Cybersecurity attacks continue to pose a threat to businesses. According to the World Economic Forum, ransomware attacks increased in 2023. Plus, the rise in AI and mobile devices gives attackers more vectors of approach. Meanwhile, IT teams’ responsibilities of keeping employees’ devices secure are complicated by remote work and expectations on all users to increase their pace and productivity.
Enter Intel, with its years of experience and collaboration with the PC ecosystem across industries. The company has extensive experience in providing hardware that makes day-to-day work easier and improves the health of an organisation’s technology overall. The hardware-based security within the Intel vPro platform can keep enterprise devices safe and ease the burden on overworked IT teams. In addition, the platform ensures the devices used in your organisation are professional grade, enabling remote support and boosting user productivity all within one solution.
Building security into the hardware
Hardware-based security means below-the-OS security, application and data protection. Intel’s Hardware Shield — included in the Intel vPro platform — provides protection at all levels: hardware, BIOS/firmware, hypervisor, virtual machines, operating system and applications. Hardware-based encryption builds defences around every layer on which your business is done.
In addition, hardware-based security means hardware-rooted and hardware-accelerated features for IT and cybersecurity professionals. Intel vPro’s hardware-based security adds features to help protect and manage user access credentials, workspaces, applications and data in hardened enclaves. The Intel vPro platform’s Threat Detection Technology (Intel TDT) has capabilities built into the silicon, particularly to stop ransomware and cryptojacking attacks on Windows-based systems.
The security built into every Intel vPro-powered device resulted in organisations facing about 26% fewer major security breaches compared to non-Intel PCs, according to the “The Business Value of Intel Security for PCs” report published March 2023 from IDC and commissioned by Intel.
Making remote support easier
When it comes to remote workers, Intel vPro has security that benefits your business before corporate security is installed. The Intel Trusted Device Setup stamp of OEM attestation aims to ensure nothing compromises employees’ cybersecurity even as their new device is being shipped to them.
Many office workers, C-level leaders and IT pros (71%) say they prefer to work remotely; however, remote workers’ tech issues are usually more difficult to resolve, which could delay projects and negatively impact a company’s revenue. Intel vPro enables remote management, making it easier for IT to solve problems without physically accessing an employee’s PC.
The platform supports two dedicated remote management capabilities: Intel Active Management Technology (Intel AMT) and Intel Endpoint Management Assistant (Intel EMA). These features can discover, repair and protect PCs across the varied places your employees might work; they even work for devices used in the field or for “headless” devices like smart vending machines or digital billboards.
Simplifying and speeding up remote management helps IT pros in particular; with Intel vPro’s remote device management capabilities for business, the tasks of the IT pro and the employee who filed the ticket can be completed more quickly. These features double the productivity gained. Plus, support costs can be reduced. The benefits and savings are exponential, with each person’s improved productivity in turn benefitting their colleagues.
Upgrading business tech for productivity, security and cost benefits
The latest hardware-based security and device management features/platforms can provide a lot of benefits. For instance, the Intel vPro platform provides a smooth, secure, cost-effective experience to workers and aims to provide a frictionless transition to Windows 11. Combining productivity, security and cost benefits helps employees work more efficiently.
Productivity benefits
With more than 67% better productivity on Intel vPro devices powered by the 13th Gen of Intel Core processors compared to three-year old PCs, upgrading business tech is a matter of doing better work. With improved performance, security, manageability and stability, the Intel vPro platform is a strong foundation for business computing in one all-inclusive package.
Device performance for employees with the Intel vPro platform with 13th Gen Intel Core processors was found to have up to 24% better Windows system performance and up to 23% faster web-browsing performance, according to Intel’s tests.
The Intel vPro platform is optimised for modern computing and can:
- Improve productivity in Office 365.
- Speed up and smooth out video conferencing applications.
- Run video editing software faster.
- Speed up web browsing and AI applications.
- Speed up applications in general.
Security benefits
The platform offers about a 70% attack surface reduction compared to four-year-old devices and virtualisation-based security enabled in Windows. In addition to the hardware-based security benefits above, the platform provides the peace of mind that comes from knowing the hardware is built to protect against modern vulnerabilities.
Cost benefits
Organisations that have upgraded to Intel vPro with 13th Gen Intel Core processors have paid about 22% less in lost productivity, PC security and performance issues compared to non-Intel PCs, according to “The Business Value of Intel Security for PCs” report.
Conclusion
Remote work has become a new normal, and IT departments have pivoted to reflect that new normal in the last four years. Plus, the right technology can make a big difference when it comes to employees’ productivity.
With modern device management and protection from Intel vPro, organisations can benefit from better performance, stability and manageability of their devices, no matter what comes next for their company.
Join the related TechRepublic forum discussions, sponsored by Intel vPro
- How do you currently handle remote management of your company’s devices? What processes are in place to resolve employee device issues?
- Has your organisation done a tech refresh recently? If so, what went well, and what was challenging?
- What features do you look for when purchasing a PC: performance, security features, remote management capabilities or something else?
- Is your workforce utilising AI workloads today? Do you see the use of AI workloads increasing in the future?