The "Intel Inside" trademark that tells PC users their computer is powered by an Intel chip is the inspiration for a new Intel partnership with cloud computing companies. More than a dozen cloud service providers from numerous countries will make it clear that their virtual machines are "Powered by Intel Cloud Technology."

But it's not just a marketing gimmick, according to Intel. The program's guidelines require cloud providers to say exactly which Intel chip is inside the virtual machines and to provide performance statistics, making it easier for customers to determine which will be the most cost-effective.

Amazon was the first in the program last September. New entrants today include Savvis, Rackspace, Expedient, Virtustream, OVH, Selectel, Cloud4com, Canopy, UOL Host, LocaWeb, KIO Networks, NxtGen, and KT.

Conspicuous absences include Google's Compute Engine and Microsoft's Windows Azure. However, Intel estimates that the members (including market leader Amazon) represent $3 billion in annual revenue for more than half the infrastructure-as-a-service market.

Amazon has long been good about informing customers exactly what's inside each cloud virtual machine, but some other cloud companies left something to be desired, Intel Cloud GM Jason Waxman told Ars. In some cases, a virtual machine would just be listed as including a certain number of cores or arbitrarily defined compute units, based on "a benchmark which may or may not mean anything," Waxman said.

Virtual machines qualify for the Intel branding by specifying exactly which processor it uses, that processor's clockspeed, and which Intel features it has. For example, Amazon lets customers know when instances include Turbo Boost or Advanced Vector Extensions, which improve performance, and also when instances include Intel's AES-NI encryption technology. Cloud providers are encouraged but not required to detail the amount of memory and memory speed of an instance.

The extra information may help customers avoid buying the wrong instance. For example, Waxman noted that a customer could buy a less expensive instance, thinking it would be cheaper, but then need more of those instances in order to complete the job and end up spending more money.

"It hasn't been clear what [information] to provide or it hasn't been clear to the user where to go look for that information," Waxman said. "We're trying to make sure all of that becomes more seamless."