Intel: Partners Can Benefit From New Security, Manageability Features In Seventh-Gen Core vPros

Intel Tuesday took the wraps off its seventh-generation Core vPro processors, which it says are equipped with best-in-class performance, a record range of business designs and new security advancements to benefit enterprises.

Tom Garrison, vice president and general manager of Business Client Platforms at Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel, told CRN that beyond vPro's 50 percent performance boost over a five-year-old PC, the channel opportunities lie in vPro's extended manageability and scalability.

"Partners can provide a better level of support and service to customers using vPro at scale," he said. "You don't want to have to send someone to a customer's office to fix something, and vPro lets you fix problems remotely. The reality of vPro is that it also works in any environment – from the largest of enterprises to SMBs."

The seventh-generation vPro processors feature a new manageability tool – Intel Manageability Commander – to increase PC uptime and lower costs. This feature enables solution providers to easily discover and manage PCs remotely.

Intel also added new security features to its vPro processor, including Intel Authenticate, a multifactor authentication offering. The offering, which ensures additional security with authentication factors such as biometrics and protected PIN, previously was only available as a preview.

In addition to Intel Authenticate, businesses will have access to Data Guard with the sixth and seventh-gen vPro processors. Data Guard offers hardened IT-controlled protection to encrypt documents, whether on the PC, USB drive or cloud. This new feature will be available for trial in the first quarter of 2017.

"We've seen a trend toward nearly persistent levels of attacks on enterprises around the world," said Garrison. "With vPro, businesses don't need to be an expert in protecting against these types of attacks because the security is built into the platform."

Intel also added Windows 10 compatibility features as more businesses upgrade to Microsoft's newest operating system.

"2017 will be important as more businesses will be transitioning from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and will also upgrade their hardware as they make that OS transition," said Garrison. "That's why our partnership [with Microsoft] is so key – businesses will have the best experience using Windows 10 with vPro."

For instance, the two vendors collaborated around vPro's Intel Authenticate to integrate it with Microsoft's new Windows Hello secure sign-in feature on Windows 10. vPro's new Intel Manageability Commander also integrates with common management tools such as Microsoft System Center.

Intel said the seventh-generation vPro Core processors also enable up to 65 percent faster multitasking and up to 10 hours of battery life over a five-year-old PC.