When IT managers build a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) plan, chip architecture usually isn't high on their list of considerations. At first glance, it's easy to see why. After all, processors work or they don't – there isn't a lot of support to be done, right?

But there's more here than meets the eye. Thinking about the silicon that powers your supported devices can pay off big, providing better performance, security and manageability. It might even keep your legal department happy. 

Simplicity First

There are plenty of exciting consumer devices to catch your employees' eyes, each with its own combination of processor, operating system and form factor. The task of a BYOD program is not necessarily to support all of them, but to choose the devices that best match customer needs, security concerns, business demands and available resources. 

New devices introduce risk and complexity to every aspect of your ecosystem, from provisioning and training to security and support. The more varied the range of devices you allow, the greater the stress on your operations. The keys to meeting your goals are platform simplicity and consistency. Choosing to minimize deviation simplifies administration and allows IT to leverage as much existing infrastructure as possible. That choice starts with the processor.

The Processor Market

Intel and ARM Holdings are the two primary competitors in the mobile chipset market. Intel's high-performing Core-series processors power the majority of laptops, Ultrabooks and notebooks, and its low-power Atom processors are gaining market share in tablets, smartphones and hybrid devices. ARM-based chips – most commonly found in tablets and smartphones – have recently begun to appear in laptops and hybrid devices.

Intel and ARM take very different approaches to chip production. ARM licenses its designs to semiconductor manufacturers, which then fabricate their own processors based on those designs. This flexibility is attractive to hardware companies, and allows ARM-based chips to power a wide assortment of devices, from appliances to servers.

The downside of that flexibility is inconsistency among ARM-based designs. Samsung and AMD both manufacture ARM-based chips, but their processors are substantially different. Intel follows a different business model, designing and producing all of its own silicon. This approach establishes a baseline across multiple manufacturers. This consistency is the reason Intel-powered Apple MacBooks are capable of running Windows natively, for example. 

Application And OS Support

Businesses run on applications, and processor choice can impact how (or whether) those applications run. The most obvious example is as basic as the operating system itself - most notably in Microsoft Windows.

When it launched Windows 8, Microsoft decided to support ARM-based chips for the first time. Windows RT, an operating system targeted at lower-cost consumer devices, like the Microsoft Surface, is the company's first ARM-based OS.

While RT shares many of the same features as Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro, it is not fully compatible with the entire Windows ecosystem. On its website, Microsoft outlines the major differences between RT and its other operating systems. For a consumer starting from scratch, Windows RT and applications available through the Windows Store may be more than enough. For enteprise IT managers, though, the differences become more troubling.

The most significant IT concern is the lack of support for "legacy" applications. Windows RT simply cannot run applications designed for previous versions of Windows. Depending on your existing investment in Windows apps and their business necessity, this can be an annoyance - or an absolute showstopper.

Other missing features, like Remote Desktop and Domain Join, may be less essential, but still add to the support burden for RT devices and could complicate efforts to create a simple, comprehensive management solution. In an all-Intel, Windows 8 environment, IT managers can leverage time-tested, existing management applications to extend their reach without writing custom software. As soon as one RT device is added to the mix, custom coding is required.

Not all consequences of a heterogeneous environment are technical. Employee-owned devices are already notorious for violating enterprise software licenses. When classes of employee devices come stocked with different software than your other devices, your existing license agreements may not provide coverage. For example, Windows RT comes pre-loaded with Office Home & Student 2013 RT Preview. Unless a business anticipated supporting that device and took the necessary legal steps, using that program in a business setting could violate the software's licensing provisions.

Hardware-Based Assistance

Chipsets rarely fail, for good reason. Once it's pressed and placed into a computer, a processor is essentially untouchable by applications, the operating system, or overzealous users. That's why hardware is the perfect place to store low-level security, management, and networking features.

All Intel processors are built with management in mind, allowing administrators to reach below the operating system level for additional security and accessibility. For example, all current Intel Core processors support remote device locking through Intel Anti-Theft (AT) Technology. Unlike pure software Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions, this approach will work even if a device is corrupted or rooted.

Newer third-generation Intel Core vPro processors (found in newer enterprise and small-business laptops, Ultrabooks and even some tablets) add two-factor PKI-based authentication with Intel Identity Protection Technology, and pre-boot system integrity verification through Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT). By using devices themselves as authentication tokens, IT can remove a layer of complexity and cost created by third-party tokens.

Intel builds on this hardware foundation with tightly integrated software. For example, on the security front, McAfee DeepSAFE leverages vPro's TXT to install security monitoring software below the operating system, while Deep Command provides endpoint management tools for AT and other low-level features.

In some cases, security or management software can run only on complementary processors. In other situations, those processors simply run the software better. For example, Intel has tuned its newer Core processors to support the AES-NI instruction set, which speeds encryption products like McAfee Endpoint Encryption to near real-time. Other compatible systems can certainly run the same program, but processors without AES-NI support could incur up to a 10X slowdown.

The processor is the heart of any device. It may not be the flashiest part of your BYOD strategy, but it's the foundation. A bit of time considering processor choice during your planning phase can save a lot of money and headaches down the road.

Top two images courtesy of Shutterstock.

In 2013, traditional data centers will begin to lose their dominant status within the data-management food chain. They will increasingly be replaced by big-data software and lower-cost, ARM-based systems-on-chips. 

When thinking about the future of data centers, the problem is one of scale. For the past few decades, relational databases and the attendant hardware that runs them have been able to manage pretty much anything a company could throw at them, but those days are coming to an end.

When Relational Ruled The Land

In the beginning, and for the first 20 years or so, data was heavily transactional, and was managed in discrete and very secure ways. Speed was less important than making sure the data was safe as houses.

In the 1990s, data began to be used in a slightly different way, as comapnies placed analytical demands on the data being gathered. Instead of being retreived in discrete packages, data became as a strategic asset to be analyzed, leading to the disciplines of business intelligence. Databases grew into massive data warehouses, and parallel querying arose as the only way to effectively manage the staggering workloads placed on information technology.

Through the early years of electronic data, growth in the volume of data may have been rapid, but data tools and infrastructure were pretty much able to keep pace.

That's not so true anymore. Software soon will not be able to cope with the overwhelming volume of data being generated, says Mike Hoskins, chief technology officer of Pervasive Software. What's coming is a real break in how data is managed.

Breaking The Old Model

To give an idea of what kind of scale we're talking about, Hoskins points to U.S. retailer Wal-Mart's estimated 1-petabyte data store.

"That's the accumulation of 40 years of Wal-Mart sized business," he said. "Facebook? Facebook generates that much data in a week."

There's always a collection of data behind each transaction. But in e-commerce today, a customer can be clicking around quite a bit before buying, which leads to useful data sets tens, hundreds or thousands of times larger than "so-and-so bought widget X with credit card Y." Add the fact that the machines handling these activities are also recording machine-to-machine transactions, and the data workload explodes beyond the capacity of any traditional data center. 

"We are reaching the end of the useful life" of our data centers, Hoskins said. "The bottom line is, it's a death march."

Even if conventional software could manage this explosion, no company could afford it. Not to mention the energy costs invovled in buying, running and cooling the hardware.

Indeed, it is innovation in hardware that's going to provide the evolutionary break that Big Data requires. Servers with ARM-based processors, which absorb something like 20 times less power than Intel-based processors, are the next wave in data center infrastructure. Lower power requirements, after all, mean less resistance and less heat. Less heat means less money wasted on cooling and the ability to compress ARM-based systems closer together.

As energy and general hardware costs coem down, hardware is lined up to take care of the new data workloads of this new massive scale of data.

First Hardware - Then Software

On the software side, Big Data will increasingly be handled by Hadoop systems that can store data and manage and analyze Facebook-scale loads.

If you're wondering why this is supposed to be big news, think about it this way: Relational databases have been handling data of all shapes and sizes for decades, and now there will be a certain level of data that the traditional data center architecture will simply be unable to handle. It's the first stratification of data management. 

On one level of data management, relational databases will still be around, supporting smaller, less complex and more tactical workloads. But on this new level, whole new architectures will be created to deal with this scale.

What's The Data Center Endgame?

This half-way approach is not the end game, though.

Eventually, Hoskins believes, tools will be built into the Hadoop framework that will enable data managers to run applications and analysis right where the data lives, inside the Hadoop clusters.

It's no accident then that the latest iteration of one of Hadoop's core components - MapReduce 2.0, code-named YARN - includes the beginnings of a framework that will let developers build exactly those kinds of tools inside Hadoop. This is something that the VP of Apache Hadoop Arun Murthy confirmed to me early this year at the Strata Conference in Santa Clara, California. When the YARN application framework is robust enough, Hadoop will be able to let developers code those applications.

This will be the new way of working with data as it gets too big for relational databases to handle: a new architecture of low-cost, low-power servers that will keep applications and data as close to each other as possible, in order to maximize efficiency and speed.

"Relational database technology has had a good run," Hoskins said. But the days of the relational database being a part of every data solution are fading fast, as a new kind of data center becomes the new sheriff in town.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

The ReadWrite DeathWatch is known for serving up plenty of doom, gloom and grumpiness. But for the Holiday Season, we're taking a slightly different tack - highlighting companies and technologies that Cheated Death. Companies that might have died, but didn't.

At the plate this week is ARM Holdings, a company that was never going to go out of business, but very well might have settled for a comfortable position in a single market. Instead, it built on the low-power processing that gave it dominion over all things mobile, and now it's poised to attack Intel on the chip giant's own turf.

Where ARM Was

From its founding in 1990, Advanced RISC Machines (later changed to ARM Holdings) was a different kind of processor company. Unlike fellow chip designers IBM and Intel, ARM didn't actually manufacture or sell the chips it created. Instead, like (pre-Nexus) Google and (pre-Surface, pre-XBox) Microsoft, ARM licensed its designs and its relationships with foundries to semiconductor companies. It even

Where ARM Is Now

ARM technology powers more than 90% of cell phones and 80% of digital cameras. It has a less-dominant but still substantial position in embedded devices, such as toasters, TVs, pacemakers and everything else in the Internet Of Things.

And then there are the tablets. The iPad uses an ARM chip. So do the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the Kindle Fire and the Google Nexus. Even Microsoft hedged its bets with the Surface RT, the lower-cost, lower-power sibling to the Intel-based Surface Pro. Theres a war going on, and ARM is selling everyone guns. If a device doesn't have a keyboard, there's probably an ARM design inside.

New Platforms

It's good to be king, but where do you go once you've cornered a market? You find another market. Instead of resting on its laurels and waiting for its lead to erode, ARM has spent the last year recruiting allies that bring the fight to Intel's doorstep.

While the Surface RT got less-than-glowing reviews, Microsoft's tentative support could eventually lead to more head-to-head competition for Windows devices.

There's also been talk of a shift toward ARM-based Macs, though you shouldn't hold your breath. Consumer Macs and Windows PCs are both on the long-term horizon, particularly in the ultraportable market, but power-gulping Intel chips still outperform ARM by a wide margin, and performance is still important for many computing applications. Surprisingly, then, the far more likely near-term expansion for ARM is in the datacenter.

March Of The Wimps

According to a Gartner report, energy accounts for 12% of all datacenter expenditures, and that percentage is growing. Huge arrays of low-power, cooler-running chips are a natural fit, and ARM's minions are rushing to own the microserver market. Samsung has licensed ARM's 64-bit server chip designs for a 2014 release, and struggling AMD is pinning much of its recovery hopes to ARM-based Opteron chips the same year.

Can ARM Stay On Top?

Intel sees the opportunity in mobile and embedded devices, and it haven't conceded anything. It continues to push its low-voltage Atom processors toward those markets, and its 14nm Airmont chip (also scheduled for a 2014 launch) could be very competitive. Intel also claims to be focused on the microserver market, though that may be causing some internal conflict.

One way or another, ARM will likely lose at least some of its mobile and tablet market share to Intel. The question is where. An Apple move on the iPad or iPhone would be surprising, as would a Samsung defection on anything running Android. Intel's immediate fortunes in the space are probably tied to Microsoft, as always.

Meanwhile, any losses ARM suffers to Intel in its core markets should be more than offset by the overall rising tide and ARM's potential to attack Intel's core strengths.

To see more ReadWrite DeathWatches, check out the ReadWrite DeathWatch Series, which collects them all, the most recent first.

According to recent Bloomberg story, Apple is exploring ways to move its line of Mac computers from Intel's x86 processors over to ARM chips.

But such a move would take years and cost billions of dollars - and it's not clear what the company would get for its efforts. What would an ARM-powered Mac offer compared to all the other laptops and desktops in a stagnant market? It might be thinner and lighter, and offer longer battery life, but given all the things that go into making a full-fledged computer, it's not clear how significant any benefits might end up being.

So is Apple really planning on building ARM-powered Macs, or does it have other plans for ARM technology?

ARM On A Mac Is Possible, But…

First off, such a transition is plausible. ARM, the British chipmaker that designs and licenses the processing cores Apple uses in its iPhone and iPad, last month introduced 64-bit versions called the Cortex A57 and A53. A 64-bit core is mandatory for the Mac, in order to support its hefty system memory requirements. Apple has shown with the A6X, the current top-of-the-line ARM chip used in the new iPad, that it has the design chops to build a processor with enough oomph to run a personal computer.

But building a marketable ARM-based Mac involves much more than designing a processor, which experts say would take a couple of years alone. In addition, software development tools would have to be built and applications that run on Intel-based Macs today would have to be rewritten for ARM, all of which would take a few more years.

In the interim, Apple would likely provide emulation technology to run current software on an ARM-based Mac. But after spending billions of dollars to upend the Mac software ecosystem, Apple would not have much more than it already offers.

"If Apple was to make that transition now, it would really, really be on the bleeding edge, and arguably, there wouldn't be anything compelling that Apple could offer in the PC space," warned Shane Rau, analyst for IDC.

So the move away from Intel likely won't happen in the Mac, where Apple currently benefits from Intel's best-in-the-world manufacturing technology that delivers the highest-performing PC processors. Instead, Apple is more likely to continue taking advantage of ARM's superiority in power consumption to create brand new products.

New ARM Products More Likely

Using ARM as the foundation of multiple products would enable a unified experience across the devices, whether it is the long-rumored Apple TV or something else.

A possibility promoted by Forrester Research analyst Frank Gillett is a device he calls a "Frame," a kind of dependent display he discussed in a research report in April.

An ARM-based Frame could communicate directly with an iPad wirelessly, so when one was near, a person's work on the tablet would be automatically displayed on the larger screen. The display would have extra computing power and other sensors that could, for example, enable control through gestures and spoken commands. "What I'm thinking of is a dependent frame which amplifies your iPad rather than substituting for it and synching to it," Gillett told ReadWrite.

Other possibilities could include glass displays similar to what Samsung introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Similar to the transparent displays used by Tom Cruise's character in "The Minority Report," the devices could be another form of a frame.

Apple could also use ARM chips to create voice-operated computers with no visual interface at all. The devices could be multimodal, so tapping a question on your iPhone could lead to having the answer delivered via headphones connected to the computer, Gillett said.

A Fabric Of Stuff?

Overall, a single chip platform opens the door to having many different devices able to communicate seamlessly with each other.

"You start to rethink what a computer is," Gillett said. "We're still in the notion that computing devices are these self-contained things. A smartphone is just a much smaller version of a general-purpose computer. But if you start to scatter sensors around in your space and then network them together, then your various little devices start to become simply an interface into a fabric of stuff."

An Apple game console is another possible ARM device that might integrate well with other products, speculated Jon Peddie, analyst and consultant for Jon Peddie Research.

"I’ve been predicting the next gadget Apple does will be some type of a dedicated or entertainment machine, he said. "And if Apple does it, it will be great. Just as they re-invented the tablet, first introduced in 2000, and the smartphone, they would re-invent the game console."

Lots Of Possibilities

Without inside knowledge of what Apple is planning, the point is that the company is unlikely to waste time and money building ARM-powered for laptops and desktops, because Intel is already doing that incredibly well. (As the Bloomberg article suggests, Apple could be promoting ARM internally to pressure Intel into faster delivery of high-performing chips that consume less power, so they can be used in more devices.)

Apple is more likely to continue developing ARM for new products that reinvent existing markets or launches new ones.

What do you think Apple should be doing ith ARM?

Lead image courtesy of Socram8888.