can protect and manage PCs regardless of their state. A PC can be active, turned off, or even dead as a door nail, and you can still reach it to diagnose and remediate problems or conduct routine management activities. (Intel personnel are emphatic to say this is not Wake on LAN technology, which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.)

As a complement to systems management software, the vPro technology provides better out-of-band (underneath the OS) management. Customers are finding value in four main areas:

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Released in 2006 as a feature set of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, vPro technology has been winning its followers slowly but is now set to explode. It has helped that Intel has also embedded the technology in its Centrino processor for mobile PCs. Today, most of the major PC hardware manufacturers have business model PCs embedded with vPro, and the top purveyors of systems management software have developed the interfaces to complement the processor technology. In addition, enough customers have deployed PCs with vPro to give Intel some great proof points of the value.

You haven’t heard of vPro technology? Well, you aren’t alone. It’s another one of those Intel technologies that is under the hood, unseen and unsung, but the buzz is starting to build.

As part of the Core 2 Duo and Centrino processors, vPro technology adds management, security and reliability capabilities at the silicon level so that you can protect and manage PCs regardless of their state. A PC can be active, turned off, or even dead as a door nail, and you can still reach it to diagnose and remediate problems or conduct routine management activities. (Intel personnel are emphatic to say this is not Wake on LAN technology, which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.)

As a complement to systems management software, the vPro technology provides better out-of-band (underneath the OS) management. Customers are finding value in four main areas:

* Discover – for platform auditing and hardware and software inventory management.
* Heal – for remote diagnosis and remote and local repair.
* Protect – for software version compliance, hardware-based isolation and recovery, endpoint access control.
* Configure – for one-touch configuration, and remote (zero-touch) configuration.

Here are just a couple of ways that companies are utilizing this technology to cut operations and support costs, lower the Mean Time to Repair (MTR), increase security, and generally reach the “last mile” of machines that were practically impossible to reach before:

* When a PC crashes, no matter where it is located, a technician can diagnose and potentially fix the problem without leaving his desk.
* Companies can run patches on PCs when there's downtime at night. Even if a PC is turned off, it can be remotely awakened to allow for maintenance routines such as software updates.
* It’s possible to get a complete hardware and software inventory, regardless of the on/off status of the PCs. The inventory can be done at night when network traffic and user workloads are low.
* If a PC is infected with a virus or other malware, it can be isolated at the machine level. However, a technician can still communicate with the PC to diagnose and remediate the problem without having to physically visit the PC.

EDS conducted a number of pilot projects with its customers to determine the value of the vPro technology in lowering support costs. Following the pilot programs, the IT organizations said they would be able to reduce software related desk-side visits 91% and reduce hardware related desk-side visits by 60%. You can read the results of the study in this EDS report: Case Studies with Intel® vPro processor technology.

The EDS study summarizes the benefits of the vPro technology as such: “Intel vPro processor technology essentially makes the PC available to the management control console any time it is plugged into a power source and connected to the network. Access to the PC independent of the health of the OS or the presence or absence of an agent allows a technician, via an encrypted connection, to power-up the PC at any time for any purpose. This also allows communication with the PC in a manner that is completely separate from ordinary network communications. So, for example, you can make the machine available for diagnostics, repair, or update but at the same time make it unavailable to spread malware across the network.”

Gartner, too, is getting behind this technology and recommending it to clients. See the February 28, 2008 Gartner research note, Revisiting vPro for Corporate Purchases.

If you want to know what the real experts are saying, check out the knowledge portals used by the IT practitioners. The Intel Expert vPro Center is a good resource for getting (and giving) technical information about deploying vPro and Active Management Technology (AMT). If you use Altiris solutions to manage your PCs, there’s plenty of information on the Altiris Juice portal that is specific to Intel vPro technology.

When it’s time to refresh your PC hardware, talk to your vendor about the vPro technology. HP, Lenovo and Dell are all supporting it in at least some of their business SKUs. The cost differential between PCs with vPro and without vPro is insignificant compared to the benefits customers are reporting.

Read more about data center in Network World's Data Center section.

Linda Musthaler is a principal analyst with Essential Solutions Corporation.