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New Intel Core Systems Create Management Play for the Channel

Solution providers today often find themselves caught between two diametrically opposed forces. It’s clear to them that many employees at the organization they service would like access to the latest and greatest PC technologies. But the internal IT department is constrained by both budget and ability to actually manage the environment. Almost invariably, end users […]

Written By: Michael Vizard

May 15, 2012

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Solution providers today often find themselves caught between two diametrically opposed forces. It’s clear to them that many employees at the organization they service would like access to the latest and greatest PC technologies. But the internal IT department is constrained by both budget and ability to actually manage the environment.

Almost invariably, end users then wind up doing an end run around the IT department, which in turn creates all manner of security and compliance issues for the organization.

With the delivery of new systems that will be based on 3rd Generation Intel Core Processors, Intel is trying to bridge the divide between IT and end users by more aggressively leveraging security and systems management technologies that will be embedded in next generation PC systems that leverage Intel’s vPro technology to lower the cost of managing these devices.

One of the first vendors out of the gate with systems based on 3rd Generation Intel Core Processors will be Lenovo. The company previewed at its Accelerate channel partner conference in Las Vegas today the ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptop, a 14-inch notebook based on an Intel Ultrabook design along with a new lineup of ThinkPad laptops in the T, X, L and W Series that all leverage 3rd Generation Intel Core Processors that will all be shipping in the next few months.

Dilip Bhatia, vice president and general manager of Lenovo’s ThinkPad Business Unit says it’s important for Lenovo to get out in front of rivals in terms of delivering these products because they represent an important step forward in the consumerization of IT. As such, he expects that as many organizations decided to make the transition to Windows 7 or Windows 8, they are going to favor devices that give end users devices that look and function more like the notebooks people are used to seeing in the consumer space.

In fact, Bhatia says the days when IT organization could dictate what systems end users are actually going to be allowed to use is coming to a close in favor of a role where the IT organization is seen as being more of a facilitator of IT choice.

Of course, that’s only likely to happen if the IT organization can maintain control over the systems in terms of how they are secured and serviced, which is one of the reasons that Bhatia thinks that systems based on 3rd Generation Intel Core processors will have strong appeal to traditional enterprise IT organizations.

Times are definitely changing in enterprise IT, thanks largely to the continuing rise of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) phenomenon. But as BYOD continues to make IT more complex the manage, solution providers are being asked to help customers put the systems management frameworks in place to manage systems that are nominally outside the purview of the control of the IT department. That may mean the real money for the channel may not be in selling next generation PCs, but rather setting up the systems management frameworks that manage those devices regardless of who actually owns them.

Michael Vizard

Michael Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist, with nearly 30 years of experience writing and editing about enterprise IT issues. He is a writer for publications including Programmableweb, IT Business Edge, CIOinsight, Channel Insider and UBM Tech. He formerly was editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise, where he launched the company’s custom content division, and has also served as editor in chief for CRN and InfoWorld. He also has held editorial positions at PC Week, Computerworld and Digital Review.

New Intel Core Systems Create Management Play for the Channel

Michael Vizard

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