dmf:
From the DELL thread:
beta.siliconinvestor.com
INFORMATION WEEK
January 17, 2000, Issue: 769
Section: Cover Story - Intel
Hosting: The New Goal
Paul McDougall
The culmination of Intel's diversification effort is its campaign to become a major provider of hosted applications. In September, the company launched its 500-employee Online Services group-part of a far-reaching strategy that represents Intel's greatest departure yet from its core manufacturing business. Under the plan, Intel will open 12 server farms worldwide by year's end.
The first data center is up and running at Intel's Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters. Intel won't say how many customers it supports, but the center was built to house more than 10,000 servers controlled from a vast, NASA-style command center. Less than one-half of 1% of Intel employees can enter the facility without an escort-a level of security designed to reassure the businesses Intel hopes will trust their operations to its care.
Intel spent $200 million last year to launch the hosting business as a wholly owned subsidiary; it will spend $1 billion to $2 billion more during the next four years to build data centers around the globe, including facilities in Fairfax County, Va.; London; and Tokyo. "I expect this will be a multibillion-dollar business for us eventually," Intel CEO Barrett says.
The centers will be stocked primarily with Intel servers from Dell Computer, but they'll also house servers from rival Sun Microsystems. "Our customers may require Sun," says Michael Aymar, president of Intel Online Services Inc. "The applications they want may only be on that platform, they may have reliability concerns, or they may have a history of working on Sun and that's what they're comfortable with." |
