Intel unveils personal cloud platform for SMBs, consumers
Summary: Intel is diving into the personal cloud storage space with a new Atom-based platform targeted towards both consumers and small businesses. — Rachel King — SAN FRANCISCO — Intel is getting into the personal cloud storage game …
Context & Ripple Effects
Intel's move into personal cloud storage extends a decade-long pattern of pushing Atom beyond its original netbook remit: back in 2007 the company was pitching putting the Internet in your pocket, and in 2009 it tried its hand at an App Store play. The timing matters because Intel confirmed in September 2012 that server giants HP, Dell, and IBM are declining as its top customers, giving the chipmaker a clear incentive to cultivate demand outside traditional PC and server channels.
The announcement also lands mid-sprint for Atom: days earlier Intel unveiled Clover Trail processors promising ARM-like battery life for Windows 8 tablets, with a coming-out party for those tablets attended by HP, Samsung, and other major PC makers set for the following week. The personal cloud platform slots Atom into yet another segment alongside that tablet push, and the story's same-day pickup by PC Magazine and The Inquirer shows the trade press treating it as part of that broader Atom campaign.
First-order effects
- Small businesses and consumers gain an Intel-branded alternative for cloud storage built on low-power Atom silicon, putting the company in direct contact with end users rather than selling only through OEMs.
- The platform gives Atom a third front — after netbooks and the imminent Clover Trail Windows 8 tablets — just as Intel needs new volume outlets for the architecture.
Second-order effects
- PC makers attending Intel's Windows 8 tablet event, including HP and Samsung, face a supplier that is increasingly competing downstream into platforms and services rather than staying a components vendor.
- Storage vendors serving the SMB market must now weigh an entrant whose cost structure is anchored in its own commodity chips rather than in resold hardware.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — App Store in 2009, personal cloud in 2012 — Intel is structurally repositioning from a merchant silicon supplier into a platform company, a shift accelerated by the erosion of its traditional big-server customer base.
- A chipmaker owning the consumer relationship would compress the margin pool available to the OEMs and storage vendors that currently sit between Intel and buyers.
The trend: Intel is systematically extending Atom beyond PCs into adjacent platforms — tablets, app stores, personal cloud — as its legacy server and PC customers shrink in importance.