Microsoft



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| | |Windows 7 |

| | |Partner Solution Case Study |

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| | | |Intel Pursues Operating System Upgrade for Increased Performance and Lower Costs |

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|Overview | | |“With Windows 7 and Intel vPro technology, we can maximize user productivity while making the most of|

|Country or Region: United States | | |the increased energy efficiency, security, and manageability of new PCs.” |

|Industry: Manufacturing—High tech and | | |John Gonzalez, Operating System Product Line Manager, Intel |

|electronics | | | |

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|Partner Profile | | | |

|Headquartered in Santa Clara, | | | |

|California–based Intel develops innovative | | | |

|digital-technology products, especially | | | |

|integrated circuits. The company has more | | | |

|than 86,000 employees. | | | |

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|Business Situation | | | |

|The company wanted to improve employee | | | |

|productivity, deliver IT cost efficiencies, | | | |

|and enhance manageability and stability. | | | |

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|Solution | | | |

|Intel conducted thorough tests and determined| | | |

|that it will deploy the Windows 7 operating | | | |

|system and Intel® vPro™ technology on new | | | |

|desktop and portable computers as part of its| | | |

|standard refresh cycle. | | | |

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|Benefits | | | |

|Impressive performance and stability | | | |

|Reduced power consumption | | | |

|Lower total cost of ownership | | | |

|Positive user experience | | | |

|Enhanced management capabilities | | | |

| | | |A global maker of digital-technology products, Intel needed to explore the viability of upgrading its|

| | | |100,000 desktop and portable computers to the Windows 7 operating system. The company conducted a |

| | | |thorough evaluation, testing the operating system’s performance, stability, user acceptance, power |

| | | |consumption, and application readiness, among other areas. Intel determined that upgrading to Windows|

| | | |7 Enterprise, in conjunction with using Intel® vPro™ technology, would best meet the needs of its |

| | | |business groups and would provide the greatest number of benefits to the company. In addition to |

| | | |increasing performance and usability for greater employee productivity, Intel expects to decrease its|

| | | |total cost of ownership with Windows 7; the company estimates saving U.S.$11 million over a five-year|

| | | |period. |

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Situation

Intel creates advanced, integrated digital-technology products, including, primarily, integrated circuits. The company was founded in 1968 and had 2008 revenues of U.S.$37.6 billion. Taking giant leaps forward at the silicon level, Intel is developing small, fast, and energy-efficient technologies to help support the next step in mobile, desktop, and data center computing.

The IT organization at Intel is always looking to give the company’s more than 86,000 employees the best possible computing experience, while still driving down costs. The company’s IT environment includes more than 100,000 desktop and portable computers running the Windows XP operating system.

Because of the large number of computers, deploying a new client operating system has major implications both for the company’s business groups and for its IT department. Intel wanted to upgrade its client operating system to take advantage of technological advancements, but it needed to ensure that any upgrade would result in a better user experience for employees, increased employee productivity, lower costs, and a reduced management burden on the company’s IT department.

Solution

When Microsoft began to develop the Windows 7 operating system, Intel identified significant enhancements—in areas such as performance, user interface, and manageability—that could potentially deliver a great deal of value to its work force. When a Beta version became available, Intel undertook a thorough evaluation to determine whether Windows 7 met the needs of its business groups.

To conduct its three-month technical evaluation, the Intel IT department collaborated closely with the company’s business groups and with Microsoft as part of an early adoption program. “Working with Microsoft made it possible for us to perform a detailed early evaluation of the operating system and to provide feedback to Microsoft from the perspective of a large enterprise,” says John Gonzalez, Operating System Product Line Manager for Intel.

Intel IT staff members interviewed business groups to develop a list of their key requirements, which included certain levels of performance, stability, and application readiness. “We discussed the requirements with Microsoft to assess how Microsoft could support them,” recalls Gonzalez. “We then defined tests that we could run to determine how well Windows 7 addressed each specific business group requirement. For example, we tested whether performance and stability with Windows 7 were at least as good as with Windows XP.”

The Intel evaluation included lab tests to measure performance during common Intel user tasks and take note of other performance elements, such as the number of stop errors. Those performance tests took place in an Intel lab and compared Windows 7 with Windows XP SP3 on a portable computer with Intel® vPro™ technology, which is a set of features built into a computer’s motherboard and other hardware and is intended to help businesses gain certain maintenance and servicing advantages and security improvements.

In addition, IT staff tested the new operating system’s power consumption to ensure that it fulfilled the company’s expectation that it use either the same amount or less power than Windows XP. Intel also deployed Windows 7 on the portable computers of 300 users from different Intel groups, including manufacturing, marketing, product groups, human resources, and IT. Later, the IT department surveyed the users to assess their experiences with the new operating system.

Intel also checked the readiness of software applications for Windows 7 to explore whether application compatibility would be a roadblock to Windows 7 adoption. “In most cases, users did not report problems running their existing applications on Windows 7,” says Gonzalez. “We anticipate that many of the applications will not require any changes. Plus, we identified that remediation options and tools—including some based on Intel Virtualization Technology [Intel VT]—are available to handle all foreseeable compatibility issues.”

Finally, Intel conducted a study on the total cost of ownership (TCO) for Windows 7, with a conservative initial analysis to assess the operating system’s potential financial impact on the company.

By the end of its evaluation, Intel had data indicating the degree to which Windows 7 Enterprise supported the company’s business needs. Because Windows 7 met or exceeded the company’s range of requirements, Intel decided to move forward with a full deployment of the operating system. In 2009, the company prepared for deployment by creating a Windows 7 build and by installing the operating system in test labs. Business groups could use these to test applications and perform any necessary remediation prior to the rollout.

Starting in January 2010, Intel began deploying Windows 7 and Intel vPro technology on new computers as part of its established three-year refresh cycle. When computers have Intel vPro technology, IT staff members can take advantage of hardware-assisted security and manageability capabilities to enhance their ability to maintain, manage, and safeguard their business computers.

“The security and manageability features of Windows 7 and Intel vPro technology are complementary, offering additional potential enterprise benefits,” explains Gonzalez. “For example, Windows 7 includes security features for data encryption and application control, which work well with Intel vPro technology security capabilities for secure remote management, isolation of infected PCs, and more effective deployment of updates.”

Intel also plans to use Intel VT together with Microsoft virtualization technology and Windows 7 Enterprise to help ensure that older, potentially incompatible applications can run.

Benefits

Intel found that Windows 7 overwhelmingly satisfied its business needs in each evaluated area and that it provides the company with the ability to improve employee productivity, manageability, and security while delivering IT cost efficiencies. “We determined that we can offer the best performance to users by delivering Windows 7 on new computers with Intel vPro technology,” says Gonzalez. “With Windows 7 and Intel vPro technology, we can maximize user productivity while making the most of the increased energy efficiency, security, and manageability of new PCs.”

Impressive Performance and Stability

In comparing the performance of Windows 7 and Windows XP SP3, Intel established that Windows 7 was more responsive when performing everyday tasks such as starting the computer and launching productivity applications. “We benefitted from the new manageability and tuning capabilities in Windows 7, which are designed to optimize performance,” notes Gonzalez.

Intel also was pleased with the stability of Windows 7. “Even though we were testing an early release of Windows 7, we saw that the operating system was generally more stable than the production release of Windows XP that we currently use, with fewer users experiencing stop errors,” says Gonzalez.

Reduced Power Consumption

Intel discovered that Windows 7 fulfilled the requirement that power consumption should be as good as or better than Windows XP. “In our tests, we saw that the power consumption for portable computers was similar for both operating systems but that Windows 7 also includes new power-management controls with an emphasis on idle power management,” says Gonzalez. “We believe that the reduced power consumption available with Windows 7 will contribute to lower operating costs for Intel.”

The power-management technologies in Windows 7 provide platform and processor efficiencies that reduce power consumption and help lower energy costs. The operating system comes with tools that make it faster and easier for IT departments to resolve issues related to power management.

Lower Total Cost of Ownership

Intel projects that it will save a considerable amount of money by moving to the Windows 7 operating system. “A preliminary conservative TCO analysis of Windows 7 showed potential net present value of $11 million over a five-year refresh cycle,” says Gonzalez. This cost savings is largely driven by lower help-desk costs, due to improved operating system stability and built-in troubleshooting tools that are designed to reduce calls to the help desk. It also includes the cost savings from reduced desktop PC energy consumption.

Positive User Experience

When Intel surveyed the user community that tested Windows 7, feedback was positive. Approximately 97 percent of participants said that they would recommend Windows 7 to their colleagues. The employees reported that the operating system’s most useful feature was the improved user interface, including the Windows Taskbar, which is easier to see, more flexible, and more powerful than before. Users can “pin” favorite programs to the Taskbar for easy access and can more easily rearrange icons by clicking and dragging.

Overall, the Intel users ranked Windows 7 performance as very good. They gave it scores of four or better on a scale of one to five, based on their experiences with multitasking, the Web browser, and the e-mail client, among others. And 90 percent of the Intel users did not encounter any issues that prevented them from accomplishing their daily tasks.

Enhanced Management Capabilities

Intel determined that deploying Windows 7 on new computers that have Intel vPro technology provides the best performance and manageability. Because Windows 7 introduces a number of improvements, the Intel IT department can increase automation and use flexible administrative control to meet compliance requirements. “We saw that Windows 7 includes manageability and security capabilities that strongly complement Intel vPro technology, which we are using to improve PC management across the enterprise,” says Gonzalez.

Windows 7

Works the way you want: Windows 7 will help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to be more productive anywhere. You will be able to support your mobile work force with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies to enhance corporate IT security, data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.

For more information about Windows 7, go to:

windows/windows-7

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|“A preliminary conservative TCO analysis of |

|Windows 7 showed potential net present value |

|of $11 million over a five-year refresh |

|cycle.” |

|John Gonzalez, Operating System Product Line |

|Manager, Intel |

|“We determined that we can offer the best |

|performance to users by delivering Windows 7 |

|on new computers with Intel vPro technology.” |

|John Gonzalez, Operating System Product Line |

|Manager, Intel |

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|Software and Services | |

|Windows 7 | |

|This case study is for informational purposes | |

|only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR| |

|IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. | |

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|Intel, the Intel logo, and Intel vPro are | |

|trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and| |

|other countries. | |

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|u[pic]h·zhëZ©^JDocument published March 2010 | |

For More Information

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|“We saw that Windows 7 includes manageability |

|and security capabilities that strongly |

|complement Intel vPro technology, which we are|

|using to improve PC management across the |

|enterprise.” |

|John Gonzalez, Operating System Product Line |

|Manager, Intel |

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