When the word “storage” is uttered, the minds of few people—even people in IT—leap immediately to think of Intel. However, that is something that Intel looks to be about to change, not only because Intel is a pragmatic and aggressive commercial organization, but also because the necessity for advanced, intelligent, and powerful computing in storage—especially today’s increasingly dominant scale-out storage approach—means that storage is becoming more processor dependent.

Thus, IA has a key role and opportunity in the storage market. As storage infrastructures become more heavily based upon industry-standard X86 servers, so IA and storage become increasingly interlinked. “Intel Inside Scale- out Storage” may not yet be a phrase that trips off the tongue. But compelling reasons exist for users to be aware of the important relevance of processing in today’s increasingly complex storage world.

Moreover, Intel wants to be seen as more than just a supporting cast member in the storage world; it wants to create the same sort of integrated value that it has achieved with its other, more traditional processing platforms. As the company states:

“The bottom line: The world needs storage, and it needs it in new ways. Intel architecture-based storage solutions can support scale-out storage solutions that address your immediate need for efficiency and prepare you to meet tomorrow’s challenges. Intel Xeon processors can help by providing more energy-efficient storage performance, delivering added data protection, and enabling new usage models and greater scalability.”

This paper covers Intel’s new focus from two perspectives. It contains two sections, each readable as a standalone piece.

• Section A examines and explains scale-out storage architecture, focusing on its emergence as the leading approach to contemporary storage and on the IT and business values it can deliver.

• Section B looks in depth at the specific IA capabilities that can address scale-out storage needs, emphasizing their operational and economic value.

Why does this matter? First, because modern storage generally, and scale-out storage in particular, put new demands upon the processing capabilities that support them, so it’s important to know what underpins a solution. Second, the adoption and growth of scale-out storage as the modern architecture of choice means that the majority of users are impacted, and they’ll need to understand all this so they can make good planning and purchasing decisions.

Indeed, ESG has delivered a scale-out storage market forecast 2 through the year 2015, at which point we expect the transition to scale-out architectures to be almost complete, with scale-out storage architectures making up 80% of all net-new external networked storage shipments on a revenue basis. From 2010 to 2015, scale-out storage continues its march into commercial IT and away from just the niche markets that were the first to require the bandwidth and performance it provides.

In that same time frame, our market forecast for scale-out external networked storage shipments in commercial and government sectors increases from 4,189 petabytes (PB) to 62,834 PB. That is a 72% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) that far exceeds the overall external networked storage growth rate. This significant growth is based on a near-wholesale transition from scale-up to scale-out architectures across the vendor landscape—and that makes understanding scale-out, together with IA’s role within it, a matter of broad importance across IT.

Intel IT, working with internal business groups, is taking a leadership role with these customers to help them think in new ways and identify possible BI solutions that go far beyond the basic reporting with which they are familiar. In this video, Intel IT shares an advanced BI solution that was developed for our sales and marketing organization. It mines large data sets to identify the most promising reseller business partnerts. During Intel IT’s initial trial, we were able to identify resellers that have significant new revenue potential.

Watch the Accelerating Intel’s Growth through IT: Intel IT’s 2013 Priorities video.

Download the 2012-2013 Intel IT Annual Report

As the technology environment continues to evolve, many people believe we’re moving toward a future in which organizations outsource much of the delivery of IT services, which will shift the organization away from IT implementation to procurement and management of suppliers and services, nonetheless requiring a CISO – Chief Information Security Officer – to set direction and establishing an overall IT architecture. To communicate this shift, the CISO must have the ability to address these subjects at different levels so that all members of the organization have a clear understanding of the group’s direction.

Malcolm Harkins is vice president of the Information Technology Group, and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and general manager of Information Risk and Security. The group is responsible for managing the risk, controls, privacy, security, and other related compliance activities for all of Intel’s information assets.

This year’s IT Annual Performance Report provides insight into Intel’s rapidly changing business environment and highlights the value IT continues to deliver. It has been a monumental year of transformation as Intel pursues new opportunities. We are reinventing the PC through the Ultrabook device. The industry is shipping the first smartphones and tablets with Intel processors inside. These new lines of business create urgent, unique IT demands—from manufacturing and supply chain to sales and marketing. By providing insight and innovation, Intel IT is influencing decision making by delivering technology solutions and systems of engagement across all of Intel’s businesses. More than ever, IT is poised to advance our company’s competitive advantage by delivering results for the unique and evolving business needs of Intel.

Download the 2012-2013 Intel IT Annual Report Video

During our testing, we determined the combination of Windows 8 and Intel architecture offers flexible device management with enhanced security features, such as domain joining and group policies, and out-of-band management capabilities on Intel Core vPro processor-based tablets, when compared with those currently deployed in Intel’s environment. Both tablets we tested offer support for alternative authentication options, such as biometrics, and support for legacy enterprise applications. The Intel Core vPro processor-based tablet also offers hardware-assisted security through Intel Identify Protection Technology and support of Intel Anti-Theft Technology.

Listen to the Inside IT: Deploying Microsoft Windows 8 in the Enterprise podcast.

Read the Deploying Microsoft Windows 8 in the Enterprise whitepaper.

At Intel, we are well aware of the risks associated with social media, but attempting to stop the use of external social media web sites would have been counterproductive and, in any case, impossible. We realized that if we did not embrace social media and define ways to use it, we would lose the opportunity to shape employee behavior. In general, people are likely to take better care of their own possessions than someone else’s. They feel a stronger connection to their own car than to one provided by their employer. We found social media does not create new risks, but can increase existing ones. Recognizing this, we created policies and training tools, then deployed internal social media capabilities, such as wikis, forums, and blogs. This article examines the effort to find the balance between protecting through restrictions and through cultivating a sense of personal commitment and security ownership among our employees.

Malcolm Harkins is vice president of the Information Technology Group, and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and general manager of Information Risk and Security. The group is responsible for managing the risk, controls, privacy, security, and other related compliance activities for all of Intel’s information assets.