Hello and welcome to Protocol Enterprise! now: Intel CTO Greg Lavender on reclaiming the mojo and pushing software, a historic quarter for cloud infrastructure companies and a look next week at enterprise tech.
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Only 22% of Microsoft’s Active Directory customers use two-factor authentication to secure their networks, according to the company. Given the spread of ransomware and the growing perception that the two-factor login tool can prevent many of those problems, that’s not good.
Intel’s mojo … rising?
About a year after Intel installed CEO Pat Gelsinger to lead the company’s turnaround, it still has a lot to prove.
Gelsinger has promised to take back Intel’s manufacturing leadership, and part of the strategy involves large capital investments in new factories in Ohio, Arizona and Europe that are taking in huge profits. Another equally important task that Gelsinger began as part of his effort to revitalize the Silicon Valley giant was the re -engineering of the company’s executive leadership, bringing in former VMware executive Greg Lavender as CTO.
In a recent Protocol conversation, Lavender discussed how he and Gelsinger are redefining the role of CTO, the strategy behind Intel’s software efforts and how he approaches management with thousands of technologists. that he is responsible for leadership.
Can you tell us about your role as CTO of a semiconductor company?
Pat gave me two jobs. I have Intel Labs and a bunch of advanced technology development going on. I created a security group that brings together 1,000 security architects, firmware engineers-system people-to perform a hard, cumbersome run on confidential computing. And then I collected another 5,000 software engineers across the Software company [and] Advanced Technology Group, which is everything from BIOS to firmware to compilers, operating systems.
Why did Pat ask you to join Intel? And why did you take the job?
Pat just said, “You’re the right person, at the right time, for this job.” I had to let that sink in a little bit. I have a lot of respect for Pat; I’ve known him for 15 years, since I was at Sun and he was CTO of Intel. Think about it: Intel’s first CTO asked me to be his CTO. It was a real privilege, I felt very flattered by the opportunity. He and I have never failed, nor will we fail at Intel. We will do it great.
What do you plan to contribute to Intel’s turnaround? What can the CTO do?
Let me give you some context. The Intel Developer Forum is the leading technical geek-out event. This is the place where all the coolest technology from Intel, and all their customers, will go. And apparently, Intel lost that mojo. So for me, when I walked in the door, I wondered: How can we get that mojo back?
I’m trying to create a pull function for the software. Right now, we’re pushing a bunch of software: “Speaking of, here it is, I hope you use it.” But you have to be in ecosystems, because for low code/no-code developers it’s all about productivity. They assume that performance is present by the cloud vendor, or whoever writes the infrastructure.
As a relatively new person at Intel, where staff can stay for 10, 15, 20 years, how do you think about running the CTO’s office? Do you have a chief of staff, for example?
I didn’t like the term chief of staff, because I didn’t want a policeman guarding my door. I want to be accessible, and in fact, my staff thinks I’m pretty accessible. As a new leader, it’s important to me that people understand who I am, how I communicate.
I want to spend at least 65% of my day, if not more, with technologists. And the other 25% to 30% of my day, I deal with finance and lawyers. I mean, that’s just part of modern business, isn’t it? My philosophy is that if the “tax” on my time is more than 25%, then I will put more structures in place to deal with it so that it will consume less.
As a computer scientist and not a chip engineer by background, how do you deal with some of the decision -making in the technical complexity of semiconductors?
I’m not a background engineer. I find it fascinating, the level of material science. I studied physics in undergrad, so I had to delete my old textbooks, pick up the latest editions, to read more about semiconductor physics. I will ask everything right because I have a lot of experience. As a professor for 14 years at the University of Texas at Austin, I have supervised numerous undergrad, master’s and Ph.D. students, so I have great courage in teaching people.
– Max A. Cherney (email | kaba)
A MESSAGE FROM DATAIKU
Dataiku is the only AI platform that connects data and makers, allowing anyone to turn data into real business results-from mediocre to lunar. Because AI can do so much, but there is no soul in the machine, just in front of it. If you don’t, it’s just data.
Learn more
It looks like this cloud thing is going to be big
Now that the Big Three cloud company has reported all earnings, Canalys released market share data on Friday showing cloud computing reached a milestone in the fourth quarter.
Companies around the world spent $ 53.5 billion on cloud infrastructure services in the fourth quarter of 2021, the first time that number has reached more than $ 50 billion. That was a 34% increase compared to the same period in 2020, a point in time at which it became very clear that the pandemic would last for a while.
AWS, Microsoft and Google account for 64% of global spending on cloud infrastructure and platform services, and almost hold the same market-share positions they have over the past few years. One interesting news: Canalys estimates that Google Cloud’s infrastructure division, which includes its workspace productivity software suite in overall financial reporting, has grown 63%, faster than AWS and Microsoft Azure.
– Tom Krazit (email | kaba)
Coming next week
Don’t miss the Protocol CIO event next Tuesday at 10 am PT. Protocol’s Tom Krazit will discuss the CIO’s role change with four impressive IT leaders: Rob Carter, CIO, FedEx; Chris Bedi, CIO, ServiceNow; Sheila Jordan, Chief Digital Technology Officer, Honeywell; and Vittorio Cretella, CIO Procter & Gamble. RSVP here.
More revenue calls is ahead next week, with Cloudflare, GlobalFoundries, Twilio and others sharing results from the previous quarter:
GlobalFoundries will share fourth quarter results on Tuesday at 1:30 pm PT.
Nuance will show financial results on Tuesday at 2:00 pm PT.
Twilio will announce fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday at 2:00 pm PT.
Datadog will show earnings on Thursday at 5:00 am PT.
Cloudflare will announce earnings on Thursday at 2:00 pm PT.
Around the enterprise
AWS will plow some of the proceeds from the big revenue jump in its fourth quarter with more computing capacity, CFO Brian Olsavsky said in a call on its revenues, which also mentioned that approximately 40% of the company’s total spending goes to “feeding AWS.”
It’s not clear if Google Cloud will be available return to personal conferences this October after two years of holding virtual cloud conferences thanks to the pandemic.
A MESSAGE FROM DATAIKU
Dataiku is the only AI platform that connects data and makers, allowing anyone to turn data into real business results-from mediocre to lunar. Because AI can do so much, but there is no soul in the machine, just in front of it. If you don’t, it’s just data.
Learn more
Thanks for reading – see you Monday!
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