How many people remember Intel’s vPro? Do you know if your PC supports vPro? Do you care? It was announced by Intel at least six years ago.
As Intel says on its vPro home page:
Notebook and desktop PCs with Intel® vPro™ technology enable IT to take advantage of hardware-assisted security and manageability capabilities that enhance their ability to maintain, manage, and protect their business PCs. And with the latest IT management consoles from Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) with native Intel vPro technology support, IT can now take advantage of enhanced features to manage notebooks over a wired or corporate wireless network- or even outside the corporate firewall through a wired LAN connection.
PCs with Intel vPro technology integrate robust hardware-based security and enhanced maintenance and management capabilities that work seamlessly with ISV consoles. Because these capabilities are built into the hardware, Intel vPro technology provides IT with the industry’s first solution for OS-absent manageability and down-the-wire security even when the PC is off, the OS is unresponsive, or software agents are disabled.
While vPro looks intriguing, it does not appear to me that ISVs really embraced it. Perhaps one of the reasons for Intel acquiring McAfee was it felt it had to force the issue. The Microsoft approach of “loose” integration was not working and Intel decided to place a bet on the Apple strategy of “tight” integration.
