A quick look at some comments and stories about the new vPro core family of processors…

Brad Anderson, Microsoft

Anderson claims vPro is key to helping Windows 7 fulfil its potential of helping businesses improve energy efficiency, security and virtualisation. “vPro has enhanced Intel’s reputation as an innovator,” he said.

Steve Morton, Symantec

Symantec has built its new Client Management Suite 7.1 based on the knowledge of vPro. Morton said that vPro has enabled Symantec to “support things like KVM and the idea of a fast call for help.”

The Register http://bit.ly/dizsiZ

“The vPro management capabilities will no doubt appeal to harassed sysadmins…”

ZDNet UK http://bit.ly/cvBz90

“The new KVM functions will let engineers control a PC remotely while seeing what is on the screen, irrespective of which — if any — operating system or application software is running.”

The Inquirer http://bit.ly/ccelih

“Security is further bolstered by Intel's inclusion of six new instructions to speed up AES hardware based encryption and decryption, while remote encryption management allows IT personnel to remotely manage PCs with encrypted hard drives.”

Ken Chan, Toshiba UK http://bit.ly/ambujb

Talking at the launch of Toshiba’s new laptop range, Chan said that the difference in the new machines is the new remote management capabilities provided by Intel's Core vPro update, on which the new Tecras are based, and which "offer up a whole new proposition to the market,” he said, according to news site V3.co.uk . "Suppose I'm a business, and I'm concerned about supporting my laptop users, and I don't want to have to keep them up to date with patches and anti-virus. I can pay some service provider to take care of that for, say, £20 per month."

In his 1996 book Only the Paranoid Survive, former President and CEO of Intel Andy Grove, described the concept in business of a strategic inflection point – that is a time in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change. I believe that point is rapidly approaching when we look the changing demographics that are happening all around us. At the beginning of the 19^th Century the average life expectancy was below 50 years of age whereas today, largely thanks to advances in medicine and quality of life, people can expect to live into their 80s. This is leading us to an interesting situation where it is estimated that by 2045, the global population will have more people over the age of 65 than children under the age of 5. Another way of looking at this is that in the UK, someone is turning 50 every 40 seconds, while in the US this is happening every 7 seconds.

This demographic change has profound implications on society as a whole in terms of healthcare and service provision, but more importantly it also provides us with an amazing opportunity for new businesses and products, designed explicitly for this section of the population. Let’s look at some of the economic facts – older people have a greater proportion of societal wealth than any other age group, estimated at in excess of €3tr when looking at Europe as a whole. In the UK 50-plus households spend around £350B annually, accounting for over 40% of national household spending.

You would expect that this would cause a significant percentage of products to be aimed at older people, yet almost all marketing of products is targeted at the under-40s. There are opportunities here though not just for marketing but also for service development and product design. As people grow older, their needs change, requiring new services and products that specifically address their requirements. This could be anything from wealth management, to healthcare products or household appliances. A number of white-goods manufacturers now produce washing machines that are specifically designed to address the challenges of ageing. These products have a tilted drum to enable loading and unloading without as much need to bend down and larger controls to address a reduction in dexterity. When Ford designed the Focus car, they encouraged their designers to wear a special suit that restricted their movement and caused reductions in sensory abilities. This helped to design a car that addressed some of the needs of an ageing population. Similarly, the design of the Intel® Health Guide, an in-home chronic-disease management platform took many of these factors into account by providing a large touch-screen, and simple software user interface.

Next month a conference will be held in Dublin to discuss many of the elements described here. The event is called The Business of Ageing and it plans to equip attendees with the basics needed to develop and accelerate their understanding of the 50+ market and learn from those who've already targeted this market, successfully and won.

What do you see as the biggest product gaps in this market or what mistakes have you observed?

(Background information sourced from www.businessofageing.com )

What happened when four of the UK’s leading virtualisation experts sat in a  studio and talked about the impact of virtualisation in business IT? Well, we don’t know yet but pretty soon we will, as we’re organising a webcast to discuss that very subject. And we would like you to come along to help us shape what happens.

We’re always keen to talk about Intel’s virtualisation technology and how it will help our customer’s make the best use of their computing infrastructure. However, we suspect you find our story much more engaging when we are able to provide a full 360˚ of the virtualisation world. That’s why we’ve invited friends, Ian Pratt from Citrix and Guy Lidbetter from Atos Origin to provide the benefit of their experience during one of our webcasts, which we’ve cleverly called, ‘What’s the truth about virtualisation?’

To make sure we combine to answer that question, and to keep things fair, Freeform Dynamics analyst, Martin Atherton (himself, no stranger to virtualisation), has agreed to act as our independent, expert host and question master.

Even with an independent master of ceremonies and industry panel lined up, there’s still one important element missing. We need to make sure the webcast stays grounded in what you, the IT community, needs to know about virtualisation. When you join the webcast you’ll be able to type in questions and Martin will make sure they are answered.

I hope that sounds like a winner and we look forward to meeting you (virtually, at least) on the 9^th February – save the date!

Be the first to have your questions answered by posting them in a comment on this blog.

Regards,

Craig - IT Galaxy Community Manager

Are you enjoying the snow? I didn’t think so. The first day is great, everything looks different, the kids stay home and everyone has a collective sense of hunkering down and making the most or it. The first couple of meetings that get cancelled can be rescheduled, that journey to a customer or supplier will have to wait until the next week but the impact is limited.

Then that first day turns to a few days and the work is starting to pile up. That customer meeting that took three months to arrange really needs to happen, the planning session to agree the next quarters targets is now overdue, the supplier payments need to be reconciled. Now the snow is becoming a bit of a drag.

I’m very lucky not only do I work in a role that is independent of location, but my employer has also provided me with the tools and has a culture to allow me to have flexibility over where and when I work. This type of policy may not be suitable of all types of business or all types of roles but the ability to maintain at least some level of productivity is an important part of the modern workplace.

It’s not just snow that impacts our ability to get into the office, transport disruption, medical emergencies and acts of terror can all create unplanned disruption to the normal flow of the workplace. A small company I work with have had their entire accounts department stuck at home for nearly a week now, they have no ability to remotely access their systems and as a result the pay run for their staff may be delayed, their suppliers aren’t getting paid and they aren’t processing their income either, this can have a real impact on the cash flow of a small business.

The Government have just announced a consultation that relates to next generation broadband infrastructure, we hope that the resulting recommendations will enable the country to take these types of events in our stride, no matter where in the country you live.

Key considerations for working from home:-

• System security
• Access rights
• Infrastructure
• Company policy / HR guidelines
• Laptops and other tools for access

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8421373.stm

http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file54154.pdf

https://www2.bt.com/btPortal/application?event=bea.portal.framework.internal.portlet.event&pageid=mb_pns_catalogue&portletid=mb_pns_catalogue&portletns=pns_catalogue&wfevent=link.Category&productCategory=categories/bt_corporate_solutions_workforce.xml&siteArea=mb.corp&origin=content.jsp&PorS=solutions

So, what's your take on working from home? Tell us your thoughts and reasons for or against it!

If you have been reading this blog this week, you should know the answer to this question by now.  Whether you are looking to run Windows 7 for business or pleasure you need to make sure you are running it on a new Intel Core processor based PC.  The performance improvements, the energy efficiency and the time saved repay your investment several times over.

If you are running an older version of Windows at home on a PC that is 4 years old, you will see up to 6 times the performance improvement on various tasks such as encoding a video to be uploaded to Facebook.  There are numerous features within Windows 7 that will simplify your life, for example setting up a Home Group to connect all your home PCs together.  Whatever you are doing, it will be much more simple, it will be faster and easier and it will work the way you want.

If you are running an older version of Windows at work on a PC that is 3 years old, you will see up to a 30% multi-tasking performance improvement.  If you have an older application that won’t run on Windows 7 then you can run it in a virtualized window on your desktop using Intel Virtualisation technology based Windows XP Mode or MED-V.  If you refresh your PC installed base to be vPro enabled you can use vPro to help you migrate to Windows 7 and save you money with features within vPro for ongoing security and manageability.  Whatever you are doing, you will be able to get more done, you will be able to work the way you want whilst ensuring you safeguard your work.

Intel is planning to roll out Windows 7 across the organization in 2010 and from a user who has been running Windows 7 for a few months I would recommend it to colleagues as well as friends and family.  However, one stipulation I would make is that you make sure you get Windows 7 on a NEW PC in order to get the most out of it!!

"With Windows 7 ready to bite, the recession drawing to a close - maybe - and a certain optimism crossing the land, we’ll soon enter the season for desktop upgrades. But seriously, what’s the rationale for keeping an up-to-date desktop environment?"

A very 'current' question asked in a recent article by The Register, and one that Intel's Rob Sheppard will be answering - LIVE - in a webcast session on 3rd November.

"Many organisations today are considering the case for refreshing their desktop estate. In the current climate it is even more important to position the refresh rationale in terms of cost and benefit. Join The Register Live Webcast on Nov 3^rd at 10am BST to hear practical advice for organisations looking to make decisions about desktop upgrades." Rob Sheppard, EMEA Business Client Marketing Manager, Intel.

More details here.

Your IT Galaxy Team

Over the next two days, I’ll be blogging from the 2009 Connected Health Symposium, run by Partners Healthcare Center for Connected Health, in Boston.

The opening keynote at this year’s symposium was delivered by Stuart Altman, Professor of National Health Policy at Brandeis University, who spoke on the topic of healthcare reform and some of the challenges it brings.

In 1971, US spending on healthcare delivery was $75 billion, or 7.5% of GDP but today this has reached $2.5 trillion or approximately 17% of GDP. Many people have tried to address this for years but 3 clear issues have emerged that need to be addressed:

1)      Create a universal healthcare financing system

2)      Develop programmes to reduce the rate of growth in healthcare spending

3)      Improve the quality of care delivered

The current political discussions in the US try to address these issues and will likely reduce the overall federal spend but spend from other sectors may increase. These would include increased spending by states and increased payments for insurance by younger people.

Professor Altman then introduced what he called Altman’s Law: almost every powerful constituent group favours health reform but, if it is not their plan, they prefer the status quo. In the case of the current reform, the industry to see most negative impact will be the Insurance Companies – all other stakeholder groups will either get additional funding or stay the same, making it easier for the reform to succeed.

In conclusion he stated the need to change the payment and delivery system, through an appropriate but effective comparative effectiveness system that includes clinical and cost effectiveness components.