IT Best Practices: Large-scale, Agile transformations are extremely challenging for digital enterprises. Every organization’s path is unique and more often than not, failure is part of the process. Intel IT’s Agile journey is no different-attimes oscillating between challenging to downright discouraging over the course of a decade-before finally turning the corner and delivering sustained improvements in capacity, predictability and positive team engagement over two years. Today, Intel IT is on course to double the value delivery capacity of all IT teams by 2023. This paper focuses on how we traversed the chasm between discouragement and sustained improvement. We credit our success to a rededication to good scrum and a leadership-first approach to practical, large-scale Agile transformation.  More specifically, this paper will discuss: How Intel IT leveraged the role of leadership to accelerate and support our Agile transformation. Why “good scrum” practices are essential for scale. What novel approaches we took to accelerate our progress. Lessons learned throughout our Agile journey.

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: Large-scale, Agile transformations are extremely challenging for digital enterprises. Every organization’s path is unique and more often than not, failure is part of the process. Intel IT’s Agile journey is no different-attimes oscillating between challenging to downright discouraging over the course of a decade-before finally turning the corner and delivering sustained improvements in capacity, predictability and positive team engagement over two years. Today, Intel IT is on course to double the value delivery capacity of all IT teams by 2023. This paper focuses on how we traversed the chasm between discouragement and sustained improvement. We credit our success to a rededication to good scrum and a leadership-first approach to practical, large-scale Agile transformation. More specifically, this paper will discuss: <li>How Intel IT leveraged the role of leadership to accelerate and support our Agile transformation.</li> <li>Why “good scrum” practices are essential for scale.</li> <li>What novel approaches we took to accelerate our progress.</li> <li>Lessons learned throughout our Agile journey.</li>

IT@Intel: Intel IT’s Agile Journey Toward Scalability and Transformation

IT Best Practices: Master data is defined by Garner as “the consistent and uniform set of identifiers and extended attributes that describes the core entities of the enterprise.” Intel uses vast amounts of master data every day for many reasons, spanning transactions, reporting and advanced analytics. But often, Intel’s master data exists in silos, presenting a fractured view of reality between business units. This can result in decisions being made on bad data, lengthy attempts to clean up the data or can even negatively impact customer experience.  Intel IT is embarking on a journey that, when complete, will result in all data -including master data being treated as a highly valuable corporate asset across the enterprise. Because it is Intel’s most highly shared data, we determined that Intel’s master data is the ideal place to start our journey.  One thing we have learned so far is that the road to trusted master data, made available to all employees, involves far more than simply choosing a data management solution. This paper describes our master data strategy and its key elements.

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: Master data is defined by Garner as “the consistent and uniform set of identifiers and extended attributes that describes the core entities of the enterprise.” Intel uses vast amounts of master data every day for many reasons, spanning transactions, reporting and advanced analytics. But often, Intel’s master data exists in silos, presenting a fractured view of reality between business units. This can result in decisions being made on bad data, lengthy attempts to clean up the data or can even negatively impact customer experience. Intel IT is embarking on a journey that, when complete, will result in all data -including master data being treated as a highly valuable corporate asset across the enterprise. Because it is Intel’s most highly shared data, we determined that Intel’s master data is the ideal place to start our journey. One thing we have learned so far is that the road to trusted master data, made available to all employees, involves far more than simply choosing a data management solution. This paper describes our master data strategy and its key elements.

IT@Intel: Master Data – Managed!

Intel has long been at the forefront of radical innovations that have revolutionized the way we live and work – beginning with the development of the first microprocessor, transforming the world as we knew it by making a new era of computing possible. Over the next 50+ years, Intel has continued to transform industries, driving business and society forward by creating the underlying technology powering the digitization of everything.  Read more from Archana (Archie) Deskus, Intel Senior VP and CIO, in the 2021-2022 Intel IT Annual Performance Report – 20th Edition.

Intel has long been at the forefront of radical innovations that have revolutionized the way we live and work – beginning with the development of the first microprocessor, transforming the world as we knew it by making a new era of computing possible. Over the next 50+ years, Intel has continued to transform industries, driving business and society forward by creating the underlying technology powering the digitization of everything. Read more from Archana (Archie) Deskus, Intel Senior VP and CIO, in the <a href="https://media22.connectedsocialmedia.com/intel/03/19848/2021_2022_Intel_IT_Annual_Performance_Report_20th_Edition.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">2021-2022 Intel IT Annual Performance Report – 20th Edition</a>.

2021-2022 Intel IT Annual Performance Report – 20th Edition

In this third episode of Intel’s Path to Cloud series, Phil Vokins, Cloud Services Director with Intel Americas is joined by experts Chandra Chitneni, Networks Principal Engineer and Sridhar Mahankali, Networks Security Principal Engineer to discuss the differences between and considerations for adopting private vs. hybrid vs. multi-cloud options. In this video, the team demystifies the differences between those three cloud models; shares some of Intel’s internal cloud adoption experiences and best practices; and provides tips and guidance on how to choose the most suitable cloud infrastructure.

In this third episode of Intel’s Path to Cloud series, Phil Vokins, Cloud Services Director with Intel Americas is joined by experts Chandra Chitneni, Networks Principal Engineer and Sridhar Mahankali, Networks Security Principal Engineer to discuss the differences between and considerations for adopting private vs. hybrid vs. multi-cloud options. In this video, the team demystifies the differences between those three cloud models; shares some of Intel’s internal cloud adoption experiences and best practices; and provides tips and guidance on how to choose the most suitable cloud infrastructure.

A Path to Cloud: How to Approach Hybrid vs. Multicloud

IT Best Practices: Intel IT operates 56 data center modules at 16 data center sites. These sites have a total capacity of 103 megawatts, housing more than 360,000 servers that underpin the computing needs of 116,000 employees. Intel IT has four main segments of operation: Design, Office, Manufacturing and Enterprise. This paper focuses on only the Design segment. Intel’s silicon Design engineers need significant increases in computing capacity to deliver each new generation of silicon chips. To meet those requirements, Intel IT conducts ongoing throughput performance tests using real-world Intel silicon Design workloads. These tests measure Electronic Design Automation (EDA) workload throughput and help us analyze the performance improvements—and in turn, business benefit offered by newer generations of Intel processors.

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: Intel IT operates 56 data center modules at 16 data center sites. These sites have a total capacity of 103 megawatts, housing more than 360,000 servers that underpin the computing needs of 116,000 employees. Intel IT has four main segments of operation: Design, Office, Manufacturing and Enterprise. This paper focuses on only the Design segment. Intel’s silicon Design engineers need significant increases in computing capacity to deliver each new generation of silicon chips. To meet those requirements, Intel IT conducts ongoing throughput performance tests using real-world Intel silicon Design workloads. These tests measure Electronic Design Automation (EDA) workload throughput and help us analyze the performance improvements—and in turn, business benefit offered by newer generations of Intel processors.

IT@Intel: Increasing EDA Performance and Throughput with the Intel Xeon Processor Scalable Family

IT Best Practices: Intel employees expect easy-to-use, seamless and effective printing. Intel IT has the responsibility to find the most cost-effective, secure and technically viable solution. Marrying these two goals is an art, and Intel IT’s best practices can demystify this process, provide insights about the selection of devices, help evaluate different modes of ownership and balance user and business needs. Our printing and scanning services have evolved over time. Initially, we used a decentralized management model. To improve efficiency, we adopted a more centralized model, where Intel IT, not the business units, procured and managed devices. More recently, we have implemented a highly secure, private-cloud-based model and work with a single vendor to manage the devices and services. This secure, cloud-based managed print services (MPS) model provides the following benefits: • Significant reduction in printing costs • Security improvements • Enhanced user experience In addition, the MPS model brings Intel closer to “The Workplace of the Future,” with greener printing policies. The MPS approach has been successful and is a useful example of Intel IT best practices. Moving forward, we will continually analyze data from all printing and imaging devices to gain insights about printing behaviors across the enterprise. We will strive to fine-tune the MPS model and policies to improve cost and efficiency even more.

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: Intel employees expect easy-to-use, seamless and effective printing. Intel IT has the responsibility to find the most cost-effective, secure and technically viable solution. Marrying these two goals is an art, and Intel IT’s best practices can demystify this process, provide insights about the selection of devices, help evaluate different modes of ownership and balance user and business needs. Our printing and scanning services have evolved over time. Initially, we used a decentralized management model. To improve efficiency, we adopted a more centralized model, where Intel IT, not the business units, procured and managed devices. More recently, we have implemented a highly secure, private-cloud-based model and work with a single vendor to manage the devices and services. This secure, cloud-based managed print services (MPS) model provides the following benefits: • Significant reduction in printing costs • Security improvements • Enhanced user experience In addition, the MPS model brings Intel closer to “The Workplace of the Future,” with greener printing policies. The MPS approach has been successful and is a useful example of Intel IT best practices. Moving forward, we will continually analyze data from all printing and imaging devices to gain insights about printing behaviors across the enterprise. We will strive to fine-tune the MPS model and policies to improve cost and efficiency even more.

IT@Intel: Secure Cloud Printing and Imaging

Intel IT is using artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate yield ramp by clustering and classifying manufacturing failure patterns. Expert yield analysis engineers have always performed end-of-line yield analysis at Intel’s silicon wafer factories (fabs). But as the number of products and volume grow in Intel’s manufacturing environment, a manual detection approach to yield analysis poses several challenges:  Limited human-hour resources prevent engineers from reviewing and documenting every issue in every wafer in every lot. Detection accuracy depends on an engineer’s experience level. Knowledge sharing between fabrication sites is cumbersome and slow.  Intel is changing the paradigm of yield analysis from this manual, reactive “pull” approach to a proactive “push” approach, which is helping to find problems such as failing tools, fleet mismatches and process parameter shifts, quickly and accurately. The more quickly such issues are identified, the sooner they get fixed and overall yield is improved. The solution is characterized by the following:  Advanced machine-learning and deep-learning algorithms for issue detection, clustering, classification, data gathering and in the future, root cause analysis. Autonomous end-to-end detection, where the above tasks are performed automatically and then the results are pushed to the yield analysis engineers for further investigation. Tight integration with existing yield analysis tools and systems. Our unique solution enables end-of-line issue detection to identify multiple issues on the same wafer, and to examine 100 percent of wafers in every lot. The combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and yield analysis engineers’ knowledge enables them to support more products, use knowledge captured collectively across fabs and shorten time to resolution. Overall, this solution is propelling us along our Industry 4.0 journey toward complete automation of the root cause analysis process and better yield.

Intel IT is using artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate yield ramp by clustering and classifying manufacturing failure patterns. Expert yield analysis engineers have always performed end-of-line yield analysis at Intel’s silicon wafer factories (fabs). But as the number of products and volume grow in Intel’s manufacturing environment, a manual detection approach to yield analysis poses several challenges: <ul> <li>Limited human-hour resources prevent engineers from reviewing and documenting every issue in every wafer in every lot.</li> <li>Detection accuracy depends on an engineer’s experience level.</li> <li>Knowledge sharing between fabrication sites is cumbersome and slow.</li> </ul> Intel is changing the paradigm of yield analysis from this manual, reactive “pull” approach to a proactive “push” approach, which is helping to find problems such as failing tools, fleet mismatches and process parameter shifts, quickly and accurately. The more quickly such issues are identified, the sooner they get fixed and overall yield is improved. The solution is characterized by the following: <ul> <li>Advanced machine-learning and deep-learning algorithms for issue detection, clustering, classification, data gathering and in the future, root cause analysis.</li> <li>Autonomous end-to-end detection, where the above tasks are performed automatically and then the results are pushed to the yield analysis engineers for further investigation.</li> <li>Tight integration with existing yield analysis tools and systems.</li> Our unique solution enables end-of-line issue detection to identify multiple issues on the same wafer, and to examine 100 percent of wafers in every lot. The combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and yield analysis engineers’ knowledge enables them to support more products, use knowledge captured collectively across fabs and shorten time to resolution. Overall, this solution is propelling us along our Industry 4.0 journey toward complete automation of the root cause analysis process and better yield.</ul>

IT@Intel: Transforming Manufacturing Yield Analysis with AI

IT Best Practices: Intel IT tests Wi-Fi 6 in an actual office environment during COVID lockdown, proving enhanced performance under challenging, real-world scenarios and delivering important insights for successful deployments. Wi-Fi 6 may be the ideal gateway toward realization of an enterprise-wide wireless infrastructure. With many of our office spaces temporarily vacated due to the COVID pandemic, we had the unique opportunity to test this latest Wi-Fi standard in a real office environment using laptops equipped with Intel Wi-Fi 6E (AX210) network cards. We partnered with Intel’s Client Computing Group to conduct a series of tests within these spaces. The team systematically stressed the network with scenarios relevant to today’s working environments, including an increased number of connected devices and real-time collaboration applications. We varied user counts, roaming settings, channel configurations and more to benchmark the performance of each configuration. Our test results demonstrated that a Wi-Fi 6 upgrade can provide the following advantages for a dense enterprise wireless local area network (WLAN): • The ability to increase the number of users and devices per access point (AP), reducing deployment costs • Enhanced support for an increasing number of devices with existing deployment densities • Improved high-density performance with less interference, fewer dropped connections and more efficient packet transmission • Faster data throughput • Consistent service and improved reliability For more information about Wi-Fi 6, see: IT@Intel: Building a Faster, More Secure Enterprise Network with Wi-Fi 6

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: Intel IT tests Wi-Fi 6 in an actual office environment during COVID lockdown, proving enhanced performance under challenging, real-world scenarios and delivering important insights for successful deployments. Wi-Fi 6 may be the ideal gateway toward realization of an enterprise-wide wireless infrastructure. With many of our office spaces temporarily vacated due to the COVID pandemic, we had the unique opportunity to test this latest Wi-Fi standard in a real office environment using laptops equipped with Intel Wi-Fi 6E (AX210) network cards. We partnered with Intel’s Client Computing Group to conduct a series of tests within these spaces. The team systematically stressed the network with scenarios relevant to today’s working environments, including an increased number of connected devices and real-time collaboration applications. We varied user counts, roaming settings, channel configurations and more to benchmark the performance of each configuration. Our test results demonstrated that a Wi-Fi 6 upgrade can provide the following advantages for a dense enterprise wireless local area network (WLAN): • The ability to increase the number of users and devices per access point (AP), reducing deployment costs • Enhanced support for an increasing number of devices with existing deployment densities • Improved high-density performance with less interference, fewer dropped connections and more efficient packet transmission • Faster data throughput • Consistent service and improved reliability For more information about Wi-Fi 6, see: <a href="https://connectedsocialmedia.com/19025/itintel-building-a-faster-more-secure-enterprise-network-with-wi-fi-6/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT@Intel: Building a Faster, More Secure Enterprise Network with Wi-Fi 6</a>

IT@Intel: Wi-Fi 6–The Advantages Are Real

IT Best Practices: Intel IT runs Intel data center services like a factory, affecting change in a disciplined manner and applying breakthrough technologies, solutions and processes. This enables us to optimally meet Intel’s business requirements while providing our internal customers with effective data center infrastructure capabilities and innovative business services. Building on previous investments and techniques, our data center strategy has generated savings exceeding USD 4.8 billion from 2010 to 2020. We are constantly improving our data center strategy to continue our data center transformation. Using disruptive server, storage, network, infrastructure software and data center facility technologies can lead to unprecedented quality-of-service levels and reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO) for business applications. They also enable us to continue to improve IT operational efficiency and be environmentally responsible.

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: Intel IT runs Intel data center services like a factory, affecting change in a disciplined manner and applying breakthrough technologies, solutions and processes. This enables us to optimally meet Intel’s business requirements while providing our internal customers with effective data center infrastructure capabilities and innovative business services. Building on previous investments and techniques, our data center strategy has generated savings exceeding USD 4.8 billion from 2010 to 2020. We are constantly improving our data center strategy to continue our data center transformation. Using disruptive server, storage, network, infrastructure software and data center facility technologies can lead to unprecedented quality-of-service levels and reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO) for business applications. They also enable us to continue to improve IT operational efficiency and be environmentally responsible.

IT@Intel: Data Center Strategy Leading Intel’s Business Transformation

IT Best Practices: In this second video of the Path to Cloud series Phil Vokins, Cloud Services Director, Intel Americas, is joined by Shachaf Levi, Intel IT Cloud Security Architect and Sridhar Mahankali, Intel IT Principal Engineer, Network Security where they shed light on the biggest concern for companies moving to the cloud – security.  In this video the team discusses the key aspects and considerations of cloud security including: Biggest Risks in Cloud – 2:00 Cloud vs. On-Prem Risks – 5:20 Cloud Security Frameworks – 10:15 Intel’s IT Recommendation – 12:18 To download the white papers and get notified of the next episode release, please register here: plan.seek.intel.com/CA-Cloud-TV-YouTube_Reg

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: In this second video of the Path to Cloud series Phil Vokins, Cloud Services Director, Intel Americas, is joined by Shachaf Levi, Intel IT Cloud Security Architect and Sridhar Mahankali, Intel IT Principal Engineer, Network Security where they shed light on the biggest concern for companies moving to the cloud – security. In this video the team discusses the key aspects and considerations of cloud security including: Biggest Risks in Cloud – 2:00 Cloud vs. On-Prem Risks – 5:20 Cloud Security Frameworks – 10:15 Intel’s IT Recommendation – 12:18 To download the white papers and get notified of the next episode release, please register here: <a href="https://plan.seek.intel.com/CA-Cloud-TV-YouTube_Reg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">plan.seek.intel.com/CA-Cloud-TV-YouTube_Reg</a>

Path to Cloud: Exploring Cloud Security

The Intel IT podcast channel is a resource of audio, video and IT whitepaper (PDFs) that enable IT professionals to engage with their peers in the Intel IT organization—and with thousands of other IT professionals—so they can gain insights into the tools, methods, strategies and IT best practices that are proving most successful in addressing today's tough IT challenges.  Topics include: IT Best Practices, IT Competitive Advantage, IT Business Value, IT Business Agility, IT Continuity, IT Cloud Computing, IT Business Efficiency, Green IT, IT Sustainability, IT Data Center, IT Employee Productivity, IT Information Security, IT Client Technology, IT Efficiency, and IT Innovation.

IT Best Practices: Intel IT has a large AI group that works across Intel to transform critical work, optimize processes, eliminate scalability bottlenecks and generate significant business value (more than USD 1.5B return on investment in 2020). Our efforts unlock the power of data to make Intel’s business processes smarter, faster and more innovative, from product design to manufacturing to sales and pricing. To enable this operation at scale, we developed Microraptor: a set of MLOps capabilities that are reused in all of our AI platforms. Microraptor enables world-class MLOps to accelerate and automate the development, deployment and maintenance of machine learning models. Our approach to model productization avoids the typical logistical hurdles that often prevent other companies’ AI projects from reaching production. Our MLOps methodology enables us to deploy AI models to production at scale through continuous integration/continuous delivery, automation, reuse of building blocks and business process integration. Our MLOps methodology provides many advantages:  The AI platforms abstract deployment details and business process integration so that data scientists can concentrate on model development. We can deploy a new model in less than half an hour, compared to days or weeks without MLOps. Our systematic quality metrics minimize the cost and effort required to maintain the hundreds of models we have in production.

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: Intel IT has a large AI group that works across Intel to transform critical work, optimize processes, eliminate scalability bottlenecks and generate significant business value (more than USD 1.5B return on investment in 2020). Our efforts unlock the power of data to make Intel’s business processes smarter, faster and more innovative, from product design to manufacturing to sales and pricing. To enable this operation at scale, we developed Microraptor: a set of MLOps capabilities that are reused in all of our AI platforms. Microraptor enables world-class MLOps to accelerate and automate the development, deployment and maintenance of machine learning models. Our approach to model productization avoids the typical logistical hurdles that often prevent other companies’ AI projects from reaching production. Our MLOps methodology enables us to deploy AI models to production at scale through continuous integration/continuous delivery, automation, reuse of building blocks and business process integration. Our MLOps methodology provides many advantages: <ul> <li>The AI platforms abstract deployment details and business process integration so that data scientists can concentrate on model development.</li> <li>We can deploy a new model in less than half an hour, compared to days or weeks without MLOps.</li> <li>Our systematic quality metrics minimize the cost and effort required to maintain the hundreds of models we have in production.</li></ul>

IT@Intel: Push-button Productization of AI Models

IT Best Practices: Intel’s innovative disaggregated server architecture and data center facilities design and operation reduce e-waste and increase energy efficiency—helping to protect the environment and produce significant cost savings. Do what’s right for the business and what’s right for the environment. That is the dual goal behind many of Intel IT’s data center transformation initiatives. We have found that these goals are often closely linked: reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) can help us also reduce total cost to the environment (TCE). Adopting disaggregated servers enables us to refresh only certain server components like the CPU and the memory without refreshing other components like networking, drives, fans, power supplies, cables or chassis. This approach to server refresh has not only provided a 44 percent cost savings, but has significantly reduced e-waste as well. Our innovative approach to data center cooling reduces our electrical costs and contributes to one of the world’s highest data center efficiency ratings—a power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratio of 1.06. These same approaches also have reduced fresh water usage by up to 61 million gallons per year. In addition, using fuel cells as a dual source of energy has allowed us to eliminate equipment such as power backup systems, which simplifies infrastructure design and lowers data center construction costs, and also reduces our carbon footprint. Through disruptive technologies, innovative data center design, optimization of data center operational processes and higher resource utilization, we continue to look for ways to transform our data centers to better meet Intel’s—and the world’s—needs.

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: Intel’s innovative disaggregated server architecture and data center facilities design and operation reduce e-waste and increase energy efficiency—helping to protect the environment and produce significant cost savings. Do what’s right for the business and what’s right for the environment. That is the dual goal behind many of Intel IT’s data center transformation initiatives. We have found that these goals are often closely linked: reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) can help us also reduce total cost to the environment (TCE). Adopting disaggregated servers enables us to refresh only certain server components like the CPU and the memory without refreshing other components like networking, drives, fans, power supplies, cables or chassis. This approach to server refresh has not only provided a 44 percent cost savings, but has significantly reduced e-waste as well. Our innovative approach to data center cooling reduces our electrical costs and contributes to one of the world’s highest data center efficiency ratings—a power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratio of 1.06. These same approaches also have reduced fresh water usage by up to 61 million gallons per year. In addition, using fuel cells as a dual source of energy has allowed us to eliminate equipment such as power backup systems, which simplifies infrastructure design and lowers data center construction costs, and also reduces our carbon footprint. Through disruptive technologies, innovative data center design, optimization of data center operational processes and higher resource utilization, we continue to look for ways to transform our data centers to better meet Intel’s—and the world’s—needs.

IT@Intel: Green Computing at Scale

IT Best Practices: In several proofs of concept, fuel cell technology has proved to be a reliable, stable, efficient and sustainable source of electricity for Intel’s data centers. Intel IT joined forces with Intel’s Corporate Services and Global Supply Chain groups to enable fuel cells to meet Intel’s redundancy and capacity expectations. For some of Intel’s data centers, fuel cells are the primary source of power (as opposed to the power grid). To date, we have fuel cell installations at Intel data centers in Bangalore, India, as well as in Santa Clara in the U.S. Fuel cells are now part of Intel IT’s plan of record for new data center design and expansion scope. Intel IT’s experience with fuel cells has illustrated their many benefits, including the following: • Efficient use of real estate • Reliable and high-quality power • Scalable modular installations • Affordability • Faster deployment time • Reduced carbon dioxide emissions This white paper provides details about our innovative value proposition of fuel cell use at Intel IT and shares some best practices that we have implemented or deployed over the last several years.

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: In several proofs of concept, fuel cell technology has proved to be a reliable, stable, efficient and sustainable source of electricity for Intel’s data centers. Intel IT joined forces with Intel’s Corporate Services and Global Supply Chain groups to enable fuel cells to meet Intel’s redundancy and capacity expectations. For some of Intel’s data centers, fuel cells are the primary source of power (as opposed to the power grid). To date, we have fuel cell installations at Intel data centers in Bangalore, India, as well as in Santa Clara in the U.S. Fuel cells are now part of Intel IT’s plan of record for new data center design and expansion scope. Intel IT’s experience with fuel cells has illustrated their many benefits, including the following: • Efficient use of real estate • Reliable and high-quality power • Scalable modular installations • Affordability • Faster deployment time • Reduced carbon dioxide emissions This white paper provides details about our innovative value proposition of fuel cell use at Intel IT and shares some best practices that we have implemented or deployed over the last several years.

IT@Intel: Fuel Cells – An Alternative Energy Source for Intel’s Data Centers

IT Best Practices: Intel IT Principal Engineers Craig Chvatal and Subbarao Mantha talk to Phil Vokins, Cloud Services Director at Intel Americas, outlining Intel’s best practices businesses should consider when moving to the cloud. In this first edition of our new series, Phil and guests provide practical advice for companies of all sizes that are considering moving their IT infrastructure and applications to the cloud. From clearly defining cloud strategy that enables the business through grouping applications, to applying the 3 “Cs” principles and lessons learned from Intel’s own migration to the cloud, this video is your starting point to cloud computing. To download the white papers and get notified of the next episode release, please register here: plan.seek.intel.com/CA-Cloud-TV-YouTube_Reg

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: Intel IT Principal Engineers Craig Chvatal and Subbarao Mantha talk to Phil Vokins, Cloud Services Director at Intel Americas, outlining Intel’s best practices businesses should consider when moving to the cloud. In this first edition of our new series, Phil and guests provide practical advice for companies of all sizes that are considering moving their IT infrastructure and applications to the cloud. From clearly defining cloud strategy that enables the business through grouping applications, to applying the 3 “Cs” principles and lessons learned from Intel’s own migration to the cloud, this video is your starting point to cloud computing. To download the white papers and get notified of the next episode release, please register here: <a href="https://plan.seek.intel.com/CA-Cloud-TV-YouTube_Reg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">plan.seek.intel.com/CA-Cloud-TV-YouTube_Reg</a>

A Path to Cloud: Developing a Cloud Strategy for Your Applications

As one of the world’s largest semiconductor chip makers, Intel’s vision is to be the performance leader that unleashes the potential of data. In this era of rapid change and distributed intelligence, we see artificial intelligence (AI), 5G network transformation and the intelligent, autonomous edge as the fastest growing opportunities for Intel and our customers. As we have transformed to position our company and our customers for growth, Intel’s Information Technology (IT) team has partnered with the business to drive innovative solutions with emerging technologies. Our digital transformation was well underway when the COVID-19 pandemic made computing power even more essential and caused us to expedite our plans. As an essential industry, Intel’s ability to meet its customers’ demands for more product depended on keeping employees safe and productive under extraordinary circumstances. We needed to enable our worldwide manufacturing operations to continue uninterrupted even as the world changed overnight. Most of our 110,000-strong global workforce transitioned to working from home in a matter of days. This required us to enable remote capabilities to monitor and control our factory operations; install and troubleshoot manufacturing equipment; keep a complex global supply chain flowing in the face of burgeoning customer demand; and connect our extensive ecosystem of employees, customers and suppliers to communicate and collaborate to keep our business moving. We had built a strong foundation prior to the pandemic and we worked together with our business partners to identify priorities and swiftly implement changes that would drive the best results for employees and Intel’s ecosystem. In a world of social distancing, restricted travel and working from home, we learned to adapt our culture and work styles to support an effective and motivated team. We continue to address these challenges while supporting Intel’s strategic transition for a world in which everything looks like a computer and enabling a significant expansion of the company’s capacity. Read more in the full Accelerating Our Future: 2020-2021 Intel IT Annual Performance Report

As one of the world’s largest semiconductor chip makers, Intel’s vision is to be the performance leader that unleashes the potential of data. In this era of rapid change and distributed intelligence, we see artificial intelligence (AI), 5G network transformation and the intelligent, autonomous edge as the fastest growing opportunities for Intel and our customers. As we have transformed to position our company and our customers for growth, Intel’s Information Technology (IT) team has partnered with the business to drive innovative solutions with emerging technologies. Our digital transformation was well underway when the COVID-19 pandemic made computing power even more essential and caused us to expedite our plans. As an essential industry, Intel’s ability to meet its customers’ demands for more product depended on keeping employees safe and productive under extraordinary circumstances. We needed to enable our worldwide manufacturing operations to continue uninterrupted even as the world changed overnight. Most of our 110,000-strong global workforce transitioned to working from home in a matter of days. This required us to enable remote capabilities to monitor and control our factory operations; install and troubleshoot manufacturing equipment; keep a complex global supply chain flowing in the face of burgeoning customer demand; and connect our extensive ecosystem of employees, customers and suppliers to communicate and collaborate to keep our business moving. We had built a strong foundation prior to the pandemic and we worked together with our business partners to identify priorities and swiftly implement changes that would drive the best results for employees and Intel’s ecosystem. In a world of social distancing, restricted travel and working from home, we learned to adapt our culture and work styles to support an effective and motivated team. We continue to address these challenges while supporting Intel’s strategic transition for a world in which everything looks like a computer and enabling a significant expansion of the company’s capacity. Read more in the full <a href="https://media21.connectedsocialmedia.com/intel/03/19189/Accelerating_Our_Future_2020_2021_Intel_IT_Annual_Performance_Report.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Accelerating Our Future: 2020-2021 Intel IT Annual Performance Report</a>

Accelerating Our Future: 2020-2021 Intel IT Annual Performance Report

IT Best Practices: Best-in-class organizations continuously strive to innovate and improve IT assets. This transformation is critical for business organizations to perform operations without disruption. IT transformation also enhances business units’ ability to meet objectives through deeper IT asset insights and improved total cost of ownership (TCO), all while running leaner and more efficiently. Application portfolio management (APM) is an information system that stores and manages a wide range of IT assets throughout their lifecycles. APM provides insights into several measurable data points that enable management to make data-driven conclusions, including: 1. Architecture modernization and simplification. 2. Technical debt reduction though IT asset rationalization. 3. TCO management while weighing IT asset return on investment (ROI) and business value. 4. Recommendations on investments across strategic, innovative, and disruptive technical and business capabilities. 5. Improving IT services and agility through insights into IT asset health and associated metrics. 6. Providing insights into IT operations outsourcing, consolidation of services, visibility into security and compliance risks, and awareness of strategic value and importance. Intel IT implemented APM several years ago as a basic inventory management tool for applications and platforms. However, we continue to evolve this solution and its surrounding processes not only to meet Intel requirements but to elevate our group to be exemplary among global IT organizations. We offer this paper as both a blueprint and inspiration for others to follow.

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: Best-in-class organizations continuously strive to innovate and improve IT assets. This transformation is critical for business organizations to perform operations without disruption. IT transformation also enhances business units’ ability to meet objectives through deeper IT asset insights and improved total cost of ownership (TCO), all while running leaner and more efficiently. Application portfolio management (APM) is an information system that stores and manages a wide range of IT assets throughout their lifecycles. APM provides insights into several measurable data points that enable management to make data-driven conclusions, including: 1. Architecture modernization and simplification. 2. Technical debt reduction though IT asset rationalization. 3. TCO management while weighing IT asset return on investment (ROI) and business value. 4. Recommendations on investments across strategic, innovative, and disruptive technical and business capabilities. 5. Improving IT services and agility through insights into IT asset health and associated metrics. 6. Providing insights into IT operations outsourcing, consolidation of services, visibility into security and compliance risks, and awareness of strategic value and importance. Intel IT implemented APM several years ago as a basic inventory management tool for applications and platforms. However, we continue to evolve this solution and its surrounding processes not only to meet Intel requirements but to elevate our group to be exemplary among global IT organizations. We offer this paper as both a blueprint and inspiration for others to follow.

IT@Intel: Driving Digital Acceleration with Application Portfolio Management

IT Best Practices: Intel IT has replaced many of our third-party security solutions with native cloud security controls. We made this significant change to our multicloud strategy because of three reasons: • Technology: Cloud service provider (CSP) integrated security controls have matured to the point where many of them meet our stringent security requirements. • Process: We standardized our cloud security processes so that we can better understand and work with CSPs. • People: Our team embraces change and has acquired the necessary skillset. It is important to note that where needed and as part of due diligence, we continue to use some third-party solutions to augment native controls. We evaluate each cloud-based security control to verify that it meets our minimal viable product requirements. This helps us provide Intel with “defense in depth.” We’ve been adjusting and streamlining our multicloud strategy for several years, and the process is not yet over—there is still much to learn and more changes to make. But the move to native cloud security controls has produced significant business benefits, including faster deployment and business agility; more consistent, cloud-native user and developer experience; and reduced complexity and costs.

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: Intel IT has replaced many of our third-party security solutions with native cloud security controls. We made this significant change to our multicloud strategy because of three reasons: • Technology: Cloud service provider (CSP) integrated security controls have matured to the point where many of them meet our stringent security requirements. • Process: We standardized our cloud security processes so that we can better understand and work with CSPs. • People: Our team embraces change and has acquired the necessary skillset. It is important to note that where needed and as part of due diligence, we continue to use some third-party solutions to augment native controls. We evaluate each cloud-based security control to verify that it meets our minimal viable product requirements. This helps us provide Intel with “defense in depth.” We’ve been adjusting and streamlining our multicloud strategy for several years, and the process is not yet over—there is still much to learn and more changes to make. But the move to native cloud security controls has produced significant business benefits, including faster deployment and business agility; more consistent, cloud-native user and developer experience; and reduced complexity and costs.

IT@Intel Next Step to Multicloud: Native Cloud Security Controls

IT Best Practices: As businesses grow, meeting the needs of new markets, customers, and partners can be challenging. Sales and marketing organizations are constantly under pressure to effectively cover accounts and rapidly respond to customers’ changing needs while maintaining—or even reducing—operational costs. Intel’s Sales and Marketing Group faces similar challenges while growing in new markets and domains and evolving its existing business. To meet these challenges, Intel IT developed Sales AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that enables Intel to significantly scale its sales activity. Sales AI collects and interprets customer and ecosystem data, then translates it into meaningful and actionable insights. Intel IT developed two applications that use the Sales AI platform: • Sales Assist provides insights (referred to as assists) to account managers. These assists broaden account managers’ opportunities to better interact with customers and increase efficiency so they can cover more accounts and create more sales opportunities. • Autonomous Sales creates automatic sales motions, which are actions that Intel offers a customer or partner through an email, website ad, or newsletter. Whether or not a customer chooses to take an action teaches us about their needs and interests. Autonomous Sales operates daily and automatically, with no human intervention. It applies to all partners’ accounts, even if they are not covered by an Intel sales team. Together, these Sales AI applications are generating significant business value to Intel. The incremental contribution of Sales Assist to the opportunity pipeline is estimated to be greater than USD 100 million per year, while Autonomous Sales is helping create USD 30 million in new sales annually. However, in 2020 these applications exceeded our expectations and together delivered more than USD 168 million in business value.

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: As businesses grow, meeting the needs of new markets, customers, and partners can be challenging. Sales and marketing organizations are constantly under pressure to effectively cover accounts and rapidly respond to customers’ changing needs while maintaining—or even reducing—operational costs. Intel’s Sales and Marketing Group faces similar challenges while growing in new markets and domains and evolving its existing business. To meet these challenges, Intel IT developed Sales AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that enables Intel to significantly scale its sales activity. Sales AI collects and interprets customer and ecosystem data, then translates it into meaningful and actionable insights. Intel IT developed two applications that use the Sales AI platform: • Sales Assist provides insights (referred to as assists) to account managers. These assists broaden account managers’ opportunities to better interact with customers and increase efficiency so they can cover more accounts and create more sales opportunities. • Autonomous Sales creates automatic sales motions, which are actions that Intel offers a customer or partner through an email, website ad, or newsletter. Whether or not a customer chooses to take an action teaches us about their needs and interests. Autonomous Sales operates daily and automatically, with no human intervention. It applies to all partners’ accounts, even if they are not covered by an Intel sales team. Together, these Sales AI applications are generating significant business value to Intel. The incremental contribution of Sales Assist to the opportunity pipeline is estimated to be greater than USD 100 million per year, while Autonomous Sales is helping create USD 30 million in new sales annually. However, in 2020 these applications exceeded our expectations and together delivered more than USD 168 million in business value.

IT@Intel: Improving Sales Account Coverage with Artificial Intelligence

IT Best Practices: Intel IT is responsible for managing all of Intel’s endpoint devices—at 147 sites spread across 56 countries. Managing endpoints can be time-consuming and expensive, often requiring a technician to physically visit the devices to troubleshoot them. Examples of these devices include the following:  The deployment of Intel Unite software to more than 5,000 hubs, located in conference rooms worldwide. This technology simplifies conference room configuration by eliminating cables and adapters. It also encourages idea sharing because employees can share content directly from their laptops and tablets regardless of their locations around the world. Digital signs in multiple locations including lobbies, cafeterias, and common areas across all Intel sites. These signs provide timely and localized site and community information.  As part of our pursuit of continuous improvement, we collaborate with Intel’s business units, which are constantly developing innovative solutions that have the potential to help us achieve our goals within our own IT environment. For example, we recently evaluated the capabilities of Intel Endpoint Management Assistant (Intel EMA) to determine if it could ease the management of multiple types of endpoint devices. In 2019, we began a proof of concept using Intel EMA to manage approximately 500 Intel Unite hubs and 500 digital signs across four geographic regions. Based on our success, we deployed Intel EMA to manage all our Intel Unite hubs and more than 700 digital signs. The solution was implemented globally in just a few days, and it is saving Intel thousands of dollars annually in licensing and server maintenance costs.

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: Intel IT is responsible for managing all of Intel’s endpoint devices—at 147 sites spread across 56 countries. Managing endpoints can be time-consuming and expensive, often requiring a technician to physically visit the devices to troubleshoot them. Examples of these devices include the following: <ul> <li>The deployment of Intel Unite software to more than 5,000 hubs, located in conference rooms worldwide. This technology simplifies conference room configuration by eliminating cables and adapters. It also encourages idea sharing because employees can share content directly from their laptops and tablets regardless of their locations around the world.</li> <li>Digital signs in multiple locations including lobbies, cafeterias, and common areas across all Intel sites. These signs provide timely and localized site and community information.</li> </ul> As part of our pursuit of continuous improvement, we collaborate with Intel’s business units, which are constantly developing innovative solutions that have the potential to help us achieve our goals within our own IT environment. For example, we recently evaluated the capabilities of Intel Endpoint Management Assistant (Intel EMA) to determine if it could ease the management of multiple types of endpoint devices. In 2019, we began a proof of concept using Intel EMA to manage approximately 500 Intel Unite hubs and 500 digital signs across four geographic regions. Based on our success, we deployed Intel EMA to manage all our Intel Unite hubs and more than 700 digital signs. The solution was implemented globally in just a few days, and it is saving Intel thousands of dollars annually in licensing and server maintenance costs.

IT@Intel: Improving Endpoint Device Management Efficiency

IT Best Practices: When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, it propelled Intel’s global workforce of over 100,000 employees, along with contingent workers and ecosystem partners, to begin working remotely practically overnight. Virtual private network (VPN) connections would be needed for all of these workers, but Intel’s global VPN capacity was a fraction of what would be needed. Depending on the geography, Intel IT needed to scale VPN capacity either through a public cloud service provider (CSP) or through on-premises local cloud servers. Either way, as the world cascaded into quarantine, there was no way to procure the necessary VPN gateway appliances. We adapted to the situation and created the needed capacity with virtualized VPN gateways. In the scant days following Intel’s work-from-home order, we not only met Intel’s VPN capacity needs but exceeded them. We accomplished this by fine-tuning off-the-shelf solutions based on Intel architecture- based servers and Inte Ethernet network adapters enabled with SR-IOV functionality. Based on our internal team’s deployment, we were able to scale our virtual VPN gateways by 100 to 200 percent of the performance level seen in some dedicated hardware VPN gateway appliances. The solution spotlights the exceptional capabilities of virtualized solutions, SR-IOV, and multicloud strategies for overcoming considerable challenges in a timely manner.

<a href="http://connectedsocialmedia.com/tag/it-best-practices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IT Best Practices</a>: When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, it propelled Intel’s global workforce of over 100,000 employees, along with contingent workers and ecosystem partners, to begin working remotely practically overnight. Virtual private network (VPN) connections would be needed for all of these workers, but Intel’s global VPN capacity was a fraction of what would be needed. Depending on the geography, Intel IT needed to scale VPN capacity either through a public cloud service provider (CSP) or through on-premises local cloud servers. Either way, as the world cascaded into quarantine, there was no way to procure the necessary VPN gateway appliances. We adapted to the situation and created the needed capacity with virtualized VPN gateways. In the scant days following Intel’s work-from-home order, we not only met Intel’s VPN capacity needs but exceeded them. We accomplished this by fine-tuning off-the-shelf solutions based on Intel architecture- based servers and Inte Ethernet network adapters enabled with SR-IOV functionality. Based on our internal team’s deployment, we were able to scale our virtual VPN gateways by 100 to 200 percent of the performance level seen in some dedicated hardware VPN gateway appliances. The solution spotlights the exceptional capabilities of virtualized solutions, SR-IOV, and multicloud strategies for overcoming considerable challenges in a timely manner.

IT@Intel: “Instant” VPN Scaling and Continuity During Crisis

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