By Insight Editor / 11 Jan 2022 / Topics: Hybrid cloud
In the final episode of our three-part series “Ready, Set, Accelerate,” Rhett Livengood, director of digital business enabling at Intel, discusses how Intel helps organizations restructure the hybrid work experience.
As we look toward 2022, Insight and Intel will innovate together with a focus on security, stability, manageability and performance — pillars that enable employees to thrive in their careers while working from anywhere.
Missed the earlier installments of this series? Check them out at: Part 1 and Part 2.
To experience this week’s episode, listen on the player above, watch the conversation below, or scroll down to read a complete transcript. You can also subscribe to Insight TechTalk on Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.
Audio transcript:
Erin
Hello and thank you for joining us today on Insight's Tech Talk. My name is Erin Hazen and I am a Client Solutions Executive here at Insight. In part three of our Tech Talk series with Intel, I am once again thrilled to be joined by Rhett Livengood, Director of Digital Business Enabling at Intel. Thank you so much for being here with us again today, Rhett, to talk about the final phase of our Ready, Set, Accelerate initiative.
Rhett
Hello, it's great to be back and it is hard to believe the year is coming to an end. But yes, yes, there are many things in the works for 2022, so it's going to be exciting to look into the future.
Erin
We're ready. We're ready to accelerate into the future. It's really hard to believe a year went by in a blink, but we're ready for next step. So let's dive right in and talk about that. We know that change happens at a lightning speed in the IT industry. So maybe can you tell us a little bit about how Intel is preparing for the future of IT, and how you're helping organizations accelerate on their own journeys?
Rhett
Yes. Well, Intel has teamed with Insight and Microsoft for 2022. And for you listeners out there, you're going to hear about this Rise to the Challenge campaign, and that rising to the challenge. The challenge is really going to be how do we continue to work in this hybrid world? It's clear that some people will return to work. Some people will never return to work in the office. And some people are going to do hybrid. So how do we restructure your business work experience so you can really contribute and grow in your careers no matter where you're working from? Whether that's from your office, a coffee shop, or even back in the office. And there are some new technologies, and a lot of things we've learned over the last two years, and we're really going to put those technologies to work and really teaming. And I think Insight is really doing some great things by pulling some of us industry partners together like Microsoft and Intel to make those happen for 2022.
Erin
Excellent. It's so good to hear because you're exactly right. You touched on the point that I was just going to mention, which is, this is not going away. This is not a phase, this is not a moment in time. This is the new reality of hybrid workforce. It's here to stay. And I think that that is a really good thing. It's an evolution of how we work and operate together. And I love that organizations like Intel are finding ways to pivot and really transform the options available to organizations. So considering the changes in the environment, how is Intel prepared to tackle those challenges, especially when managing like sometimes really small and sometimes really large PC fleets?
Rhett
Yes. So we've looked at the future and to kind of tackle this problem we've broken things up into four areas. And for those of you, whether you're in IT, or you're a business end-user, you'll recognize these areas. The first one is really around security. We've learned a ton of things about security and really what we're going to try to do as an industry in 2022 is reduce the attack surface. There are so many attacks coming. You read about it online everyday. We have worked very closely with Microsoft and Insight to put together a suite of technologies to help protect the full computing stack. So no matter what security software you use or OS or even cloud-based applications, we're really trying to protect those, not only with software-based security, but also security that is embedded in the hardware, actually in the CPU. So security is one of the big areas you're going to hear more and more about in 2022. Second, stability. It's interesting that nobody thought about our five quarter stability for platform ingredients. Basically, now that people are working from home or from work, the months and quarters go by and all of a sudden you want to get a new PC or maybe something has happened to your PC, and you want a replacement or swap out. And you want to be able to get the PC, know that the hardware and the software and all of the updates have been made. And that guarantee, that stability, I think it's very, very important to have a business office-like experience whether you're actually in the office or working from home or anywhere. So-
Erin
Yeah. That seamless end-user experience is critical.
Rhett
Yes, so-
Erin
Maintaining, yeah.
Rhett
So, and the big news here is we're going to add, in addition to of course support for Windows 10 is also adding Windows 11 as that comes out for business in 2022. The other area that's very exciting for us, the third area is manageability. And there we continue with our Intel end point management assistant. And we have been working closely with Insight, not only on PCs, you know, desktop, notebooks, maybe even use a tablet, but they have been very innovative in their internet of things or embedded systems. So we're going to extend this manageability and security protection and capabilities that you could manage in addition to your PC fleet, also into your embedded products. So as we get into these new internet of things and new devices, these smart devices, we are going to start looking at this, what we call Modern Lifecycle Management as we come into 2022. And then finally, of course, performance. You still want a PC or computing device that gets the job done. We have a new architecture coming out that's going to have a combination of performance cores and efficient cores. So not only will you have performance for the big, hitting hard-charging applications, you'll also have efficiency so you can get all-day battery life, especially if you're working remotely or you are not able to keep your PC plugged in at all times. And especially as we start traveling again, this will become very, very important as we have a new era of cloud-based applications. So security, stability, manageability, and performance. Those four business pillars are where Insight, Intel, and our good partner Microsoft are really going to be spending our time with new innovation as we come into 2022.
Erin
I love this. I love this just because when we go in, we've been able to do some in-office meetings, just a little bit, little sprinklings of them here and there. And our board room table only has limited number of plug-ins. So whoever gets there first gets to have their computer functioning. (Erin laughing) So I love that there's innovation that's allowing that stability to really be there and make sure that our business days are not interrupted or we don't have to flip a coin to see who gets to plug in their computer. (Erin laughing)
Rhett
Yes, yes.
Erin
That's a great recap. Thank you so much, Rhett. I think those are really important focuses for the new year. And maybe just as we gaze into a crystal ball a little bit around 2022 coming, is there anything that you want to share about the Insight and Intel journey? Our concepts, our vision for the new year aligns so well with Insight's vision for 2022 being, be ambitious. And of course Intel's Ready, Set, Accelerate. I feel like those are like a match made in heaven to moving forward into the new year. So talk to me about the Intel-Insight partnership and the future of IT.
Rhett
Yeah. So with the future of IT. So Intel and Insight have done a lot of research during the pandemic and here's what we found. It's kind of interesting, those of you actually watching this recording, we have found out that one of the most useful things when you're on a video call is the ability to mute. Maybe you have a barking dog, maybe you have some young children, maybe you just have noise from the gardener. And being able to do that effortlessly and quickly so you don't interrupt the call is very important. Second, inclusion. How do you continue our progress for inclusion when you might have, very simply, you have some people that are more outspoken, some people that are less. Insight and Intel have teamed with Microsoft. We can monitor who's speaking and who's not. And the meeting monitor can now get an update on perhaps who they should call on who has not contributed to the conversation in a while. So there's some very subtle things that you can pull people in, whether they're perhaps half of your staff is in-person and half the staff is remote. How do you get inclusion from all those people, and use the tools so it's very seamless and very natural? So Insight has some wonderful demo centers and research centers that they've been working with this stuff on, but we're really trying to look at how can you do true hybrid work where you've got people in all kinds of multiple sites and not make it so awkward and cumbersome? So that's two of the areas we're using. There's a third I want to mention right quick, Erin. It's very exciting.
Erin
Of course.
Rhett
One of the things right now, we are on WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E or WiFi 6 Extended, which makes us nice and clear, and the background's nice, my head doesn't look like an egg. You've probably seen these people that have these underpowered PCs and their eyes go away and you don't see them. (Erin laughing) But we are going to add software in 2022 that will automatically prioritize the highest, the most important connection in transfer of data. And it will prioritize that within your PC so you will get the downloads and the uploads very, very quickly, and it will also look at the traffic, the internet traffic on your wireless router, and it will make sure it optimizes and maybe even choose another router if it sees a faster path. And it will do all that automatically. So we've got some great technologies we're working on in the wireless space. Insight's working on this with us, Microsoft and others. And I think this is a very, very exciting area. Again, when we're doing this hybrid or remote work, to be able to really simulate when you're in the office and not have all of a sudden, you get locked up or kicked off your call, just because your team's call was not prioritized. And if we can prioritize that team's call and hold the call and maybe slow down some of the other background tasks, that's what we're talking about doing in the very near future.
Erin
I love this because speaking from, well, I think we all can speak from experience working from home. As soon as my son, whom I love to pieces, would flip on his computer, and his YouTube, and his myriad of devices, everything I did would come to a grinding halt. So I'm really excited to know that there's technology that can actually assess and address those kinds of challenges we're experiencing. Who would've thought that we'd have to have this? But I love the rate in which innovation is happening to address these challenges. Super exciting.
Rhett
Yes. But I think, you know, it's been great to work with Insight. I think they really are being ambitious. And I think really combining what might've been, I used the word siloed types of services, they're now really connecting these together so you can do multiple things. And I think it's really going to resonate as we quote, "Go back to work or go back to the new hybrid world" that we're going to live in here going forward. And it's really going to make a difference for, you know, the average employee is going to be able to do things as simply as we might do Excel or PowerPoint or Word, it'll be just, you know, the team's experience will be just as carefree as we move forward.
Erin
I love it. And I love that we have had the opportunity now to connect over this series of Tech Talks, Rhett. It's been an absolute pleasure and thank you so much for sharing your expertise. I do know truly this is important information that is valuable to all of our collective clients and teammates alike. So thank you again for your time.
Rhett
Yes, it's been great. And you know, to everyone out there, definitely, I wish you a great holiday season. And for 2022, I hope you can rise to the challenge and definitely be ambitious.
Erin
I love it, I love it. Thank you so much, Rhett. And thank you everyone for joining us again today for this really special Tech Talk series. If you'd like to learn more about Intel, of course, please visit us on insight.com where you will find all of this information and more. And I've said it before but make sure you sign up for our Tech Journal, which is a free resource, and that always has a ton of insights into the future of IT for your consumption. My name is Erin and I am grateful as always for your time. And I cannot wait to Tech Talk with you again in 2022. Have a great day.
Director, Digital Business Enabling at Intel
Rhett has a passion for building partner business development teams in an emerging digital economy. He’s a proven leader, having founded three businesses and managed hundreds of employees across marketing, sales and operational teams. He has worked to launch 22 new products over the past 10 years, generating billions of dollars of revenue and enhancing customer relationships.
Client Solutions Executive, Insight
Erin is passionate about supporting clients and helping organizations thrive by leveraging digital transformation. Throughout her career, she’s made it a priority to develop meaningful connections — whether that’s through events, leadership opportunities, marketing initiatives, or connecting over coffee. Erin is an intuitive and attentive leader and collaborator who establishes and fosters trust relationships with clients, teammates, and stakeholders alike.
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