I’ve worked for a number of startups. Was “Marketing Director/Office Manager/HR” (lot of slashes in small business) for a software startup; a great experience but certainly fewer resources (compared to what I have now) to turn to for help. Still, doing so many different things, every day, was one of the best aspects of working for a small business.

Best aspects of working at Intel? Near the top: Intel tech support. If my PC has a problem I can’t solve myself, I call somebody and it’s fixed. In minutes. Day or night, 365 days a year, from anywhere in the world. I hit speed dial and someone from somewhere is answering my questions or remotely controlling and repairing my PC. I’d give up my dental plan before I’d give up this little perk.

I didn’t have that luxury during my startup days, but a new announcement from AT&T and Intel should bring that kind of support to more small businesses than ever before. Last fall, AT&T launched a service called AT&T Tech Support 360^SM-- remote 24/7 support including setup, configuration, troubleshooting and performance optimization for PCs, networks and more. They obviously addressed a need, as over 100,000 small and medium business customers have signed up.  Now they’ve announced support for Intel® vPro™ Technology (starting first half of 2010) including the Intel® Remote PC Assist Technology (Intel® RPAT) feature.

With Intel RPAT, a small business (using Intel vPro Technology-based PCs) having PC problems can enter a keystroke sequence on a failed computer and directly connect the failed PC to their Managed Service Provider (MSP) or IT Helpdesk, such as AT&T Tech Support 360 technicians, even when the PCs has had a hardware or OS failure, or has been corrupted by a virus or malware. That means support for a whole new class of tech problems, and I’m talking about the nasty ones that get down deep into the PC: BIOS issues, damaged internet connections, system password resets and the toughest viruses and malware to name a few.

I’m excited to be part of a solution that enables my small business customers and friends to experience the kind of PC tech support I enjoy in my 80,000+ person company – hopefully it means you can remove one of the “slashes” from your daily tasks.  Check out the AT&T and Intel press release for more information, or comment here with any questions I can help answer.

About Intel® RPAT – Also found at the following site: http://www.intel.com/technology/product/remotepcassist.htm

Intel® Remote PC Assist Technology enables you to make a fast call for help and request remote technical assistance from a service provider if you encounter a problem with your PC, even when the OS, network software, or applications are not functioning. Available starting in late 2008, Intel Remote PC Assist Technology will be an option on PCs with Intel® Core™2 processor with vPro™ technology using the Intel® Q45 Express Chipset and will expand to consumer PCs in 2009.

If you are interested in our Early Access Program (EAP), please please post any questions/comments to this blog post and we will be happy to assist!

Regards,

CoreySMBPro

Intel® System Defense Utility is an easy to use tool for small and medium businesses to take advantage of valuable proactive security and manageability features of Intel® vPro™ processor technology. Combined with systems built on Intel® Desktop Boards Executive Series, this tool lets you unleash the power of proactive management in your local network.

It enables you to remotely perform security and manageability functions such as setting security policies, BIOS configuration, remote reboot, asset management, event logging, and more.

Click here for a demo!

Intel System Defense Utility may be used with the Intel® Desktop Boards based on:

·       Intel® Q965 Express Chipset

·       Intel® Q45 Express Chipset

·       Intel® Q35 Express Chipset

For more information: http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/software/isdu/index.htm

There have been some questions around how to setup the Intel® IT Director environment for SMBs. Below is a diagram of how Intel IT Director can be setup and managed.

Important to point out the minimum system requirements for Intel IT Director:

System Requirements

Intel IT Director will ONLY install on the following hardware platform:

• The Intel IT Director application, "itdirector.exe", requires an Intel® Core™2 Processor with vPro™ Technology, with the Intel® Q45 or Q35 Express Chipset
• The Intel IT Director configuration tool, "itdirectorconfig.exe", requires no special hardware

Intel® IT Director dashboard PC and client PC’s should support one of the following Operating Systems:

• Windows* XP Professional 32-bit with SP2 or SP3
• Windows* XP Professional 64-bit with SP2
• Windows Vista* Ultimate 32-bit or 64-bit, with no SP or with SP1
• Windows Vista* Enterprise 32-bit or 64-bit, with no SP or with SP1
• Windows Vista* Business 32-bit or 64-bit, with no SP or with SP1

Languages Supported
Intel® IT Director software application supports English, Russian, French International, Portuguese (Brazil) and German.

Where to download or learn more information about Intel IT Director: http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/it-director

If you have any questions about Intel IT Director, feel free to reply to this blog or start a discussion! We are here to help answer questions!

Regards

Corey T. Morris

Over the next few posts I would like to describe 3 different scenarios as they apply to the adoption of vPro technology. I will be leveraging 3 categories as it describes to the IT shop (Maintain your baseline, Maximize your potential and Migrate completely to the new technology). These categories also relate directly to the % of vPro machines that are in your IT shop.

First, let’s start with maintaining your baseline. What are the challenges facing the IT shop and support provider of IT services as it relates to the client computers? Manageability and Security of that asset, along with ensuring lower costs for keeping them updated and the highest level of availability as it relates to the usage. However what is missing above is the Energy savings piece of the equation. To date our experience has been that integrating a power management & energy savings profile in your IT environment for vPro machines is an easy way to keep your baseline going and just add one new usage in your environment. I consider this to be maintaining your baseline, but making a small modification to realize benefits. Specifically this means the standard ability with turning Machines off that can reduce the power bills, however it is just a small change in the current IT policies/practices.

Now for the IT shop that is looking to Maximize your potential and have new level’s of service. The opportunity to implement more usages is always possible, for example if you are looking to move beyond the power use case to more of the remote repair to save $$’s in both Tech Time, downtime, productivity of the employees. I would note that the further you look to maximize your potential it will require additional planning, testing and of course effort to do so. I will deep dive deeper into the impact of each additional usage and what you can expect from a change perspective for your IT shop in the coming blogs.

Last case is the Migration path.. full migration of ZERO/Little vPro to all vPro ( here is where it gets fun ).. Must haves are: Good Strategy, Architecture awareness, Manageability/Security Landscape, & Top Pain points. If you have these at your disposal you are in good shape to have immediate value to your migration.

I look forward to deep diving into each of these over the coming weeks.

Josh H

Check out the latest updates to the SMB Activation Cheat Sheet for MSPs. The value and use cases of vPro for MSPs has been added, as well as basic mode (smb mode) configuration guides for various OEM systems.

SMB Activation Cheat Sheet for MSPs

I am in the process of setting up a SyAM environment and ran across their use case documentation on their site. While I'm just in the reading phase right now I am pleased with what I am seeing around the use cases and documentation for configuration. here's the TOC from their document - http://syamsoftware.com/main/products/SyAM_AMT_Common_Uses-Draft_v5-Final.pdf

Use Case 1: Patch Deployment

Use Case 2: BIOS Flash

Use Case 3: BIOS Changes

Use Case 4: System Recovery from Corrupt NTLDR File

Use Case 5: Restoring the Operating System

My next step is to finish installation & test it out. If you are using SyAM i'd like to hear from you on your experience, configuration and any vPro relevant information.

Josh H