Dive Brief:
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Sales of Intel PC chips were down 5% in the last quarter. In response, the company shifting its focus to data center chips, which can be used by businesses to create private clouds.
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Intel is making a number of investments in projects it hopes will simplify the private cloud installation and management process and lead more enterprises to buy private clouds with Intel chips inside.
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Intel introduced Cloud for All earlier this month — an effort to help the average business create its own private cloud. The company said that although many companies would prefer private clouds, they are often too complicated to install and manage. Intel is therefore financing a number of companies and projects designed to make cloud more enterprise-ready.
Dive Insight:
“Our goal is to eliminate these impediments and enable the deployment of tens of thousands of new clouds, both private and public,” said Diane Bryant, Intel's senior vice president and general manager of the company’s data center group.
The company’s strategy takes into account that private clouds require chips. So the more private clouds there are, the more chips Intel can sell.
Matt Eastwood, senior vice president of research firm IDC’s enterprise infrastructure group, said the fact that Intel is getting involved in the private cloud market will certainly accelerate the process, but he warned that international cloud providers like Alibaba are a potential threat.
