XChange 2014: Intel Touts Latest Developments With VAR Opportunities

Harping on the opportunities that are aplenty between Intel and solution providers who join it, the company's North American Channels Director Todd Garrigues spoke of the latest products and innovations he said will revitalize the market from work to play at XChange 2014.

In a keynote address in San Antonio, Garrigues said Monday GDP growth is on the rise globally, and experience shows IT spending is directly linked to that. With that, Garrigues encouraged VARs to think about Intel's new products they could add to their lineup, including facial recognition technology and products for logging on to a computer without ever touching it.

"What if I told you a few years from now you'll never use a password to log into your PC?" he asked, as hundreds applauded. "What if I told you that capability exists today?"

[Related: Haswell vs. Broadwell: Is It Worth The Wait? ]

At XChange's exhibition, Garrigues showed CRN Intel's new RealSense 3-D camera, set to be released in the fall. The new product was embedded in a portable all-in-one device that has yet to come out publicly.

Garrigues said the opportunities for VARs to capitalize on this development and pitch it to their customers are endless.

He also touted Intel's new Retail Client Manager, which uses a camera to recognize and distinguish whether viewers watching a screen are male or female. He explained how retailers can use the technology in, for example, Nordstrom, to run products for men, women or both, depending on who is watching the screen at that time. The system on display could also track viewers' eyes and calculate when they no longer were watching the screen.

"For resellers, a local retailer may need this solution, and they can work together on that," Garrigues explained.

"This is a multibillion-dollar opportunity in North America alone," he said.

NEXT: VARs Weigh In On What Intel Has Available To Them

Garrigues spoke about the support solution providers get from Intel, as well as benefits from a points system he said Intel has doubled in the last two years to a multimillion-dollar investment.

Paul Gaughan, senior technical consultant at Bingham Farms, Mich.-based QualiTech, said his business has been an Intel partner for several years. He said sales continue to grow at his $1million to $2 million company, and he was pleased to hear of new developments from Intel already.

"They've got good products and we get excellent support," he said. "They're still innovating."

UTC Associates CEO Aziz Ahmad said, following the Intel presentation at XChange, that he was considering partnering with Intel through his New York-based company, which services Fortune 1000 clients. Ahmad said his customers are looking to go more mobile and Intel has the offerings to match those needs.

"Especially no password and the facial recognition developments -- that's something that would be really useful for us going forward," Ahmad said.

Garrigues said further modification of wireless docking and charging, as well as seamless videoconferencing in a workplace setting, are all on the path to becoming fully developed at Intel. He also talked about the Broadwell chip, which just came out on the market based on the same Intel Core technology, though it draws less than 10 watts of power -- significantly less than that of the 4th-generation Cores used by the Surface 3.

Intel also is reinventing its notebook, tablet and desktop products. VARs across XChange have reported desktop sales continue to do well in spite of the original belief sales would drop and the tool would fade away. Garrigues said Intel's security products continue to be developed following the $7.68 billion acquisition of the former McAfee security leader.

For the future, Garrigues said he sees spending growth going up 5.5 percent in 2016 for small businesses, and spending in 2014 for data center software and services to grow by 30 percent to $14 billion. For the "Internet of Things," there are 200 billion connected devices and $8.9 trillion expected to be available in revenue by 2020, he said.

"You get our expertise. We have the training and resources available, and the awareness of what's coming next," he told VARs, regarding partnering with Intel. "Everyone in this room is certainly of the status and size to get support from Intel. …So, join, grow. Be rewarded."

PUBLISHED AUG. 19, 2014