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Rick Herrmann knows what it means to plan ahead.
Intel’s Americas Public Sector director has spent the last three decades developing innovative products and programs that help agencies solve today’s challenges — while simultaneously preparing them for the future. So, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, paralyzing government agencies with stay-at-home orders and bringing businesses to virtual standstill, Herrmann was already one step ahead, as were many of his customer agencies.
“A lot of us are able to work and operate pretty much as we would otherwise because we’ve got computer power today that makes it possible,” Herrmann says. “We’ve had decades to get to this point. The first teraflops computer [capable of completing a trillion floating-point operations] was in 1996. It was a full computer room and it had 16,000 microprocessors, something like 18 cabinets of its own power infrastructure. Today, all that fits on an Intel® Core™ i9 processor.”
Setting the Groundwork for the Data Economy
Intel, of course, is known for its microprocessors — the company famously released the world’s first microprocessor, Intel 4004, in 1971. But its products and services have since expanded significantly. The ubiquitous “Intel Inside” branding hints at only a few of the more than 200 product lines the company offers, including CPUs and chipsets, accelerators (like FPGAs and VPUs), connectivity products including Ethernet controllers, Wi-Fi and silicon photonics, and memory and storage products, including SSDs and persistent memory.
“We’re in everything that creates, stores, moves or analyzes data,” Herrmann says. “That’s why customers value having the conversations with us – because we’re creating the building blocks of the data economy.”
Those building blocks set the groundwork for cloud computing, and make possible a growing array of technologies, including video conferencing, voice and facial recognition, telemedicine, multifactor authentication and all forms of artificial intelligence. Without Intel, much of the virtual ecosystem would cease to function.
One might say Herrmann and his colleagues are the experts on deploying a remote work infrastructure. After all, they have been working this way for decades.
“We’ve been teleworking from remote locations for 20 years,” Herrmann says. “That’s not new. Very big portions of the Intel workforce are mobile — in fact, more of us are mobile than sit in cubes. But that’s not necessarily the same for many government agencies. We still have customers trying to figure out what remote work infrastructure is necessary. I’m on the phone constantly with our architects and our cyber experts because customers are asking how to architect their remote infrastructure, how to structure their security policies and what tools they should be deploying.”
“We still have customers trying to figure out what remote work infrastructure is necessary. I’m on the phone constantly with our architects and our cyber experts because customers are asking how to architect their remote infrastructure, how to structure their security policies and what tools they should be deploying.”
RICK HERMANN | Director, Americas Public Sector, Intel
Finding Solutions to Government Challenges
Government regulations impose a number of specific conditions and requirements on agency staff, from classification levels to privacy protections. However, the basis of these challenges are the same ones Intel has already tackled across its own workforce. Understanding these hurdles — and having experienced many of them firsthand — empowers Herrmann and his team at Intel to effectively solve them.
When working with government and business customers, Intel aims to solve computing challenges, first building the underlying technology, then providing dozens of hardware and software solutions that leverage that base technology from across its partner ecosystem.
“We have over a broad portfolio of market-ready solutions, built with our ecosystem, where we partner with other companies to solve those challenges,” Herrmann says. “So, when an agency comes to me and says, ‘We want to monitor patients at home,’ or ‘We need to support our scientists working remotely,’ or ‘We need to burst infrastructure to support distance learning,’ we have answers. We can say, ‘Look, here are the solutions that can help achieve your mission.’”
“I think there will be changes in distance learning, too, that are going to stick as a result of the pandemic response,” he says. “We are going to learn so much about working in this digital environment that we will discover ways to be more effective and more efficient. We won’t need to travel, and we may not even want to travel as much anymore.”
RICK HERMANN | Director, Americas Public Sector, Intel
Addressing the Continuity Question
For those designing the information architectures that will power agencies tomorrow — chief information officers, chief information security officers, chief technology officers — these are vital, ongoing conversations. During the COVID-19 crisis, however, they are becoming even more urgent.
In order to ensure continuity of operations in this new operating environment, customers need to rapidly expand network capacity and security monitoring as well as design the right architecture on the fly. It’s quite a tall order.
“They want to know what their risks are. And then, what are their cyber solutions to mitigate those risks?’” Herrmann says. “And you know, some of this won’t be temporary. It will stick. At the end of all this, will we still want to get on an airplane and fly across the country for a face-to-face meeting? Because the technical exchange of information via a high-quality collaboration environment is just as good and just as meaningful — in fact, we’re able to do more of these, more frequently, with higher velocity, if we don’t travel.”
Moreover, Herrmann sees these fundamental changes in the way people work ultimately impacting more than just meetings.
“I think there will be changes in distance learning, too, that are going to stick as a result of the pandemic response,” he says. “We are going to learn so much about working in this digital environment that we will discover ways to be more effective and more efficient. We won’t need to travel, and we may not even want to travel as much anymore.”
“Think about personas…what are the workforce personas and how do you
define them? And, going one step further, how can you fulfill what those roles
need from a technical perspective?”
RICK HERMANN | Director, Americas Public Sector, Intel
Preparing For a New Normal
Understanding these changes and setting the parameters for how to implement them successfully is critical for today’s government organizations. The issue is not just how life changes once things go back to normal. It’s what the new normal is going to look like.
The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic was not over in a single season. It came back in waves. COVID-19 may be the same. Even if offices and school programs reopen this summer and fall, it’s possible things could have to close back up next winter. Establishing a workable infrastructure for extended and continued periods of remote work will be necessary to ensure continuity of operations for more than just a few weeks or months.
This means establishing the standards, tools and best practices that can ensure a sustainable, secure and remote operating environment over time. CTOs, CIOs and CISOs must understand their users and the requirements and limitations inherent to each.
“Think about personas — what are the workforce personas and how do you define them?” Herrmann says. “And, going one step further, how can you fulfill what those roles need from a technical perspective?”
For example, an executive needs all the capabilities of an enterprise environment with secure video collaboration and security measures commensurate with that individual’s high level of access. A student, on the other hand, might need no more than a $300 Chromebook and internet access.
“There are a lot of personas from one end of the spectrum to the other,” Herrmann said. “Defining the differences and the standards for each within an organization is a critical step to defining how that enterprise will support its different kinds of users. At the same time, that’s only part of the issue. There are technical, training and cultural components to enabling remote work in any organization. Together, you use these components to mitigate risk, knowing all the while that you can never erase risk completely. People and technology each have their limitations. So, minimizing risk — not eliminating it entirely — is the objective.”
Smart CISOs and CIOs exercise risk mitigation through training and testing. Internal phishing expeditions, for example, can elevate awareness of the risk among users and identify candidates for further training. Institutional cyber hygiene controls, such as disabling outside links or warning users of potential risk may also help.
“You have to trust users, but you don’t trust blindly. You will always have some
users that are extremely savvy. You will have others who are not.”
RICK HERMANN | Director, Americas Public Sector, Intel
Restructuring for Resilience
In all of this, technology and technical controls are critical, and Hermann and his team are looking to offer solutions that deliver what each individual truly needs to perform at her best. The Intel vPro® Platform combines high-performance and hardware-enhanced security, as well as Intel Active Management Technology, which gives IT departments the necessary tools and controls to more easily and effectively manage and support a remote workforce.
“Intel Active Management Technology provides powerful device management, enabling IT to remotely manage and repair PCs even when the device is powered off or out of band. But it’s just one component of Intel vPro technology Herrmann says. “You also need hardware-based features like Intel Hardware Shield which protects the BIOS from advanced persistent threats and provides more boot and runtime protection.”
Ultimately, CISOs must define acceptable risk and acceptable use policies.
“You have to trust users, but you don’t trust blindly,” Herrmann advises. “You will always have some users that are extremely savvy. You will have others who are not.”
The COVID-19 pandemic was effectively a massive stress test on national resilience. It is not just a healthcare crisis — it’s also a resiliency test for government stability and operational continuity. Simply surviving it is not going to be enough for effective and progressive organizations, Herrmann says. The key going forward will be learning from the crisis so the next time something like this comes along — whether that’s another pandemic or a natural or man-made disaster — the transition will be automatic and unremarkable.
“That’s resilience,” Herrmann says.
Mission Ready: Powering Innovation from Edge to Cloud
Intel’s new resource center provides resources to government decision-makers and helps the public sector make the most of modernization efforts. The resource center is your one-stop-shop for information on the remote workforce, securing the edge, data modernization and offering insights that help you achieve mission success.
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