Cloud service providers in APAC, Europe and the US have agreed to disclose to customers which of their cloud server instances live on servers with Intel chips.

The marketing campaign through which sees Intel wanting to demonstrate that its technology underpins cloud infrastructure started in September, when Amazon Web Services was first to announce it would brand many of its cloud services with the famous “Intel Inside” logo.

Now another 15 cloud providers from around the world have jumped on the bandwagon including Rackspace and Savvis in the US, Virtustream and Canopy in the UK, CloudWatt in France, KIO Networks in Mexico, Selectel in Russia and many others.

Intel is coming at the announcement from the angle of cloud-provider openness about the nuts and bolts of their infrastructure. Raejeanne Skillern, director of cloud marketing at Intel, says it has generally been hard for users to get this kind of information from cloud providers for a variety of reasons.

Some of them have very heterogeneous environments, and some run very old infrastructure they do not want users to know about, she explained.

Processor type, however, is not the only factor that determines a cloud server's performance. Many other factors, such as network capacity and host-machine utilization level, weigh in.

Whether providers taking part in Intel's cloud branding program disclose the other relevant details to customers will remain up to them, Skillern said. The chip maker's only requirement for using the logo is disclosure of the underlying CPU's type and SKU number.

As part of the initiative, Intel announced Cloud Finder, an online tool that helps users identify the best cloud services for their individual needs. It provides comparison guidance across 50 providers and 80 user requirements.

Once the tool comes online, it will include a “test-drive” feature, which will allow users to test a provider temporarily before purchasing their services. Providing this will be optional for participating cloud firms.