The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference kicks off July 11, and there should be a lot of chatter about cloud hosting.  Intel will spend considerable time speaking about a Hybrid Cloud Pilot Program that they are going to kick off.

If everything works as like Microsoft wants it to (which it always does 😉 ), the Intel Hybrid Cloud will allow MSPs to provide on-premises servers to end-customers on a pay-as-you-go basis. In some ways, the Intel effort reminds us of Hardware as a Service (HaaS) options promoted by companies like CharTec. Here’s a look at the Intel Hybrid Cloud strategy.

Intel’s Christopher Graham (product marketing engineer, server CPU Channel Marketing) and Josh Hilliker (director of small business initiatives) have been on their soap box in recent weeks evangelizing the Intel Hybid Cloud. That effort will continue at Microsoft WPC, where Intel will demonstrate the solution. The concept is pretty simple: MSPs can deploy a specialized Lenovo ThinkServer TS200V or white box server on a customer premise. The MSPs, in turn, can remotely manage that server. And the server can tap off-premise cloud services, if needed. End customers pay a monthly fee for the total solution.

The solution includes three components:

1. Intel Hybrid Cloud Server Manager: A software application that allows MSPs to remotely monitor and manage the server. We’re double-checking to determine whether Intel developed this software on its own, or if Intel licensed the RMM software from a third-party.
2. Intel Hybrid Cloud Catalog: Initial software options include firewall and unified threat management (UTM); remote management, back-up, disaster recovery and VoIP-PBX functions. Here again, we’re checking to see which third-party software companies are involved in the catalog. Intel also says the catalog will expand over time. Initially, it sounds like the catalog is built atop Windows Server 2008 and Windows Small Business Server 2008 options.
3. Intel Hybrid Cloud Server Options: A Lenovo ThinkServer TS20ov or white box server available in multiple Xeon configurations.

This should help greatly advance Intel cloud servers around the world.  I also think that this should help to even further standardize cloud hosting standards across the board.  I think Microsoft, Google, Rackspace, GoGrid and a few of the other large cloud hosting providers should meet together and find a solution.  It would make it so much easier for the rest of us to follow.