From Intel’s Journey Through The Cloud to McAfee Intel Joint Announcements at Focus 11 Las Vegas

My two last weeks were packed and guess what, so are the next two. Before leaving for McAfee Focus Las Vegas, our annual flagship partner and customer event, I was honoured to be invited by Intel in Paris to present at their EMEA Executive Summit.  And to say Paris is a fantastic location is an understatement.

Cloud Computing was the central theme of this year’s two day summit. We talked at length about the important changes our ecosystem is undergoing, from client side up to the datacenter, “the renaissance” of the PC on one hand and the transformation of the data center on the other, and of course underpinned by the imperative need to operate in a safe and secured environment.  

The hunger for computing is enormous with customers confirming this. The exponential growth of data brings a series of tremendous challenges such as energy, complexity and of course security.  Organizations are crying out for more computing power, more energy and therefore efficient IT and of course security  to protect their  most precious asset, information.

The PC market is at the tipping point of reinvention. This accompanies the consumerization of IT which is rapidly evolving with tablets, smart phones and relentless innovation of intelligent clients and devices.

It was my great pleasure to deliver a presentation explaining how organizations can secure their cloud infrastructure and services. It definitely appeared to be the “Aha” moment for the audience with the realization of why Intel acquired McAfee.

As a McAfee employee, I was impressed by the warm welcome, kindness, willingness to engage, and the high level of knowledge and expertise of the Intel leadership team in EMEA. This analogy might have been used a lot, even misused, but in this case it is absolutely relevant; I really had that feeling of being part of a great family.

The first day concluded with an exceptionally delicious dinner at Ledoyen, one of Paris’ finest gourmet restaurants.

Therefore, I would like to extend my thanks to Christian Morales, Intel Vice President, General Manager, EMEA and Bernadette Andrietti Intel Director, European Region for extending this incredible opportunity to be part of this fantastic event.

I was a little frustrated as I could only mention the McAfee / Intel joint security technology DeepSAFE announced by Paul Otellini Intel’s CEO at the Intel Development Forum. I was impatient; I knew there more was to come at McAfee Focus Las Vegas.

And it was worth waiting! First of all, as you know Las Vegas is one of the most surreal places on the planet. One can say “Only In Vegas”. If you have not been yet, I highly recommend that you do  and the ideal opportunity would be  joining us at the next McAfee Focus in 2012. The venue of the conference was the Palazzo-Venetian, one of the most prestigious hotels.  We kicked off with a special event dedicated to our partners.

Renée James , SVP Intel Software came to talk to our partners and C-Level customers. Renee explained very clearly Intel’s global strategy with their three key pillars: Power efficient performance, Internet Connectivity and Security, McAfee’s solution being that strategic third pillar. We announced two major products based on DeepSAFE: Deep Defender and Deep Command. To me, this innovation is a game changing paradigm : Intel and McAfee are releasing the first industry hardware assisted security platform providing active Security management and end point security beyond the OS.

McAfee Focus Las Vegas was so rich that one post is not enough. I will be back very soon to share with you additional information about keynotes, customers and partners feedback.

Tags: EMEA, FOCUS 2011, IDF 2011, intel, McAfee FOCUS

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