Mikael asked about which systems are commonly used by Intel employees and if they are Core 2 Duo. Here’s one of the ongoing fun topics in Intel IT. You might think “Hey, they’re Intel! They MAKE the dang chips! Their employees must always have the smokin’est systems money can buy!” Weeeeeellll… maybe not so much…

The cold reality of it is that we have to buy our systems just like everyone else, and that involves lots money. With laptops, for example, we do a Request For Quote (RFQ) every so often to evaluate the different laptop vendors and see what makes sense for our environment. There are a lot of variables in the decision, and while a few are Intel-specific most of them are the same criteria that every other company out uses.

Then we have to determine how often to “refresh” an employee’s laptop. We have about 80,000 of the little fellas deployed across the globe, so trying to turn them over every year just isn’t practical from a budget or operational perspective. We normally shoot for a 3-year refresh cycle, but we are currently operating between 4 and 5 years. Part of the lag is financial and part of it is that we, like much of the planet, is sorting out how to align our PC refresh with deployment plans for that lovely new OS from our casual acquaintances up in Redmond. However, we still have new employees being hired and old systems breaking down, so there are new laptops being deployed daily… and, yes, they are Core 2 Duo.

Of course, not everyone waits patiently for their new system in 3 to 5 years. You have a bunch of people who are testing things like Vista and Apple systems in the environment and need new hardware for it. Then there is the amazing way managers around here always need the latest and greatest systems for their own use, sometimes getting multiple refreshes a year. Other people create support nightmares by refusing to let go of their old system when they think a new model is about to come out because they want the absolute best they can get their hands on. Then there are the wonderful folks who deliberately damage their mid-range systems to try to get a new one. You would not believe how easy it apparently is to run over a laptop with a car these days.

So the truth is we always have some of the most cutting edge systems in our environment, but the vast majority are from 1 to 4 years old waiting for their turn to be renewed. I think that 3 to 4 years is the industry average, but if you have something wildly different I’d love to hear it.

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