Cloud computing and Intel
The Intel Corporation is a California-based semiconductor manufacturer, widely known for its computer microprocessors, which are found in most of the computers in the world today.
Founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics (from which the short form Intel is coined,) Intel Corporation has grown to be the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer as of 2008.
In the same year, Intel’s revenues topped $37 Billion, out of which the company received a net income of some $5 Billion.
The company has a workforce of about 83,000, which makes it one of the major employers in information technology.
Intel’s Products
Intel’s product line is mainly made up of information and computing technology devices, with a specific product range that includes computer motherboard chips, graphic chips, processors and more.
Lately, Intel has also made hugely successful forays into the computer storage device arena, with its flash storage devices making a good showing in the market.
The company was one of the pioneers of microprocessor chip manufacturing (back in the 70s) and its early entry and positioning in the manufacture of these processors made it one of the biggest beneficiaries of the personal computing revolution that took place in the 80s and 90s, and one of the remaining dominant forces in information technology.
Cloud Computing at Intel
Cloud computing – a model in which people get to run all their applications and store their data on remote servers (referred to as the cloud) seems to be where the future of corporate—and perhaps even personal—computing lies.
It is, therefore, only reasonable that, as one of the leading players in information technology, Intel would be expected to respond in more than one way to the cloud—which could translate into an opportunity or to a threat for the company, depending on how it (the cloud) shapes up.
The cloud could be a threat to a company like Intel because, at is maturity, all people would move their applications and data into the cloud, reducing the need for computing power on personal computers (which would translate into reduced need for the powerful microprocessors that Intel has thrived by making).
To convert the cloud into an opportunity, Intel would perhaps have to switch its focus to the manufacture of large scale computing infrastructure, where it has not been dominant.
Of course, one might also argue that there is really no risk of the cloud completely eliminating the need for personal computers (and consequently the processors that Intel thrives on,) as these will still be needed by the individual users of the cloud.
The role of the personal computers would, however, be reduced to serving as conduits to the cloud, effectively reducing their power requirements.
In order to prepare for the challenges it could face from the cloud computing revolution, the company has already set up a couple of initiatives at its Pittsburg labs that are entirely devoted to research geared at developing products targeted to solve the computing problems that will come from the cloud, in an attempt to turn these challenges in to opportunity.
The Future of Cloud Computing at Intel
Cloud computing is likely to call for great collaboration between the various players, and it is perhaps in recognition of this that Intel has teamed up with Yahoo and HP to invest in research that will culminate in the production of the type of products that will make the cloud work.
The joint initiative, referred to as the Cloud Computing Test Bed, is particularly aimed at coming up with software that will be able to take on the needs of the cloud—given that, in the cloud, software will be sold as a service.
Furthermore, the versions of software that will run on the cloud must be fundamentally different from the developers’ side, while remaining basically the same to the end user—so as not to compromise user experience.
The need for a software that is different (in design terms) from desktop applications stems from the fact that this software will have to cope with demands from people using it from millions of computers in millions of locations around the world, which translates into very unique scalability and security issues.
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Category: Intel
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