|
Intel
has its mind set on nurturing ecosystems, because it
believes that's the path to driving wider adoption of
Intel architecture in enterprises. It will use a set
of Solution Blueprints to achieve this. by Brian Pereira
 |
| "We
are bringing together hardware players, service
providers and ISVs to deliver an end-to-end solution,”
says Robin Seiler. |
In
the 70s, 80s and early 90s, Intel was perceived as a
hardware company with specialization in semiconductor
manufacturing. Its flagship products continue to be
PC microprocessors, chipsets, motherboards and networking
connectivity solutions. But these days Intel isn't thinking
only about how to up the gigahertz on its next Pentium
processor, or about increasing the number of business
applications available for its 64-bit Itanium processor.
The company is also dead serious about helping solve
business problems. And it plans to do this by nurturing
ecosystems using a set of Solution Blueprints. In fact,
some of the first blueprints are developed in tandem
with Indian companies. Towards the same goal, Intel
also partnered with HP and Microsoft to launch an initiative
called Keystone (See Box).
Robin Seiler, Intel's Asia Pacific Regional Manager,
Business Solutions Program, said Intel would initially
focus on five verticals: FSI (Finance, Securities and
Insurance), Telco, Manufacturing, Energy, and Government
& Education.
"Each of these verticals has some very specific
solutions of their own. But all of these verticals sit
on a set of solutions. And they are provided by a set
of ecosystem players (like TCS, IBM Global Services,
Accenture), who deliver a specific solution. But all
of it sits on top of Intel Architecture," says
Seiler.
Seiler informs that Intel has been trying to foster
ecosystems for verticals long before the Keystone initiative
was announced (early this year).
"We are bringing together hardware players, service
providers and ISVs to deliver an end-to-end solution.
We have 50,000 active channel members, 1,800 system
integrators, 1,500 computer companies, and 400 ISVs
worldwide. The end result is we have G1000 companies
such as Alcatel, Telefonica, Shell and Reuters, who
are running mission critical environments on Intel Architecture
today."
| How
Keystone Works |
|
Basically,
the Keystone alliance looks at a financial services
company and breaks down the business components.
It then slots in solutions and solutions providers
for each of these.
Keystone aims to accelerate the adoption of Intel
Architecture-based systems and solutions in the
highly-specialized financial industry by providing
a customized program of information and services.
They include:
-
Solution Centers: Customer access to infrastructure,
porting, optimizing and training in more than
ten solution centers in key Asian cities.
-
Proof Points: A proprietary database of performance
benchmarking data, insightful end-user customer
testimonials and reference sites.
-
Choice of Solutions: An expanding range of carefully
selected, pre-optimized and validated solutions
from Keystone alliance ISVs.
-
Consultancy: Extensive consulting services from
all three companies to cover planning, testing
and implementation phases.
|
BLUEPRINTS
Intel's weapon to accelerate this is Solution Blueprints.
According to the company, a Blueprint documents proven
enterprise solutions for Intel-based servers that have
been tested or previously deployed for a specific business
need, with a commitment by hardware, software, and solution
integrators to make the solution easy and simple to
redeploy for other business environments.
Intel Solution Blueprints specify business needs, solution
benefits, and deployment guidelines, including recommendations
for specific processors, such as the Intel Xeon and
Intel Itanium processor families.
For instance, a solution blueprint for the manufacturing
vertical details how a high-performance computing solution
is used to optimize product design. And this could be
applied to the manufacture of airplanes, cars and white
goods. It talks about the business challenge, the technology
solution and the appropriate enterprise hardware platform.
"A company may take a blueprint and change vendors,
but what matters is the establishment of the standard,"
says Seiler. "Every vertical will have some functions
that are common/horizontal across all verticals—take
e-mail for instance. We have established blueprints
for that type of solution—for all verticals."
For the vertical specific solutions, (like product design
in airline manufacturing), manufacturing will have its
own set of specific blueprints around the software solutions
that are centered on manufacturing.
Most Solution Blueprints target vertical industries
such as financial services, manufacturing, energy, retail,
government, telecommunications and digital media, addressing
the unique performance and services each require. Ultimately,
Intel expects to publish hundreds of Solution Blueprints,
which will be serviced through a variety of system integrators.
Before a blueprint is crafted, it is tested and tuned
at a solution provider's facilities or in one of dozens
of worldwide Intel e-Business labs co-located at OEM
and solution integrator sites. Additional stress testing
and tuning can be provided via 16 Intel Solution Centers
or on-site services. The actual solutions
are sold from system integrators. The Intel Solution
Blueprints are free of charge and can be found online
at www.intel.com/go/solutionblueprints.
| Blueprints
from India |
|
Indian
companies such as Financial Technologies, i-flex
Solutions, Infosys Technologies, Elind Computers
and Talisma Technologies are among the first companies
worldwide to publish blueprints.
-
Financial Technologies worked with Intel to
develop a blueprint for its MATCH integrated
backoffice processing solution, to deliver Straight
Through Processing (STP) capabilities for the
global securities industry. Built on a modular,
client-server architecture, the solution employs
XML to speed deployment and enable maximum flexibility
by shortening transaction cycles and improving
financial risk management.
-
i-flex, Intel and Compaq have documented the
FLEXCUBE solution, which provides a backoffice
processing environment for corporate, retail,
and investment banking operations with a highly
flexible and scalable modular architecture.
FLEXCUBE has more than 100 customers worldwide,
and can handle collective transaction loads
of 3,000 branches and 20 million customer accounts
without performance bottlenecks or system lapses.
-
Infosys Technologies, together with Intel, developed
a blueprint for its Finacle eChannels and Finacle
eCorporate solutions, which provide an integrated
online banking solution for retail and corporate
customers of banks, with a high degree of customer
services personalization. Built on a distributed,
multi-tiered and component-based solution that
offers a high degree of modularity, the solution
is available on the open industry standard platforms
.NET and J2EE.
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Talisma Technologies worked with Intel to outline
a blueprint for its Talisma e-CRM solution,
an e-CRM architecture that facilitates centralized
data updating and provides fast response on
desktop systems or mobile access channels. Talisma's
solution offers Web, LAN, mobile and wireless
client applications for use by the entire organization,
and uses XML and Light ActiveX controls for
lightweight implementation. All data and programs
reside at the server end, allowing the client
end to deliver high performance.
-
Elind Computers collaborated with Intel to develop
blueprints for its STRIDE and TradePort solutions.
STRIDE is a comprehensive electronic marketplace
solution that automates the trading environment
of traditional, alternative and internal marketplaces.
TradePort is a complete order management solution
that automates the front and middle office operations
of brokerage houses. It is a multi-exchange
order routing system with integrated order level
risk management and surveillance that enables
brokerage houses to participate in global markets
and to serve international clientele. Designed
on integrated modular architectures in which
each sub-system can run independently in a distributed
environment and perform specific functionalities,
the solutions provide high availability, scalability
and interoperability.
|
Brian
Pereira can be reached at brianp@networkmagazineindia.com
|
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