Intel vPro Expert Center Blog

How vPro proved it’s value even to me

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:58:25 GMT

Here’s the situation, I recently purchased an ATOM set top box for my TV. I purchased this ATOM based box so that I could play my movies, audio and have an internet device for the TV for the family to leverage (facebook, shopping, checking out sites as a family). I was updating the OS, patching, configuring and ended up rebooting it a few times and then of course throw in a few HARD boots in the middle of it all. I then went to boot it on and this popped up ..

Error: "Corrupt file - NTOSKERNEL.exe"

My first comment was “ah bummer”, then I said okay I’ll just do an IDE-R/SOL and just copy the NTOSKRNL.exe file, no big deal. Oh but wait, it wasn’t a vPro system and at that very moment I realized how key vPro is even to me. I then spent 10+ hrs throughout the week at nights, lunch, etc.. building bootable USB’s, CD’s that would replicate vPro functionality, with little success and trust me I was asking everybody for input, thoughts and help. At the end of the week I just pulled the drive, copied the file and then it was back to good again.

Would I have paid for vPro in this box prior, Probably not, would I now pay extra for it, that would be a YES!. if it fails again I’m going to just pull the drive, but seriously what a distraction that was to unhook cables, take out the drive, hook up to another system, copy file, replace, rehook, power up.

So now as I explore more devices in the home, I’m thinking more about “What if?” it needs to be remotely managed – what would I do, what is my baseline requirement.

Connect with us on myitforum.com about Microsoft & Intel vPro Technology

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:44:03 GMT

It's been way to long since I did a video, so here's a quick one.. I highly encourage you to subscribe to the vPro lists on myitforum.com. Here's a quick video of me showing you how..

One week without social media really does have an impact

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:49:49 GMT

Over the last week I decided to take a journey, one without social media and interacting with folks online. What I learned is the following:

Took longer to do my job (it’s true!!)
Missed out a few key interactions that would have helped me – it’s true, I am now combing back through to look a few posts – example: Spiceworks just announced a new plug in capability that is leveraging vPro
Realized I was not sharing as much as I could have – I was working on win7 & vPro for SMB, defining the ease of use of both technologies in the 3-5 PC space. I missed sharing this information out to the team and group.
Had a few dialogues around me missing something online – a few folks ping’d me throughout the week if I had seen certain things (from technology to people movement inside Intel)

So why does this matter to vPro? Well, I believe part of the success of realizing your vPro value is to use our community, interact with us on twitter and be a part of the technology adoption and usage. I also realized that usage of our technology is not confined to how we believe it will help you, but also how it will be used in different situations, location’s, and relevant to your business.

If you want to connect with us, here’s who’s on twitter for vPro? Here’s a few accounts.

IntelvPro twitter.com/intelvpro

SmartchickPdx twitter.com/smartchickpdx

Joshprostar twitter.com/joshprostar

I also missed the interactions online that I usually participate in throughout the week.

Call for Topics - Intel vPro

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:40:26 GMT

HI all,

Internally we are cooking up a # of topics that we would like to share from Use Cases, BIOS versions, form factor's, etc.. However we wanted to ask you first as a community, what would you like to hear more on? What piece of vPro do we need to show more?

Let us know.. leave a comment or shoot me an email josh@intel.com.

Thank You

Josh H

Why should I even care about Win7 and why would my IT shop really want this new Operating System.

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:23:23 GMT

In the world of IT, the challenge of defining value is mission important and keeping relevance to your end users is a key aspect of this. One of the opportunities ahead for IT is the move to Windows 7 and the impact this will have on your end users. Let's start this discussion around three areas of why you should take notice:

Microsoft & Intel have been working together to make Windows 7 and our Hardware perform optimally with this new OS
Intel Architecture is best of breed with Centrino2 & Core2 you have the best for energy efficiency, security, productivity ( the list goes on ).
With Intel vPro Technology it's easier to get this new OS loaded or to bring your IT shop to a new playing field for IT support.

Microsoft & Intel have been working together to make Windows 7 and our Hardware perform optimally with this new OS

Why does it work better together you ask? Well. Better Yet - we'll show you

DVD video - Part I, II & III.

Security

Collaboration

Intel Architecture is best of breed with Centrino2 & Core2 you have the best for energy efficiency, security, productivity ( the list goes on ).

Intel Architecture simply rocks

Get the best overall performance with Intel® Core™2 Duo processor you'll get an arsenal of performance-rich technologies, including up to 6MB of shared L2 cache and up to 1333 MHz Front Side Bus.

Enjoy 3X faster multitasking performance with multi-core processing combines two independent processor cores in one physical package.¹ Processors run at the same frequency and share up to 6MB of L2 cache and up to 1333 MHZ Front Side Bus for truly parallel computing with over.

Improve execution time and energy efficiency with more instructions per clock cycle enabled by Intel® Wide Dynamic Execution.

Get smarter, more energy-efficient performance enabled by Intel® Intelligent Power Capability.

Improve system performance enabled by Intel® Smart Memory Access, optimizing the use of the available data bandwidth.

Get higher-performance, more efficient cache subsystem enabled by Intel® Advanced Smart Cache, optimized for multi-core and dual-core processors.

Accelerate a broad range of applications, , including video, speech and image, photo processing, encryption, financial, engineering and scientific applications, enabled by Intel® Advanced Digital Media Boost.

With Intel vPro Technology it's easier to get this new OS loaded or to bring your IT shop to a new playing field for IT support.

vPro who? If you haven't heard of vPro yet, here's 4 intersection points with Windows 7 that make's it easier to deploy & manage.

Use vPro to deploy win7 - Windows 7 & Intel vPro Technology - Use Case #2
Use your update to win7 to turn on vPro = more managed PC - Use Case: Activating vPro during your Windows 7 Deployment- Use Case #3
Bare metal machine's are in scope to activate + new OS - Use Case: Pre-OS vPro Provisioning - Use Case #4 (SEE THE USE CASE VIDEO HERE)
Legacy application migration becomes easier & deployment of those VM's are done afterhours. - Use Case: Operating System Migration and Legacy App in a SMB Environment - Use Case #1

So what?

Well it's optimized to work better together, our latest IA is better for your business and vPro just makes it all happen.

Don’t' forget we have a windows 7 wiki - http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-3096

Thieves Beware - great class and panel at IDF

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:11:58 GMT

Mauricio Cuervo personal invite to his class. Please join us in the class to talk with Software providers and Intel about how Intel Anti Theft Technology can assist your business.

Here's the 2 specific sessions that Mauricio is discussing..

PROP001 Panel: Benefits of Intel Anti Theft Technology

PROP005 Class: - Thieves beware: Intel powered notebook's will turn into bricks when stolen!

I will also be in both sessions, presenting in PROP005.

California Employment Development Department - Their vPro journey begins

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:05:17 GMT

I went onsite to CA EDD a month back and talked w/ their IT team. Here's what they said about their upcoming integration and implementation of Intel vPro Technology. We're headed back out soon to hear how it went and the challenges. Meeting with Western Blue, EDD & HP teams was a great experience to see all groups at the table. Symantec/Altiris has been a key partner in driving success through the integration.

Stay tuned for more info.

vPro Webinar Question's "Repair ISO's"

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:00:11 GMT

During the webinar we received a # of great questions, I took these from the queue and here are the answers:

When can we expect to see some real tools & documentation on remote OS & application diagnosis & repair?

A: Tools - Check here. http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-1171

A: As for documentation of OS fixes, we leverage items like BSOD Analyzer to check the minidump file to validate the the driver in error. I highly recommend checking this tool on Microsoft's website.

Example: Is there any way to access a remote command prompt in Windows through SoL? What sort of lightweight diagnostic boot images are available that will enable remote diagnosis / repair?

A: There is, you can boot to a light weight image i.e. windowsPE.

A: Here are a few options:

Spare Tire ISO - http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-1733 - the how to build guide

Another great thread on ISO's - http://communities.intel.com/message/2508#2508

Can I copy files to a remote workstation, through vPro, to a broken Windows workstation, to repair it? If so, where is the documentation on how to do this?

A: Sparetire ISO can do this very thing, then you can boot into windows (light version) & then utilize your normal tools to fix it. i.e. VNC, etc.. Check out the spare tire ISO post above.

Great webinar today, great questions. Keep them coming..

Windows 7 Wiki Updated - Using vPro to update win7 video published

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:09:15 GMT

The windows 7 wiki has been updated to reflect the new video by Dan Brunton on how to install win7 w/ vPro.

http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-3096

We are going to have a few more video's show up in the coming week's, along with the Bare Metal use case will be going live shortly. Please check back.

My thesis on IT, source of empowerment for the people

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:00:54 GMT

It’s a typical day, HOTTER than the sun, AC’s blasting everywhere you go and you realize I forgot to send that report that was due. You quickly boot up your laptop, find the file & hit send. You then return to your day as if that was just normal and you did nothing major. The realization that you just leveraged one of the most powerful organizations in your company does not even hit your radar screen. Why do I think this is the case? Well, seriously end-users expectations of their IT service is continuing to move at a MEGA pace, not just a Crawl-Walk-Run, but a pole-vault step every month, quarter, year. I think that for end-users they are becoming more complacent about the service and just want “It to Work, however, whenever, whatever”! however for those in IT this is not just a easy exercise, but lucky for the end-user most of those that flourish and drive IT are bound by a common theme “Manage it, Secure it, DO as much as possible”. I realize there’s about a ½ dozen ways to say that expression, however the theme continues to come through in all that an IT shop does. In a perfect world, End users would not break the rules of installing rogue software, they would make sure their patches are installed and they wouldn’t take that laptop on a surf trip (NO pun intended here) in the sand. What’s the point? Well I think it’s time for that unsung hero in IT to get their day, their recognition for that theme that keeps a company alive, for without IT a company would not survive, not grow, flourish and be what it is.

So what do I recommend? Well I think showcasing to our peers, partners and leaders the value of IT, the theme that keeps the bond strong we can see a new level of respect, trust & response to IT shops. One of the challenge’s of getting that group of folks enlisted on your theme is to show them the big picture, specifically where do we want to go as an IT shop & what would it smell, feel, look like. One of the best examples of this for me are the following: Inside Intel IT they created a framework to talk, share & have a joint passion about the future (they call It the IT blue book), for the folks in my division we have taken pieces of this framework, applied the platform lens and we call it the Predictive Enterprise. Is Predictive Enterprise a pipe dream? - Kinda. It’s a vision based the theme that we can have a better environment, where we can work on the higher value problem statements that drive more biz value for the organization. What I have witnessed is when we use this forward looking picture it helps to get all the chiefs thinking the same, sharing that vision of where we want to go, no matter how BHAG (Big hairy Audacious goal) of it is.

Why does this matter for Intel? At the end of the day we want to co-innovate with our end users the new playing field for IT, we want to internalize that theme for where IT is going and truly make the impossible possible. While this may seem way optimistic it is truly the reality of what we think, talk and try to make happen. I have been on this journey with Intel for many years and the key ingredient in what we do is You , the user of our technology, those that are passionate with us about a better future and those that are continuing to hold higher expectations of us to drive better stuff (silicon, sw, hw, etc..). My vision of the future of Intel is to listen more, understand what we’re being told and drive tomorrow as if it’s today. One of our slogans for Intel recently has been “sponsors of tomorrow”, and while some may find this humorous, I certainly do not. I’ve witnessed countless times where we’ve been working on platforms for years and then finally produced them to show great value to the users (you), I’ve also spent a few years working in manufacturing on a product line that when it was released was absolutely a game changer for IT (45nm).

If you share this theme, this vision, the passion please let me know, please join us in our community of IT pro’s and let’s make tomorrow something magical.

Josh H

Intel vPro: Remote Management with Fast Call for Help

kelsey.e.witherow@intel.com — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:14:45 GMT

See Josh Hilliker and Ryan Ettl show a demonstration of Remote Management with Fast Call for Help at a local coffee shop in Folsom. See the video below or at this link on YouTube..

Western Blue CEO - Talking about their business & Intel vPro Technology

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:49:06 GMT

Terry Joslin, CEO of Western Blue talked with Scott Smith & I about their business.

Win7, SCCM SP2 & vPro

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:03:31 GMT

Today at MMS (Microsoft Management Summit) Brad Anderson showed a new use case we have been working on around Windows 7, SCCM SP2 & Intel vPro Technology. The specific use case is how to do an upgrade with user data while the state of the machine is powered down. This usage of vPro allows for OOB power up, then win7 installation begins. Here's what we will be posting shortly to help answer any questions you may have around this use case:

* Video of MMS & Brad showing this use case

* Use case flow document that shows what technology is being leveraged

What we have found in the lab, which I will publish out over the coming weeks, is that this technology works really well together and can make your win7 deployment easier. Please let me know your questions and tune back here for more of the data, specifics & use cases.

Connecting with Intel & peers through our Intel Premier IT Program

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:11:39 GMT

Recently I was talking with my friends that run our Intel Premier IT program, http://ipip.intel.com, and they were telling me about a new award they are providing, in which you can submit your entries to be feature din CIO magazine. therefore I wanted to pass this onto the community and also let you know that if your interested in connecting with Intel & peers local to you, the IPIP program is a stellar place to do this very thing. I have attended a few of these events last year and was very impressed with the speakers, material and the great audience of IT folks that showed up.

If your intersted in hearing more about the award, here's the link. I also heard from them that there are only a few client submissions (mostly in the server & DC space), therefore a great opportunity to show your client story.

http://ipip.intel.com/go/1819/intel-premier-it-knowledge-awards/

Feet on the Street - Gregory Bryant Part III (Community feedback)

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:28:07 GMT

Gregory & I in our 1:1 interview talk about the community and the call to action, along with feedback. Tune in to hear more and hear the funny comment he tells me.

Next up on Feet on the Street - I met w/ a local IT company, stay tuned to hear more..