Intel wants to turn PCs into partner data gathers

Chipzilla wants to equip IT vendors and solution providers with advanced capabilities to fix network issues by giving them real-time access to PC connectivity data.

The move would give Intel partners access to Intel Connectivity Analytics, a commercial software service that creates “unique networking and system insights” using driver-level telemetry data captured from Intel Wi-Fi 6 chipsets in laptops and desktops.

Eric McLaughlin, general manager of Intel’s Wireless Solutions Group, said Intel Connectivity Analytics is meant to help partners develop advanced solutions for fixing network issues and improving the end-user experience for PCs in offices, homes and other environments.

“What this analytics capability is supposed to do is help IT managers and service providers understand what’s really happening from the client level all the way to the cloud,” he said.

The real-time insight generated by Intel Connectivity Analytics helps partners deliver solutions around network performance optimisation, dynamic bandwidth adjustment for critical usages, performance monitoring and technical support for client networking, security threat detection and issue resolution as well as asset tracking and facility resource management.

Intel Connectivity Analytics will be available as a software development kit that allows partners to integrate the service’s network insight into their own services and applications.

For partners to turn on the firehose of telemetry data, they will need to load a customer’s fleet of PCs with an Intel Connectivity Analytics application that will require the consent of each user. Partners will not have to rely on stand-alone sensors to capture data throughout a network.

McLaughlin said: “What happens with this is every PC in the environment that has the application installed becomes a sensor. And so from a business model perspective, they have two benefits: They don’t have to put the hardware sensors in, and they have five [times] the sensors that they probably had before, and the data set is way more rich.”

Intel Connectivity Analytics is available for vendors and solution providers, MSPs and other kinds of channel partners. The first two vendors to use Intel Connectivity Analytics through the new program are wireless network optimisation providers Wyebot and Ambeent, who work with MSPs.