Intel Unveils 7th Gen vPro Processor

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As part of a larger expansion of the 7^th Generation Intel Core and Xeon processor lineup, Intel today unveiled the latest version of the vPro processor family, expected to find their way into millions of business-class desktop, notebooks and tablet devices.

Thanks to management and security functions built into the Intel vPro architecture, IT organizations have already shown a marked tendency to favor vPro systems. The 7^th Generation Intel Core vPro processor unveiled today is being touted by Intel as being able to substantially improve productivity over a five-year-old PC while at the same time enabling the building of mobile computing devices that have as much as 10 hours of battery life.

Tom Garrison, vice president and general manager for the Business Client Platform Division at Intel, says that as IT organizations make the transition to Windows 10, they are more conscious about security concerns than ever. To better secure endpoints, Intel also announced today that it has collaborated with Microsoft to integrate Intel Authenticate multi-factor authentication software running on Intel processors with Microsoft Hello, which allows end users to make use of fingerprints, the face or the iris of their eyes to unlock endpoint devices running Windows 10.

Intel also announced that a new Intel Data Guard tool for encrypting documents will be available on 6^th and 7^th generation processors by the middle of this year. Intel Data Guard will enable IT organizations to embed protections and permissions that are directly attached to a document wherever it happens to wind up being stored, says Garrison.

Finally, Intel is making available Intel Manageability Commander, which makes it simpler to discover, diagnose and remediate remote PC issues by enabling IT staffs to take direct control of the device.

Collectively, Garrison says Intel expects security concerns will drive a wave of PC upgrades in 2017.

“We think many IT organizations are looking at refreshing their PCs for security reasons,” says Garrison.

In total, Intel reports that there are already 24 desktop, 80 notebook and 24 2-in-1 designs based on 7^th Generation Intel Core vPro processors coming to market this year. Given the range of options, the bigger decision may not necessarily be to upgrade to systems that are clearly more secure and simpler to manage, but rather figuring out what form of vPro platform to ultimately standardize on.