US tech giant Intel has acquired Israeli software optimisation startup Granulate, hoping its tech will help data centre customers optimise their workloads in a deal rumoured to have cost around €650 million.
Intel logo. Credit: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock
Credit: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock
The startup, which was founded in 2018, has seen significant investment since its establishment and Intel claims it could stand to significantly increase return on investment (ROI) for its cloud and data services.
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“Today’s cloud and data centre customers demand scalable, high-performance software to make the most of their hardware deployments,” said Sandra Rivera, executive vice president and general manager of the Datacenter and AI Group at Intel.
“Granulate’s tech can be applied to production workloads without requiring the customer to make changes to its code, driving optimized hardware and software value for every cloud and data centre customer.”
All 120 of Granulate's employees are expected to be transferred to Intel's AI and data centre once the deal is completed later this year.
Intel is hoping to build up a portfolio of software optimisation tools in a bid to meet its customer's demands without any hitches. The two companies have been working together since around 2019 after Granulate won out in Intel's Ignite programme.
Data optimisation, in essence, filters out any extraneous, redundant or corrupt data within a system or any other kinds of anomalies that make it difficult to access critical information.
It can reduce or nullify delays and confusion within transactions and make the entire process smoother, or allow for potential issues to be highlighted quickly.
For companies like Intel, it allows them to optimise customers' systems. Newer hardware often has more complex issues that cannot be solved easily without filtering any potential issues and tackling the problem at its source.
On the other side of the spectrum, those using older systems will not have up-to-date applications or operating systems which could also cause problems and software such as Granular's could aid in knowing exactly what to update and how best to do it.
This will also help reduce any delays for compute clusters - different systems working together - and allows for greater data transfer between systems.
Granulate's software specifically targets CPU utilisation and application latencies - how fast the computer's processor can load data or an app.
The firm claims it "does not require developer intervention nor does it require the customer to make changes to its own code" and works even on outdated versions of less popular operating systems such as Linux.
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“Together with Intel, we believe we can help customers achieve meaningful cost reductions and five times the throughput across workloads,” said Asaf Ezra, co-founder and CEO of Granulate.
“As a part of Intel, Granulate will be able to deliver autonomous optimization capabilities to even more customers globally and rapidly expand its offering with the help of Intel’s 19,000 software engineers.”
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