Intel and SAP unite to move enterprises to web

It's time for businesses to finally make the move to web-based services, well after consumers have, according to Intel and SAP.

Announcing the official opening of a joint research lab in Belfast, Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner and head of SAP research Dr. Lutz Heuser, explained why it's time for more web-based systems in enterprises.

"It has not yet arrived at enterprise level, but we predict that it will occur," said Heuser. "Luckily, companies like us have decided four or five years ago to enter what we call service orientated architecture (SOA), which provides us a sound and profound base for such internet services."

Intel's Rattner said that the SAP/Intel lab represented a new way of conducting research, which would help the two companies but also the industry at large, including decision makers such as IT managers, chief information officers and corporate executives.

Much of the research would also focus on cloud computing, which Rattner also said was having a huge impact on consumers and sustainable IT.

"But now the question in everyone's mind is how the cloud is going to affect enterprise computing as we've known and loved it for many years," he said.

"More and more companies, chief executives and chief information officers are going to ask what the cloud will mean to their business," he added. "That's why we thought it was such a great opportunity, given SAP's leadership in enterprise computing, for us to advance the application of cloud services and architecture."

Rattner said that it was also an opportunity to make strides with sustainable IT. "We've continued to reduce the costs of hardware, and so increasingly it's the operating costs that chief executives and chief information officers look at," he added.