Intel's Embedded IT (EIT) strategy focuses on defining a set of usages aimed at benefiting IT departments and home PC customer support by providing advanced and remote capabilities for provisioning, manageability, diagnostics, and remediation of the client (desktop and mobile) platform. EIT leverages key platform technologies supported on Intel® vPro™ technology platforms and select digital home platforms, including Intel® Virtualization TechnologyΔ (VT), Intel® Active Management Technology⁺ (AMT), and dual-core processors to deliver an innovative framework on which these capabilities may be implemented and enhanced.

One of these EIT usages enabled through the use of Intel VT is the Client Isolation and Recovery (CIR) usage model that emphasizes isolating manageability and security services in a virtual manageability appliance. IT departments benefit from this ability to isolate key services from end-user access while still maintaining the same level of flexibility and performance for end-user services. Additionally, the strategy anticipates that the manageability appliance will provide a rich environment for innovation for software vendors. The CIR usage model provides the ability to remotely manage the client PC during times when the primary operating environment is unavailable.

The other key usage models defined by EIT include Embedded PC Health, End-point Access Control, Outbreak Containment, and Agent Integrity and Assurance. The capabilities of these models are enhanced by the presence of Intel VT via isolation of the execution environments required by the IT manager compared to those exposed to the end user. In this paper we discuss how Intel VT enables a virtualized environment for a host of provisioning manageability and diagnostic applications for the IT professional.