Your Next Refresh, Done Right: Lifecycle Management and AI Upgrades That Pay Off

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Speaker 1
Hello and welcome back to the Dell Technologies Forum podcast series, where ideas and innovation meet acceleration. In this series, we bring together Dell Technologies' brightest minds and industry pioneers to help you navigate the ever evolving landscape of technology. I'm Courtney Hughes and today we have an exciting episode lined up for you. We're diving into the latest advancements in AI and business computing, and the top IT challenges faced today.

00:00:31:02 - 00:00:54:15
Speaker 1
We're sharing insights on Intel vPro with Intel Core Ultra processors to help you maximize business potential with innovation and technology. Joining us today is our expert guest, Jennifer Larson, Intel's general Manager of commercial segment, who will help us understand these topics in depth. Jen, welcome. I'm so excited to have you.

00:00:54:17 - 00:01:08:16
Speaker 2
Thank you Courtney. I'm super excited to be here. We've been out talking to customers, listening to IT challenges, and looking forward to addressing the Intel vPro and Intel Core Ultra processors with Dell, and how they might address some of those pain points.

00:01:08:18 - 00:01:17:10
Speaker 1
Absolutely. So let's go ahead and get started with AI and business computing. How is AI transforming the landscape of business computing?

00:01:17:12 - 00:01:46:06
Speaker 2
AI is really revolutionizing business computing. It's leveraging advanced hardware to accelerate AI and application development. The transformation really aims to initially enhance productivity and innovation, and really enable businesses to solve complex problems more efficiently and effectively. A couple of examples that I'll throw out there are AI for IT. It's really been some remarkable progress just in the last year using local compute.

00:01:46:12 - 00:02:11:01
Speaker 2
We have examples of smart IT operations using agentic AI and also from a security workload perspective. These are security workloads that are utilizing the NPU weren’t even possible before. For the end user, I'd say the monotonous administrative work that personally, I once spent hours on searching for documents, writing the perfect email, sending out meeting notes. It's really, it's done in seconds now, with productivity assistance using AI and the NPU on our platforms. I really think we're only at the beginning. Finding the right balance between cloud AI workloads and the ability to leverage local compute for purposes of latency, cost, and privacy are really beginning to emerge in big ways.

00:02:30:01 - 00:02:36:13
Speaker 1
How does the transition to modern devices running on Windows 11 benefit businesses?

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Speaker 2
Yeah, I think as we're all talking to customers, I think the number one thing that comes up as they're transitioning to Windows 11, kind of one of the biggest values for them is the security value proposition. But transitioning to modern devices running on Windows 11 really helps minimize disruption, ensure business continuity. It helps and allows businesses to offload these CPU hungry workloads to AI PCs on the different engines that we offer. CPU, GPU, NPU, leads to really instant ROI by improving performance and having incredible battery life. And then these modern devices with Windows 11 offer enhanced security features and better support for AI workloads. When we talk about security features with Windows 11, really Intel provides the silicon assistance to be able to allow those enhanced security features to come to life from a windows 11 perspective. So really exciting.

00:03:33:06 - 00:03:41:10
Speaker 1
Yeah. Jen. And so you talked about the security part in the role that Intel plays. What role does Intel play in the development of AI PCs?
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00:03:41:12 - 00:04:09:10
Speaker 2
Intel plays a pivotal role in the development of AI pcs by providing the necessary hardware and software solutions. So these AI PCs powered by Core Ultra processors and for the commercial space Intel vPro, are really designed to deliver a balance of power and performance, really makes them ideal for any modern computing needs and also the computing needs as we look out into the future, a couple, few, four years. Right. We deliver engines that are leveraged for AI workloads. So all three of them can actually handle AI workloads. The CPU, the GPU, and the NPU. And they all three play an important role as we look at ISVs and the applications and which engines they're leveraging. It's really kind of a mix between the three a portion on the CPU, a portion on the NPU, and a portion on the GPU and it depends really if it's bursty or a sustained AI workload, in the case of the NPU. I'd say, additionally, Intel plays a pivotal role in support for frameworks and models so that the most advanced AI solutions are built on Intel architecture. Intel provides faster engines, more data types, more frameworks. Without that compatibility compromise. And if you're a developer, that's really important.

00:05:00:04 - 00:05:11:16
Speaker 1
Productivity and connectivity are extremely crucial for today's business environment. And so how are AI PCs based on Intel designed to enhance these aspects?

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Speaker 2
That's a great question. I think I'll start with connectivity because what's the first thing we do? We open the lid and we have to connect that device. Our connectivity solution is highly sought after in the commercial space. It just works and it works really well. One of my favorite customer quotes this year is they were kind of evaluating our new Intel Core Ultra 200 B series, which is codenamed Lunar Lake. He says Intel Wi-Fi is no joke. It is the most stable and performs the best in a corporate environment. Full stop. And that's really kind of the same sentiment that we're hearing across commercial customers. For those commercial customers, we also have something called Intel Connectivity Performance Suites, which is an AI based connection optimization software that helps really get the best performance, lowest latency for hybrid work.

00:06:02:00 - 00:06:20:02
Speaker 2
And so if I move to productivity, productivity really starts the battery life for many personas, true full day battery life is a key priority. I don't want to bring my charger. If I'm traveling and I bring my laptop on the plane, I open up my laptop. I'm working throughout the day in meetings. I like to leave my power cord at home. And these new core ultra processors really deliver exactly that. The commercial system that we just launched is delivering over 20 hours of battery life for office productivity benchmarks, and ten plus hours running Microsoft Teams three by three. When you pull an IT image on those devices. I personally have many different 200 V devices actually on my desk right now, and I'm seeing more than a day's worth of battery life.

00:06:48:04 - 00:07:07:00
Speaker 2
So really, these enhancements are ensuring that I can work effectively, that employees and commercial spaces can work efficiently from anywhere without worrying about connectivity or battery drain. The improved connectivity options are also really helping facilitate seamless collaboration and communication. That's what we do all day long.

00:07:07:02 - 00:07:19:18
Speaker 1
That is so impressive. Now, I know that you have this security topic top of mind, and as you mentioned, security is always a top concern for businesses. How does the Intel vPro solutions address this?

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Speaker 2
I'm very passionate about the topic of security. Intel vPro offers what we call comprehensive security that help businesses maintain their security operations. It's really robust protection that starts in the silicon against threats and vulnerabilities, ensuring that the data that's sensitive in their organization remains safe. And like I said, I get really excited to talk about security and the benefits on Intel vPro with both Windows 11 and Dell commercial devices.

00:07:51:04 - 00:08:14:19
Speaker 2
We've been working with them with Dell for a very long time on enablement of our Silicon Security capabilities with solutions like safe BIOS, other solutions like that. My team has done intense work to ensure that our mutual customers in the commercial space, we're secure. We're trying to stay ahead of bad actors. In the case of Dell, they leverage nearly all three dozen of our Silicon Security capabilities.

00:08:14:21 - 00:08:34:12
Speaker 2
And what that does is really proactively stop attacks at the source. It's a silicon assist with software. When you couple hardware and software, it's really the best solution. Software alone cannot thwart these attacks. And so when we work together, we have better outcomes from a security perspective.

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Speaker 1
Now, Jen, I've also been hearing a lot about the IT modern life PC cycle management. Can you tell us what it is and why it's important for businesses today?

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Speaker 2
Sure. The manageability solutions for IT help them to efficiently manage and secure devices across their organization and their fleet. It's really all about managing the lifecycle of a PC in these modern business environments. It starts from procurement and deployment and then to maintenance and, and eventually retirement of the devices. The stability provided by the solutions that they use really helps ensure consistent performance throughout the device lifecycle, which is crucial to IT, crucial to long term business operations.

00:09:19:11 - 00:09:40:13
Speaker 2
And last year, just a really good example. We all remember the outage, last July. It really gave IT a renewed focus on not just the need to transactionally manage the devices throughout their life cycle with their fleet, but to be able to remediate from a situation like the outage. Intel vPro was the only hardware based out of band solution that could remediate.

00:09:40:15 - 00:10:03:22
Speaker 2
And so that resiliency that you build into your fleet management is incredibly important. We actually, just a couple of weeks ago announced an integration with Intel vPro and Microsoft Intune to make it super simple to activate, these capabilities within minutes and be able to recover from, or remediate from an outage like the one we saw last July.

00:10:03:24 - 00:10:14:06
Speaker 1
Thank you for sharing these insights, Jen. I mean, it's clear that these advancements are shaping the future of business computing. I would love to know, do you have any final thoughts for our audience?

00:10:14:08 - 00:10:40:22
Speaker 2
It's a, it's an exciting time for technology. It's an exciting time for, for the PC, for PC refresh. I think as commercial customers are going to refresh, it's a totally different experience. These AI PCs that are coming from Intel Core Ultra and Intel vPro are... that the battery life, the performance, the snappy wake. All of these things are incredibly exciting.

00:10:40:22 - 00:11:04:04
Speaker 2
And I think no matter where you are in your AI journey, I think these Intel Core Ultra 200 V processors are incredibly exciting and can go along with your journey throughout that refresh cycle for your employees, no matter how they're using AI. So really exciting. If you have not had a chance to get your hands on some of these devices, definitely take a look.

00:11:04:06 - 00:11:07:09
Speaker 1
Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining us today, Jen.

00:11:07:11 - 00:11:08:10
Speaker 2
Thanks, Courtney.

00:11:08:12 - 00:11:31:02
Speaker 1
Yes, you provided such valuable information. And thanks to you, our listeners and everyone tuning in. Don't forget to follow and share the podcast for more on the technology shaping the way we work. And if today's episode got you thinking, join us at a Dell Technologies forum near you. Connect with peers. See these innovations live and take the conversation further.

00:11:31:04 - 00:11:35:05
Speaker 1
Find the nearest forum to you on our website. Thanks and talk to you soon.