• The Preventative Security Model – IGEL’s strategic framework aligning endpoint, security, and operational strategies.
• The Preventative Security Architecture – The hardened design foundation that removes attack vectors by default.

Now, in Part 3, we turn to how these ideas come alive at the edge — with the Adaptive Secure Desktop.

This isn’t a desktop in the traditional sense. It’s a role-based workspace delivery model — one that flexes to meet the needs of every user, while enforcing the principles of failsafe security.

It’s where strategy and execution meet the end user.

A Workspace That Adapts to Context

Modern work is dynamic. Users aren’t always in the office. Roles change. Risk levels shift. Yet most organizations still deliver the same desktop to everyone — and secure it the same way, too.

The Adaptive Secure Desktop flips that.

Instead of a one-size-fits-all OS, it delivers a context-aware workspace.

• Clinician in a hospital? Instant badge-tap access to virtual desktops with no local data.

• Retail associate at a kiosk? Locked-down browser mode tied to a single SaaS platform.
• Remote knowledge worker? Full desktop experience via DaaS, with security layered in via SASE and IAM controls.
• Contractor or M&A user? Temporary, policy-bound workspace spun up with limited permissions and app access.

The workspace changes based on who the user is, where they are, what device they’re using, and what risk profile applies — all orchestrated through IGEL OS and UMS.

Enforced by Architecture, Not Just Policy

What makes the Adaptive Secure Desktop different from traditional workspace delivery?

It’s not just a VDI session. It’s not just app publishing. It’s a security-first execution model, enforced at the OS level:

• Read-only system image: No tampering, no malware persistence.
• No local data: All access is to virtual or cloud-hosted resources.
• Hardware-rooted trust: Every boot verified, every component signed.
• USB controls and isolation: Based on role and context — not static policies.
• Dynamic access methods: Delivered based on persona — DaaS, SaaS, local apps, browsers.

And all of this is centrally managed through IGEL Universal Management Suite, giving IT full control without needing to touch the endpoint directly.

Zero Trust, Realized at the Edge

The Adaptive Secure Desktop is where IGEL’s Preventative Security Model meets Zero Trust execution.

• Every session is authenticated
• Every endpoint is validated
• Every action is governed by context

It allows customers to enforce their own Zero Trust policies — not just by integrating with IAM and SASE platforms, but by ensuring that every endpoint behaves as if it can’t be trusted until proven otherwise.

Consistency Without Complexity

From a single platform, organizations can:

• Support frontline, knowledge, and temporary users with precision.
• Deliver fast, reliable access to virtual or cloud apps — without compromising security.
• Scale globally with consistent policies, minimal overhead, and no reliance on constant patching or imaging.

It’s a future-proof foundation — built not just for what users need today, but for how work will evolve next.

The Takeaway

The Adaptive Secure Desktop is the practical delivery layer of IGEL’s Preventative Security vision. It translates strategic alignment and hardened architecture into a secure, streamlined, and personalized user experience.

This is where compliance, control, and creativity coexist. And it’s available now — through IGEL, through our ecosystem of IGEL Ready partners, and most importantly, through your own enterprise security and workspace vision.

Because transformation isn’t something you wait for. It’s something you deliver — securely, simply, and at scale.

For more information on the Preventative Security Architecture, the Preventative Security Model, and the Adaptive Secure Desktop, please submit the form below.

The post One Workspace, Every User – The Power of the Adaptive Secure Desktop™ appeared first on IGEL.

This needs to be the era of designing for failsafe.

Instead of relying on detection and remediation, the endpoint must be built to resist compromise — integrated, intelligent, and inherently resilient. IGEL’s Preventative Security Model is the strategic foundation for that shift.

This blog series unpacks the full scope of IGEL’s security and workspace transformation strategy in three parts:

1. Preventative Security Model – IGEL’s unifying framework that aligns application access, security, and hardware strategy.
2. Preventative Security Architecture – The enforcement layer that operationalizes failsafe and becomes your organizations Preventative Security Architecture.
3. Adaptive Secure Desktop – A curated on-demand workspace that meets every user, role, and risk profile.

The Preventative Security Model

The Preventative Security Model (PSM) is IGEL’s approach to unifying modern endpoint strategies. It’s not an agent. It’s not a policy engine. It’s a philosophy — one that repositions the endpoint from a reactive risk surface to a strategic control layer.

And it’s built for a world that looks very different than it did five years ago.

The Endpoint Has Shifted — So Must Our Strategy

Enterprise computing has moved. Workloads have left the endpoint. SaaS, DaaS, and enterprise browsers now carry the weight of productivity. Users roam. Devices are fluid. Data must stay protected — without relying on where it physically lives.

IGEL is the constant in that transition. Both now and next.

The Preventative Security Model provides the framework that connects:

• Application access: Whether delivering full desktops, browser-based tools, native Linux apps, Progressive Web Apps, hybrid SaaS, or even Windows workloads, PSM enables five flexible delivery models — each tailored to user’s needs and risk posture.
• Zero Trust strategy: Zero Trust is a security model that assumes no user or device is inherently trusted and requires continuous verification of identity, context, and access for every interaction within a network. Zero Trust isn’t a product. You don’t buy Zero Trust from a single company. PSM integrates deeply with leading IAM, UEM, SASE, and SaaS vendors to enforce Zero Trust principles from the device outward for secure information access.
• Endpoint sustainability: With endpoints no longer requiring three-to-five-year hardware refreshes due to the simplified workloads, PSM supports long-term device reuse — particularly relevant as organizations scramble to meet Windows 10 EOL activities and deadlines, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive(CSRD), and Environmental, Social and Governance targets (ESG)
• Operational flexibility: From remote onboarding to rapid reconfiguration during M&A, PSM provides the consistency needed to adapt at speed.

IGEL Ready – The Force Multiplier for the Preventative Security Model

PSM is powered by the IGEL Ready ecosystem — a diverse and growing network of partners across security, identity, peripherals, communications, and hardware. These aren’t just integrations. They’re certified relationships that extend IGEL’s strategy into enterprise environments at scale.

Through IGEL Ready, PSM supports:

• HP, LG, Lenovo, and other leading OEMs to ensure secure, performant hardware compatibility.
• Identity platforms like Microsoft’s EntraID, Omnissa Workspace ONE Access, Imprivata, Okta and Ping for integrated SSO and MFA.
• Security vendors including Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks, and Netskope for Zero Trust and SSE enforcement.
• Peripheral support for clinical, financial, manufacturing, government and retail workflows — including smartcards, speech mics, OT equipment, barcode scanners, document scanners and signature pads to name only a few.

Together, this ecosystem ensures that IGEL endpoints can sit at the centre of a modern, multi-vendor Zero Trust strategy — without friction, without fragility.

Strategic Outcomes Delivered

The Preventative Security Model is not just about securing endpoints. It’s about enabling enterprise transformation. Across industries, PSM is already delivering impact:

• Business Continuity: Fast recovery of compromised traditional endpoints utilizing the in-place hardware
• M&A acceleration: Standardize and secure diverse endpoint fleets across acquired orgs without rip-and-replace.
• Windows 11 readiness: Shift Windows to the cloud, maintain existing hardware, and simplify support.
• Sustainability, CSRD and ESG: Extend endpoint lifespan, reduce e-waste, and align IT with carbon reduction targets.
• Zero Trust execution: Connect policy enforcement from identity to device, in real time, at scale.

Where traditional endpoint stacks are reactive and bloated, PSM is lightweight, adaptive, and policy-aligned — a failsafe foundation for the cloud-first enterprise.

Next up: Preventative Security Architecture, where we explore how IGEL OS eliminates attack vectors and enforces failsafe security by design.

The post Rethinking Endpoint Strategy with IGEL appeared first on IGEL.

We all know how crucial it is for clinical staff to access applications quickly and securely. Many healthcare organizations today are focused on centralizing their endpoint infrastructure through the adoption of Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and enterprise browser-based applications.

These organizations want easy access to essential applications without compromising security, productivity, or patient care quality. And they need more flexible and adaptable workflows as they transition applications like electronic health records (EHRs) to the cloud.

Effortless, secure, and convenient

Enter IGEL, Imprivata and Omnissa – partners in innovation, providing a robust solution designed specifically for healthcare environments.

By integrating IGEL OS with Imprivata through the IGEL Agent for Imprivata, healthcare organizations can utilize No Click Access^TM  to their Omnissa Horizon® desktops or apps. This streamlined authentication process leverages proximity card technology, allowing clinicians to access their virtual desktops and applications with a simple badge tap.

This integration not only helps to shorten login times but also bolsters compliance with important security regulations, like HIPAA and GDPR. As a result, healthcare professionals can spend more time focusing on patient care, which directly enhances service delivery and leads to better patient outcomes.

Moreover, the collaboration between IGEL, Imprivata, and Omnissa offers additional valuable benefits. By combining the Omnissa Horizon platform with IGEL OS, healthcare organizations can enhance workflow efficiency and security. This powerful combination facilitates rapid, secure access to patient data and clinical applications from any device, enabling seamless roaming clinical workflows essential in both inpatient and ambulatory services settings.

Safeguard data, improve efficiency, reduce complexity, and costs

Traditional methods of detection, assessment, and remediation are not effective. Instead, healthcare organizations must prioritize preventive security measures.

IGEL’s Preventive Security Model minimizes the risk of data breaches and supports Zero Trust initiatives by ensuring sensitive information is not stored on the endpoint. This isolation and centralized user profile management through Omnissa Horizon greatly enhances organizations’ security posture, which is crucial given today’s serious data breach concerns.

Furthermore, the lightweight and efficient nature of IGEL’s secure OS platform allows healthcare providers to utilize laptops, thin clients, and even zero clients without the burdensome overhead of traditional hardware.

This approach:

• Reduces the cost of clinical workstations by 50-75% while bolstering security. IGEL OS operates in a read-only format with a small footprint, minimizing the risks associated with endpoint management and reducing the need for multiple security agents.
• Removes complexities associated with endpoint management. With the IGEL Universal Management Suite (UMS), managing these endpoints becomes a breeze, providing healthcare IT teams with the tools they need to oversee a large network of devices.

What’s next?

In today’s digital world, healthcare organizations have a wonderful opportunity to adopt solutions that not only fulfill their operational needs but also enrich the experiences for both patients and providers.

IGEL OS is built for SaaS, DaaS, VDI and enterprise browsers.  By partnering with IGEL, Imprivata, and Omnissa, your organization can simplify workflows, strengthen data security, and enhance the user experience for your clinical staff.

Are you looking to transform your healthcare organization’s approach to digital workspace access? Discover how IGEL and our ecosystem partners can help your team deliver outstanding patient care with efficiency and confidence.

Register today for our upcoming webinar with Imprivata and Omnissa. Your clinicians deserve quick and easy access to the resources they need—let us partner with you to make that a reality!

The post Compliance Without Compromise; Trusted No-Click Access for Securing Healthcare Workspaces appeared first on IGEL.

The new research from Gartner, “Improve Business Continuity Using Desktop as a Service” is striking a similar chord with me. If the enterprise desktop place that we are living in today is so vulnerable, why don’t we just move to the place that is safer?

Stay with me..

The July 2024 CrowdStrike agent failure was a powerful example of the operational exposure most organizations still face. Gartner’s research “Improve Business Continuity Using Desktop as a Service” which references this incident,  highlights the strategic role of Desktop as a Service (DaaS) and cloud-hosted virtual desktops in minimizing downtime, and also the use, of what Gartner term a “thin client operating system”. But in doing so, it also highlights a prevailing mindset: **that we are designing the endpoint for failover, rather than designing for failsafe.**

Lets quickly tackle that term – “thin client operating system”. Now I’m looking at this it deserves its own blog, but – The term “thin client” is inextricably linked to the hardware. Search on the term “thin client” and what do you see? A page full of hardware. Wikipedia even states “a simple (low-performance) computer”. Ask an AI engine what the benefits of a thin client are and you’ll find improved security, lower TCO, improved reliability and uptime. Lets take those benefits (often, but not always, delivered by or enabled by the software – IGEL) and lets run them on any device,not just “thin clients”.

At IGEL, we believe in a more targeted, fit for purpose strategy: Yes, have a plan. Yes, embrace VDI, DaaS and browser. But first, ask: what if your endpoint was designed to minimize the risk of failure in the first place?

The Recovery Assumption: The Traditional Endpoint as the Failure Point

Gartner is right to emphasize preparedness. Failures—from agent misfires to ransomware—do happen. But implicit in the recovery model is the assumption that a traditional, built for every eventuality, writeable endpoint is the default (specifically calling out resetting it). And that means layering on security agents, patching, backups, and more.

IGEL, see the endpoint differently: not as something to defend with layers, but something to simplify and harden by design.

Security by Design: The Preventative Security Model

IGEL’s Preventative Security Model shifts endpoint thinking from detection and remediation to proactive prevention and simplification.

• Immutable, Read-Only OS: Stops tampering and malware persistence.
• No Local Data: Removes exfiltration and encryption targets.
• Cryptographically Verified Boot: Ensures the system starts in a known-good state.
• Minimized Attack Surface: Only the necessary components are delivered to the device.

This is not about claiming unbreakable software. IGEL OS is software after all. But it’s software architected with the principles of Zero Trust and attack surface minimization at its core.

Workloads no longer run at the endpoint

With applications increasingly moving away from the endpoint and into the cloud, and Gartner themselves predicting that by 2030 Secure Enterprise Browsers will be a central component of application access strategies, isn’t it time to rethink the endpoint? Isn’t this a point in time to redefine the enterprise endpoint – just like the Enterprise Browser is being redefined?

Business Continuity Begins with Fewer Incidents

Gartner is right: you need a business continuity plan. Virtual desktops and cloud scaling are essential. But we believe true endpoint resilience starts before recovery:

• Design devices that are difficult to compromise
• Limit what runs locally and how it’s accessed
• Deliver workspaces adaptively, based on user role and risk

Case in Point: Dual-Layer Resilience in Action

During the July 2024 CrowdStrike incident, IGEL endpoints remained operational and unaffected. Azure Virtual Desktops could be reset in minutes, as shared by Microsoft’s Scott Manchester—showcasing the agility of modern cloud workspaces. This isn’t applicable to AVD, but all DaaS providers. This combination—IGEL at the endpoint and workloads (DaaS, Enterprise Browser) in the cloud—represents a blueprint for secure, scalable, and resilient desktop delivery.

So (and you’ve been patient) if our destination, in the event of a compromise or failure, is a more resilient infrastructure, powered by a more resilient endpoint operating system and VDI, DaaS, or  enterprise browser – rather than go on holiday there, why don’t we just live there?

The post From Recovery to Resilience: Rethinking Endpoint Continuity in a Zero Trust World appeared first on IGEL.

As you get ready to join in, here is one more great sponsor Q&A to showcase all the reasons why DISRUPT23 is the can’t miss event of the year for the EUC community. Read here from Terry Vaughn, Director, EUC Business Development and Microsoft GTM, VMware as he shares what he expecting this week at DISRUPT23 Munich and why VMware is a Platinum sponsor. Read his responses below and watch this video:

What makes DISRUPT23 – The Ultimate Global EUC Event?

Terry Vaughn: DISRUPT23 brings together the brightest industry thought leaders and innovators across EUC into one place. It’s a marquee event for anyone in the EUC space to come learn about the latest and great VDI, DaaS, and cloud technologies and get hands on training. If you’re in EUC, you don’t want to miss this event.

Why did you choose to be a DISRUPT23 sponsor?

Terry Vaughn: VMware and IGEL have had a tremendous partner relationship over the years. We have been a sponsor of DISRUPT for many years and we’re excited to do it again this year. We’re eager to share the latest innovations we have been working on in one of the best industry events in DISRUPT.

What do you expect at this year’s DISRUPT23 event?  

Terry Vaughn: I expect this year’s event to be bigger and better. The EUC space is an exciting one to be in, with so many vendors unleashing technology at as rapid a pace as ever. I’m expecting a great event, with lots of networking opportunity, and time to spend with our wonderful customers and partners.

What will you be presenting at DISRUPT23?

Terry Vaughn: We’re excited to talk all about apps. Apps are everywhere yet managing them, regardless if they’re delivered through us, Citrix, Microsoft, or whoever, continues to be challenging. We have some exciting sessions, including hands on training, of our latest innovations in helping customers reduce their day-2 management and infrastructure costs associated with managing apps across VDI, DaaS, and published app environments with Apps on Demand.

What can attendees expect to learn?

Terry Vaughn: Attendees can expect to learn about the latest innovations in the EUC space and hear from visionaries on how EUC is going to shape up over the coming years.

Why is using your technology with IGEL better together?

Terry Vaughn: With our long-standing partnership, VMware and IGEL have delivered a great user experience in VDI environments using Horizon and IGEL technology. Users need access devices with smart operating systems to access their Horizon virtual desktops and apps, and IGEL helps deliver that.

Why do you think everyone in the EUC community should attend DISRUPT23?

Terry Vaughn: DISRUPT23 is the marquee EUC event of the year. If you’re eager to learn about technology that will help your end user organization, this is the place to come to. It’s all about the community and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone there.

Say “YES” to Attending DISRUPT23!

Are you ready to join in? Say “YES” to DISRUPT23 today. The Munich DISRUPT EUC event will be held February 14-16 at the INFINITY Hotel & Conference Resort and in North America, IGEL will welcome attendees to the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee, April 3-5. Registration is $399 per person. See you there!

The post DISRUPT23 Sponsor Q&A Interview: VMware appeared first on IGEL.

This was a core topic at the annual EUC event, DISRUPT End User Computing Forum, which this year is being held as a road show in 21 cities across North America and Europe. The event brings together industry experts discussing the latest ways to deliver modern and secure workspaces for employees, including the use of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) technologies.

Among the sessions is a panel discussion called “Think Tank: VDI & DaaS in a Hybrid World.” It features a roundtable between EUC leaders and experts from Microsoft, VMware, Nerdio and IGEL exploring the most important trends in VDI and DaaS in this new hybrid work era. Following are some of the top lessons learned as the panel discussed EUC industry trends, the impact of today’s employee work styles and key opportunities for the channel:

From Crisis Comes Opportunity

The saying goes, “From crisis, comes opportunity.” When exploring the rapid adoption and rising growth of the VDI and DaaS market in the last two years, the panelists shared some of the top ways this market acceleration was also surprising.

First among them is how VDI is now enabling more graphically intense use cases. Panelists agreed that while there has been tremendous growth in VDI and DaaS adoption as it enables organizations to deploy “work from anywhere,” there is a growth in use cases that weren’t typically considered for VDI technology – specifically those that are more graphically intense. Power on the back end and improvements to the protocols and on the endpoint, such as technology to allow video and audio communications to take place, are providing experiences that are better – even in high-performance computing environments where VDI hasn’t historically been embraced.

It’s also driving enhancements beyond VDI and DaaS into the virtual apps users rely on. This has had a dramatic impact on user experience in a short time. Many deployments set records, being rolled out in weeks, if not days, instead of months and years. In one example, a customer was able to spin up 30,000 VMware virtual desktops in days. This is a silver lining in the impact of the pandemic on workplace productivity and agility.

Employee Lifestyle as Important as Work Style

Panelists also highlighted how employees are driving a different type of work style when it comes to hybrid working. Members noted Gartner has posited that “employee segmentation models limited to work-specific contexts are unfit for the modern workplace. I&O leaders must deliver human-centric IT services by contextualizing employee lifestyles to maximize productivity, improve the digital employee experience, and identify security requirements.” Gartner goes on to cite that 75% of hybrid or remote workers say their expectations for working flexibly have grown. In response, panelists agreed that the industry needs to think about the experiences that technology can offer.

However, it was also pointed out that we can’t think about just the technology. The example offered was if you take someone who lives in the city, they might have just a desk with a computer and monitor. If we send them a whole kit of additional computer equipment, that doesn’t work for their lifestyle. And what about those generations of employees just entering the market? They’re “computer natives” who already have devices. EUC vendors need to take advantage of this new dynamic to give these users what they really want to support both their lifestyle as well as their work style.

On the other hand, the panel also explored how organizations are facing the challenge of people coming back to the office with a lot of talk about reduction of office space. Organizations want to bring people back to collaborate in shared meeting rooms and collaboration spaces. So, they need to think about how they can spin desktops up to support a more fluid office working model.

This doesn’t just apply to enterprises and midmarket companies. The panel participants shared that they are seeing smaller businesses going for virtualization technology, too. Small businesses, if they want to be competitive, must accommodate that flexibility just like their larger rivals. Windows 365, for example, is designed to be simple. By using it, companies don’t have to spin out a full environment, which is becoming a game changer for businesses both large and small.

Opportunities Ahead for Channel Partners and Customers

Overall, panelists agreed VDI and DaaS solutions are delivering options for partners and customers. The VDI market is made up of 15% of the overall corporate desktops worldwide, and that percentage is only going to grow. Partners and customers need to think about what the future will look like and have internal discussions on how to adapt to deliver on it.

Here are some insights into what trends and opportunities are ahead:

• Rise of services. From a broader trends’ perspective, the panelists also discussed the post-COVID 19 Great Resignation or Great Re-Shuffle. Recent data suggests that although more workers are quitting their jobs, they’re switching their occupation or field of work, rather than leaving the labor force altogether. This leads to a larger uptick in external-party services and bringing in people to backfill roles for up to 12 months. That lends itself to more flexible models for delivering EUC than having laptops on a shelf.
• SMBs gaining competitive footing. New opportunities are in store for SMBs as workforce agility expands their playing field. The adoption of DaaS is really accelerating in the SMB space and it’s a good opportunity for channel partners to address the range of different management styles for using DaaS solutions. Partners and customers need to think about what that means from a security and data-retention perspective with having user data stored in the cloud versus on each endpoint. They need to have the ability to secure sensitive data and make it easier for administrators to manage. Also, they need to think about technology that allows a “point in time” restore feature for users to easily fall back without having to manage or physically touch the endpoint.
• The new view on business continuity. As cyberthreats continue to be top of mind, the positioning of VDI and DaaS solutions as part of an overall business continuity and disaster recovery solution will begin to take stronger hold. Many organizations will look to VDI as a potential backup plan to ensure employees remain productive in the event of a cyberattack. The panelists shared how this business continuity use case has come up more recently because of the cyber activity that has resulted from the war in Ukraine.
• Breaking down the corporate hiring walls. One final additional macro trend this panel discussed is the global resource and staffing gap challenges organizations are facing, including the lack of workers across so many industries. It’s affecting everything. The flexibility delivered by DaaS and VDI is one way companies are finding to work around the employee resource and recruiting challenge as it enables greater freedom to hire, regardless of where workers are. This flexibility for many companies is changing the dynamics of their workforce and increasing employee loyalty and productivity.

Hearing the insights of these thought leaders, it’s clear that VDI and DaaS opportunities for the channel abound.

This article was written by Simon Townsend, Field CTO, EMEA, with IGEL, and first published in Channel Futures.

The post VDI and DaaS in a Hybrid World appeared first on IGEL.

Microsoft is among the Platinum-level sponsors of this year’s DISRUPT On Tour 2022 End User Computing Forum, which will make 21 stops in cities across North America and Europe. Alongside IGEL, Microsoft will be showcasing the latest innovations and best practices to deliver digital workspace solutions for the hybrid work era.

DISRUPT On Tour is a unique opportunity to hear from industry experts on the latest trends and technologies in end-user computing. We will be digging into the new ways DaaS is changing the future of work and how IT delivers it.

Join an upcoming event near you to hear about new options for your hybrid workers and how they may benefit from the latest Cloud PC and virtualization solutions from Microsoft and our partners. In the Microsoft sessions at these roadshow events, you’ll hear from senior Microsoft engineering leaders about the use cases that are most appropriate for the various infrastructure approaches available today.

We will also answer questions on how Microsoft solutions for hybrid work and modern endpoints can avoid costly delays and provide a productive environment to more users. We invite you to bring your questions and your challenges!

Inspiring Keynotes and Presentations

DISRUPT On Tour will feature keynote presentations and technology sessions from additional industry innovators and inspiring thought leaders including sessions with HP, VMware, Nerdio, LG Electronics, deviceTRUST, IGEL, and more. See more on the presentations in store for you at each event here.

Get Ready to DISRUPT

DISRUPT 2022 On Tour is taking to the road to visit a city near you. Don’t miss out! At these interactive, in-person, one-day events you’ll learn how to enable your people with the digital workspace solutions they need to stay safe, secure, and thrive in their work and life. Plus, you’ll hear industry innovators and thought leaders as they share the strategies and tactics you need to stay one step ahead of your evolving EUC needs.

The event, hosted by IGEL, will also feature first-hand technical access to product and service information from event sponsors. Platinum sponsors of the event include HP, LG Business Solutions, Microsoft, Nerdio, and VMware. Gold Sponsors of the event include 7 Signal, ControlUp, Login VDI, Lenovo, and Liquidware as well as Regional Gold sponsors DeviceTRUST, Dynabook, EPOS, Tricerat, and Workspot.

Register today for a roadshow event near you. This may qualify you for special DISRUPT On Tour commemorative event promotional items while supplies last. We look forward to seeing you there.

The post Explore Microsoft Virtualization Options during DISRUPT Tour 2022 appeared first on IGEL.

VMware

VMware Horizon needs no introduction. With support for workloads that sit on vSphere (both on-premises and in the cloud) and natively in Microsoft Azure, it has been tried and trusted by the global market as one of the premier virtual app and desktop platforms. With literally millions of individual users world-wide, from critical hospital deployments and CAD engineers working on the next generation of aircraft, all the way to remote workers, VMware Horizon has been pivotal in keeping the global economy going.

Azure

The Microsoft Azure platform has grown at a phenomenal rate. By tying together all of an organization’s productivity tools with a best-of-breed IaaS platform, it is a top choice for organizations to migrate to and grow. With multiple options for deploying VMware Horizon virtual desktops and apps — including Azure VMware Solution and Azure Virtual Desktop, which includes features like multi-session Windows 10 and Windows 11 — enterprise IT teams often look to Azure as the foundation when they are tasked with innovating in the end-user computing space.

IGEL

Finally, when it comes to the endpoint, there is a choice that has been rapidly gaining market share over the past couple of years – IGEL. IGEL is one of the only purpose-built enterprise-ready OS platforms for connecting to the Digital Workspace. For organizations looking for a more secure, consistent base to connect to their workspace — whether that is DaaS, SaaS, or any mixture of applications — IGEL makes it happen.

When you bring these three solutions together, something incredible happens.

Examples from the field

Don’t take our word for it. We have plenty of examples where a joint VMware, Microsoft, and IGEL solution have delivered outstanding outcomes for our customers.

Cost Efficiency

A leading equipment manufacturer was looking to enable hybrid working for their staff. Faced with an aging PC estate and the need to move to a modern Windows OS for their applications, they selected VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure as their solution of choice.

This would give them the agility to migrate to a solution that could be deployed to not only home workers, but also those workers who needed to get to multiple remote global sites. Horizon would give them a great VDI broker with a leading protocol and industry-leading application deployment capabilities, while Azure meant that they could put this solution wherever they needed it to be without having the huge upfront cost of purchasing server hardware.

Next, they started looking at modernizing their endpoint estate. Part of their requirement was to be able to use CAD software and Microsoft Teams, and it quickly became clear that replacing thousands of desktops was going to cost a lot more than initially expected, potentially threatening the feasibility of the whole project.

At this point, the VMware account team suggested that the customer consider IGEL for repurposing their endpoint estate. Using IGEL, and leveraging VMware Horizon’s capabilities with Teams optimization and rich graphics acceleration, the vast majority of that PC estate could be retained, instead running IGEL OS rather than older versions of Windows. The combined cost savings of not having to purchase new PCs, along with the reduced power costs of running a more efficient OS and avoiding device recycling costs meant that the overall project cost was now much lower, with the entire project cost being much closer to the budget originally set aside for just replacing their PC estate.

Ease of Management

When a large airline wanted to embrace a rock-solid application delivery platform, they knew which solution they preferred to deliver it.

The solution had to be reliable and trusted, while offering an excellent end-user experience. They chose VMware Horizon on Azure VMware Solution (AVS). Selecting AVS gave them the ability to move their VMware vSphere workloads seamlessly between their on-premises datacenters and Azure and an easy mechanism to extend their private datacenter to the public cloud.

For their endpoints, again, only one solution fit the bill – IGEL. With IGEL OS and its industry-leading endpoint management solution, it was simple to build an endpoint estate that could bring disparate devices together under a single, unified management plane.

Along with this manageability, IGEL OS is built from the ground up to be a more secure and reliable platform. Real-time policy updates for endpoints both on and off the corporate LAN mean that no matter where a device is globally, or which network it’s on, full visibility and configuration management is always at hand.

Security

A ransomware attack isn’t just a one-off attack. It can take days, weeks, or in some cases months to recover data and get access back into systems. In a healthcare environment, losing access to systems for a sustained period just isn’t an option.

There have been multiple very public cases of healthcare organizations falling victim to ransomware attacks and having to cancel critical operations and procedures while they struggle to recover access to their IT systems.

One large healthcare organization decided that they simply couldn’t take the risk of losing access to their systems. They decided to be proactive and secure the biggest attack vector for ransomware attacks – their endpoints.

They chose to move their end-user workloads off their physical endpoints and into a public cloud. They selected VMware Horizon 8 on Microsoft Azure VMware Solution. If the worst did happen, they could shut down large swathes of their end-user estate and restore them from backups or rebuild them much quicker than in a standard Windows-based desktop estate.

How about the endpoints themselves though? To reduce their attack surface as much as possible, the healthcare provider selected IGEL as their endpoint platform.

The IGEL platform has been designed with security at its core. With a read-only OS, real-time configuration management, and encryption as standard, the chances of compromise are drastically reduced. Coupled with VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure, those malicious actors set on exploiting insecure environments need to look elsewhere.

Summary

With so many different end-user products in the market, it can be difficult to select technology solutions that fit together and resolve challenges across different use cases. The partnership between VMware, Microsoft, and IGEL is a solution that makes sense time and time again.

The evidence is clear. Whether you want to make your new DaaS solution financially viable, easily manage endpoints across locations and networks, or protect against threats, this combined solution has been tried and tested and is trusted by some of the world’s largest enterprises.

To learn more, visit our VMware page.

The post How VMware, IGEL, Microsoft are a Great Combination for DaaS appeared first on IGEL.

IGEL continues its exploration and celebration of origin stories in Episode 5 of “The Attic” video podcast featuring a conversation with sales and business development wizard Nabeel Youakim. Nabeel led Microsoft’s early expansion into Asia-Pac, then went on to become Citrix’s employee #350. Over 22 years at Citrix he was a major force in building alliances with Microsoft and the partner ecosystem and launching Citrix’s cloud platform. Tune in and hear Nabeel recount a time when it wasn’t clear if Microsoft was going to squash Citrix, a time when Citrix almost went under.

Now, some 18 years later, Nabeel is ahead of the curve again, as Chief Development Officer at Tehama, where he is leading the next level of VDI in ‘virtual rooms.’ In fact, it was at an IGEL virtual event that he met Tehama executives! Now, Nabeel does it all: business development, building the partner ecosystem and the IGEL Ready partner alliance.

On Building Alliances. “To work with a much bigger partner like Microsoft you have to be patient and understand there are many components…It’s not just the engineering team. There’s a corporate team, a field team. You need to engage with each team to make sure your message is understood [and relates] to their objectives.”

On Reseller Importance: “Mark Templeton at Citrix set up the culture that no one company could sell all the components. You really needed a reseller to put them all together and sell them as a solution…Mark came from the partner side and understood that very well.”

On the logic of EUC: “For years our community has worked to build the whole VDI and DaaS environment. For a long time we used the MAPS acronym:  management, access, performance and security. The end user computing paradigm solves all these very well.”

Nabeel Youakim

Listen in and find out what rough-and-ready sport Nabeel excelled at. It’s a good foundation for surviving the tech industry!
Watch the Attic: Episode 5 – Nabeel Youakim

Thanks for stopping by The Attic. Join us again next time for more insightful conversations. Some of our upcoming guests include Tim Minahan, CMO of Citrix, and David Smith, CEO of Teradici.

Don’t miss a single episode! Subscribe to The Attic today.

The post “The Attic” Video Podcast Episode 5: Getting Strategic Alliances Back on Track from Nabeel Youakim, Chief Development Officer, Tehama appeared first on IGEL.

As we come to the end of Q2’21, I am happy to report on the tremendous momentum we have experienced alongside our partners during the first half of 2021. As the world emerges from pandemic-driven lockdowns and economies both here in the U.S. and around the globe begin to re-open, we also have much to look forward to in the last half of the year.

Recently, I was a presenter at the Baptie Channel Focus North America event where we discussed how partners are continuing to accelerate their journey into the cloud. Remote work and now hybrid work/work-from-anywhere scenarios have put many businesses on the fast-track to the cloud, if they weren’t already headed in that direction. As IGEL continues to transition from a transaction focus to a consumption model, recurring revenue models are becoming key to success with our partners.

During the Baptie event, we also discussed how hand-in-hand with renewals comes the customer experience. Customers need to see high value in the software solutions they are purchasing. This means that the roles of Customer Success Manager, and even Consumption Manager, are starting to become more prevalent and important for channel partners.

With that in mind, (smart) VARs and solution providers are looking at their own business models and P&L, and aligning to a recurring revenue model that focuses on SaaS and the consumption of cloud applications, services and desktops. Channel partners are also looking to their software vendors to provide programs to support and reward this type of focus on customer success, renewals and recurring revenue.

The message to the vendor community that came out of Baptie Channel Focus is that we need to invest in enablement, program dollars and incentives to support partners in being success with this new model driven not by transactions, but by customer success. Some examples of this are providing funds to support a customer success manager, or a renewals program, and providing incentives partners that move beyond revenues to provide value throughout the entire customer lifecycle — from deal registrations, demos and proof-of-concept, to post-sales support and deployment, and last, but not least, customer satisfaction. Smart vendors and smart partners are rapidly moving to this type of model and engagement.

Beyond that, there are a few updates I want to also share with you from the IGEL Velocity Program, including our recent North America Partner Advisory Council (PAC) meeting.

Q2 PAC Takeaways

We were delighted to host our second North America PAC on May 20.  In attendance were seven partners: Coretek, CPC, Entisys360, Intrasystems, Presidio, Sirius and ThirdOctet.

As I mentioned in my Q1’21 blog post, an important tenet of our PAC is that it’s intended to be “forward looking.” In other words, strategic in nature and not a QBR or operationally focused. During the Q2 PAC meeting, we conducted several polls, one of which was on Renewals (no surprise there!), Incentives and Customer Lifecycle, Digital Marketing, and Diversity and Inclusion.

Renewals. We found that 67% had a team dedicated to renewals. Additionally, half reported having renewal rates of greater than 91%; A third (33%) reported renewal rates of 61% to 80%. Furthermore, 67% said renewals were 21% to 40% of total revenue. What we took away from this discussion is that consumption and adoption are key focus areas for our partners, and that investing in customer success resources are important. Additionally, we are seeing more vendors and OEMs requiring channel partners to have a plan for customer success and adoption in place.

Incentives paid on Customer Lifecycle. Most (80%) thought it was a great idea, but to keep things simple for partners, we are looking at this more closely and expect to make program changes in 2H of this year.

Digital Marketing. When asked, 86% responded that they have a dedicated marketing team, and 71% said they would welcome some type of “certification” in this area. This led us to the idea of creating a webinar for partners to be held twice a year that would provide tips on how to drive success in digital marketing from experts in this area.

Diversity and Inclusion. There was strong interest from partners in this initiative and we are going to discuss this topic further at the next PAC meeting and bring in some experts to share tips and ideas to build awareness and engage employees in this effort.

Other topics we discussed at the PAC included Routes to Market. Some of the interesting take-aways from this discussion were that public cloud will drive the adoption of Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) solutions and that DaaS will begin to dominate in a few years due to OPEX. Partner are also seeing opportunities for DaaS in the SMB space, while VDI remains prevalent in typical mid-market and enterprise accounts.

Hearing from our partners is always a valuable experience. We are looking forward to implementing many of these recommendations in the coming weeks. Happy selling!

The post Partners Continue to Accelerate Their Journey into the Cloud with IGEL appeared first on IGEL.