The post IGEL Teams with Insentra and Insight to Help Western Health Improve Endpoint Management and Sustainability, Boost Security, and Enhance User Experience appeared first on IGEL.
]]>“We chose IGEL due to its functionality and support of multiple usage scenarios and environments Western Health uses, which allowed us to significantly improve the sustainability of our current hardware investment,” said Cameron McBride, Director, Digital Technology Services, Western Health. “IGEL integrates well with Imprivata and makes connecting to multiple hosted services, including our Cerner EMR software, using the latest clients easy. It also saved Western Health money as we could continue to use 1,000 thin clients sustainably, which would not have hardware vendor support when directed to the new Microsoft Disaster Recovery AVD solution being implemented. Changing to the IGEL OS on the devices provided an improved and supported solution.”
Overcoming technology challenges and meeting success criteria with IGEL
Western Health identified multiple challenges as the organisation moved forward on modernising its endpoint infrastructure to align with the investment made in updating its virtual desktop solutions. The business had set key criteria for the modernisation project in the areas of cyber security; high availability; interoperability with key internal services; serviceability by IT and users; and, hardware integration. In selecting IGEL, Western Health conducted a Proof of Value (PoV) exercise and found the IGEL solution met all the required criteria.
Brian Riegels-Morgan, a Senior Consultant at Insentra, said, “IGEL’s pre-sales and support teams played pivotal roles in the successful Proof of Value (PoV), deployment, and overall customer acceptance of our services. Western Health’s comprehensive utilisation of IGEL in conjunction with Citrix, Imprivata, Microsoft AVD, includes the creation of public use kiosks. These kiosks grant users access to various applications, including Zoom, LibreOffice, web browsers, and other applications, delivering a more streamlined and efficient experience for patients and visitors, while ensuring the security of sensitive information.”
Overall, the deployment of IGEL at Western Health has notably enhanced user performance. McBride added, “These improvements were evident during the pilot phase initially intended for 50 devices. The overwhelmingly positive feedback prompted the rapid expansion of the pilot to encompass over 200 devices as business users recognised the enhanced functionality provided by IGEL OS.”
“Today’s healthcare organisations face the challenge of securing their endpoint infrastructure while operating on a tight budget,” said Matthias Haas, CTO, IGEL. “IGEL’s Preventative Security Model helped Western Health address the security challenges they face by eliminating endpoint vulnerabilities exploited by bad actors. Further, by supporting change management and end-user communication, we have enhanced the end-user experience while reducing the financial strain for the organisation by extending the life of their endpoint hardware. This is a great example of how large healthcare organisations can benefit from deploying IGEL.”
To read more about how Western Health improved endpoint management sustainability, improved security, and enhanced the user experience with IGEL, read the case study here.
About Insentra
Insentra is a collaborative IT Services partner delivering specialised Advisory, Professional and Managed Services. Our partner-centric model provides the IT channel direct access to industry expertise and accountable outcomes. We believe great business relationships start with trust. We are 100% channel focused, meaning we only transact and deliver services exclusively with our partners, however we view our clients as both the service provider and end-user.
Our dedication is based on the vision to be the number one channel services company on the planet. We do this by being the best versions of ourselves, creating an outstanding environment for our team, loving the work we do and amazing each other, our partners and their clients. We are and always will remain a partner obsessed company.
About Insight
Insight Enterprises, Inc. is a Fortune 500 solutions integrator helping organisations accelerate their digital journey to modernise their business and maximise the value of technology. Insight’s technical expertise spans cloud and edge-based transformation solutions, with global scale and optimisation built on 33+ years of deep partnerships with the world’s leading and emerging technology providers.
About IGEL
IGEL is the leader in providing a secure endpoint OS for enterprises now and next. Designed for VDI, DaaS, SaaS and secure browsing, IGEL OS delivers a first-class user experience while being seamless to manage – saving money, fuelling growth, supporting sustainability and driving organizations forward. IGEL OS supports a Zero Trust approach to security through the unique IGEL Preventative Security Model removing the attack vectors often exploited by bad actors. Trusted by leading healthcare, financial services, retail, manufacturing, and government leaders worldwide, IGEL has a growing ecosystem of more than 100 integrated IGEL Ready ecosystem partners and is represented by partners in over 50 countries. For more information on IGEL, visit www.igel.com.
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]]>The post IGEL and COCC Team to Modernize Digital Workspaces for Financial Services Organizations appeared first on IGEL.
]]>To help address these challenges, COCC, which has emerged as a go-to provider of technology solutions for smaller financial institutions aiming to gain a competitive edge, partnered with IGEL to enable these community banking institutions to monitor, manage, and upgrade their endpoints easily, keeping them secure and up to date, while providing employees with secure access to their digital workspaces from any device, anywhere.
“With its robust endpoint management software, IGEL helps us empower our clients to centralize digital workspace management and enhance security and organizational efficiency, all without having to invest heavily in their own hardware or IT resources,” said Billy Cruz, COCC’s Technology Services Manager. “Together, we are bringing enterprise-level technology innovation to small and medium-sized financial services clients, something we would have never dreamed of being able to do prior to IGEL.”
IGEL COSMOS is a game-changer for COCC in securing the endpoint
Prior to the launch of IGEL COSMOS in February 2023, COCC became a participant in the IGEL COSMOS pilot program. Through this program, COCC was able to work with a select group of its clients who utilize the COCC iWorkstation platform, a cloud-hosted virtual desktop infrastructure providing financial institutions with secure, remote access to applications and data, deploying the newest version of IGEL software and testing it in everyday production environments.
“The devices used by our clients must be locked down and secure so if something does get stolen, it’s just a matter of a device being lost and not data itself,” said Cruz. “IGEL COSMOS has been a game-changer for us, dramatically improving security at the endpoint with its unique approach of separating the IGEL OS from the application layer.”
He added, “By isolating the essential applications for each install and eliminating unnecessary software and components, we’ve also simplified our image management. This streamlined approach, focused on having just what we need on each machine, has become our standard practice.”
“In teaming with COCC, we are making it possible for their financial services clients to modernize their IT infrastructure to enable employees to gain seamless, yet secure access to their cloud workspaces,” said Matthias Haas, CTO. “For COCC, the modular IGEL COSMOS platform demonstrated value by improving the user experience, providing unmatched speed and flexibility across traditional and modern application delivery models, and enabling its clients to retain security, management, and control over their endpoints.”
To read more about how IGEL and COCC are helping community banking institutions modernize the digital workspace experience, read the case study here. To register for the IGEL COSMOS webinar, featuring COCC and scheduled for Wednesday, September 20 at 10 am (ET), click here.
About IGEL
Today, the world of work is hybrid. Multiple clouds can deliver applications sourced from anywhere to a widely distributed workforce using all types of devices. Right at the moment when the world of work needs it most, IGEL has the solution for fully managed, secure endpoint access to any digital workspace that gives IT teams strong control and end-users the freedom to work as they wish in a hybrid world. Enabling choice of any cloud, from any device, anywhere, IGEL unlocks a collaborative and productive end user computing experience while solving the common security and management challenges required to compete and win in today’s world of hybrid work. With a growing ecosystem of more than 100 IGEL Ready technology partners, IGEL has offices in Europe and the United States and is represented by partners in over 50 countries. For more information on IGEL, visit www.igel.com.
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]]>The post Eastern Health Standardises on IGEL OS for an Easy to Manage Organisational-Wide Endpoint Solution appeared first on IGEL.
]]>Founded in 2000, Eastern Health provides a broad range of medical services across a huge geographical region of 2,816 kilometres – the largest in the State of Victoria – from eight main campus sites. This includes Angliss, Box Hill and Maroondah campuses. In 2021/2022, the organisation delivered over 1.3 million episodes of patient care, leveraging the expertise and skills of a workforce totalling 11,139 staff.[1]
The decision to make the strategic shift to IGEL OS dates back to 2016 and was driven by the requirement to improve endpoint performance, security, manageability and migrate away from out of date desktop devices running Microsoft Windows 7 and XP, connecting to a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop environment located on premise at Eastern Health’s own datacentre.
Yasitha Wijesinghe, Eastern Health ICT systems engineer, explains, “Endpoint performance was a concern given it affects staff efficiency, productivity and security. The old desktops were slow to boot up, logging in and out took time and the connections to Citrix were slow. This drove our decision to change.”
Eastern Heath ran a proof of concept (PoC) utilising a number of test IGEL OS licences. It also sought input from Imprivata about whether IGEL OS integrates effectively with its secure single sign-on (SSO) enterprise identity and access management system. This was a key clinical and operational requirement.
Wijesinghe adds, “Everything on the PoC went well. The team was amazed by IGEL OS and impressed that everything worked so well especially with Imprivata OneSign ProveID Embedded. Our health professionals use a mix of RFID and Proximity smartcards to tap in and out to launch and close their desktop sessions. It means they don’t have to log into systems separately or remember passwords. Imprivata makes the whole process of accessing desktops fast, efficient and secure as people move about our hospital buildings providing patients with quality care.”
At the outset, the computers at Eastern Health Angliss in Upper Ferntree Gully were upgraded. This took just two weeks. Following this, most desktops across its campus sites were converted to use IGEL OS-powered endpoints which comprise a mixed environment of IGEL thin clients, along with Dell and HP personal computers.
Today, clinically focused health professionals connect to Citrix on a daily basis using IGEL OS to access a range of IT applications including Microsoft Office and an Oracle Cerner Electronic Health Records system. The organisation has around 2,500 Citrix licences.
IGEL OS-powered endpoints deliver substantial returns
1. Tangible cost savings. Whilst specific numbers are difficult to calculate, Eastern Health have realized considerable savings using IGEL OS, thereby significantly reducing its OPEX costs. Operational costs for the IT department are much reduced given IGEL OS is simple to roll out and manage day-to-day. This is done via IGEL UMS which means the whole desktop estate can be controlled centrally, easily and securely.
2. A simple solution for time pressed clinical staff. As Eastern Health expands its operations, clinicians are leveraging IT systems as enablers rather than obstacles . The IGEL OS-powered endpoint solution means that health professionals can quickly access systems without fuss so that they can get on with consultations quickly and do what really counts – putting patients first to solve their health and care issues.
3. Easy patching. Rolling out updates and patches across a geographically disperse organization like Eastern Health is a breeze. This is done quickly via the IGEL UMS console, with profiles per hospital, department, team and even individual quickly set up, administered and implemented. The close integration between IGEL, Citrix and Imprivata is fundamental to this such that everything works together properly.
Wijesinghe says, “Updating and maintaining Microsoft Windows endpoints with required applications just for the purpose of connecting to a Citrix environment was unnecessary and time consuming. It was very clunky and took a lot of effort to run. With UMS, you can plan, test, apply to the whole environment, roll out overnight to save time and minimise the impact on staff. It makes life easy for the ICT team, such that we will continue to standardise on IGEL OS.”
4. Support for growth and expansion. The combination of IGEL, Citrix and Imprivata has also helped Eastern Health expand its service offerings. Since Eastern Health acquired Bellbird Private Hospital in Blackburn, endpoints powered by IGEL OS have been deployed.
Looking to the future, Eastern Health is reviewing how best to roll out Microsoft Teams and enhance its TeleHealth services for clinical staff so that remote working and video-based patient consultations can be provided more widely to the community.
Simon Townsend, IGEL’s field CTO, says, “IGEL continues to be the endpoint OS vendor choice for Eastern Health. It is a testament to the fact that our Linux-based OS is designed from the ground up to work faultlessly with VDI and cloud environments, along with Imprivata which is the de facto standard when it comes to clinical login access and security.”
About IGEL
Today, the world of work is hybrid. Multiple clouds can deliver applications sourced from anywhere to a widely distributed workforce using all types of devices. Right at the moment when the world of work needs it most, IGEL has the solution for fully managed, secure endpoint access to any digital workspace that gives IT teams strong control and end-users the freedom to work as they wish in a hybrid world. Enabling choice of any cloud, from any device, anywhere, IGEL unlocks a collaborative and productive end user computing experience while solving the common security and management challenges required to compete and win in today’s world of hybrid work. With a growing ecosystem of more than 120 IGEL Ready technology partners, IGEL has offices in Europe and the United States and is represented by partners in over 50 countries. For more information on IGEL, visit www.igel.com.
[1] https://www.easternhealth.org.au/images/EH_Annual_Report_2021-2022_interactive_final.pdf
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]]>The post Crisis Moves Apps & Data to the Cloud to Streamline the Operation of its Annual Christmas Campaign to Support the Homeless appeared first on IGEL.
]]>Since 1967, Crisis has supported the most disadvantaged in society at Christmas, helping to get rough sleepers off the streets at a time when the nation is celebrating the festive period with friends and family.
According to Crisis’ research, 200,000 households are homeless in Britain today – not dissimilar to the number who visit the Glastonbury Festival each year – with rough sleeping expected to rise 76% in the next decade unless the government finally takes firm action to tackle it.
At Christmas, Crisis sets up residential and day care centres and offers various services – everything from medical, dental, financial, counselling along with social and sports activities. It also feeds people: over 31,000 meals are cooked using more than 200 tons of food.
The Aimar Foundation, a charity founded in 2005 with a mandate to help other not-for-profit organisations with their IT, has been Crisis’ primary technology partner for the past 15 years. IGEL supports the Aimar Foundation with technology therefore playing a vital role delivering the project.
COVID-19 forced a radical change in how Christmas services are delivered
In 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic drove a complete rethink about how the whole Christmas project is run, with the same approach to IT to be taken this year.
Chris Riley, the Aimar Foundation’s CTO and project director, explains, “COVID-19 prompted a thorough review and re-engineering of the whole IT environment. A range of new technical innovations were introduced, not only to guarantee a practical way for guests to actually contact Crisis for help, but to enable team collaboration and remote working. This was important to ensure help could still be provided in the event that one worker got sick and the whole shift then had to self-isolate.”
A unified communications and cloud strategy has been implemented using various components:
The cloud delivers total flexibility for backend infrastructure
The Aimar Foundation has shifted the back-end infrastructure to Microsoft Office 365 and Azure with three separate tenants set up: one for the Christmas campaign only; the second for Crisis to use all year round for operational purposes; and a third dedicated to the Aimar Foundation itself. This is so that it can run its own applications, monitoring and management tools, completely segregated from data and applications hosted on the Crisis tenants.
Riley says, “An IGEL UMS server runs on the aimarfoundation.org tenant which sits behind cloud VPNs to ensure maximum security. This is a major benefit – the ability to use UMS in Azure to deploy a site from scratch in literally 3 or 4 hours with no requirement for a local server.”
Crisis has also updated its primary operational application – C-Log – which underpins the Christmas campaign and records all advisor interactions with guests. This has been migrated from Microsoft Access to Microsoft Dynamics 365 and has been integrated with the 3CX phone system.
Clark adds, “Each year, we always try to bring new innovation. We built a PowerApp to manage the whole logistics process. So, if one location wants black trousers in XL, this is ordered and delivered. It’s integrated with Teams and a big improvement compared to the old paper-based process such that we estimate a huge 60% time saving on order processing.”
In terms of printing, this has always been a challenge for the Aimar Foundation in terms of sourcing equipment at short notice, with practical problems then having to be solved such as whether the machines have a network card and the right drivers installed. To address this, the Aimar Foundation invested in buying its own MFPs over ten years ago which have recently been updated.
Riley explains, “Sponsorship by Konica Minolta – who kindly loaned us 33 Bizhub C3531 and C3831 machines – has introduced colour printing, with a hosted, Azure-based print solution from PaperCut now used, too. This allows guests and volunteers at all locations to send emails and/or attachments for easy printing as well as scanning directly from the printers to their email addresses.”
Moving forward, the Aimar Foundation will be look at how it can capitalise on the power and features of IGEL OS to re-purpose other hardware to be more sustainable and ‘green’.
Ian Richards, Head of Crisis for Christmas, says, “The logistical challenges are massive so the shift to the cloud really helps us: it’s an ideal technology approach given we set up services for a short period of time over Christmas and then turn them off in the New Year. Without the IT support we get from all our partners, particularly the Aimar Foundation and IGEL, we just wouldn’t be able to deliver the project like we do.”
To watch a 5 minute film about the Crisis project, click on the link below
To donate to the Crisis at Christmas campaign, see below.
https://www.crisis.org.uk/get-involved/donate-to-crisis-at-christmas
About IGEL
Today, the world of work is hybrid. Multiple clouds can deliver applications sourced from anywhere to a widely distributed workforce using all types of devices. Right at the moment when the world of work needs it most, IGEL has the solution for fully managed, secure endpoint access to any digital workspace that gives IT teams strong control and end-users the freedom to work as they wish in a hybrid world. Enabling choice of any cloud, from any device, anywhere, IGEL unlocks a collaborative and productive end user computing experience while solving the common security and management challenges required to compete and win in today’s world of hybrid work. With a growing ecosystem of more than 120 IGEL Ready technology partners, IGEL has offices in Europe and the United States and is represented by partners in over 50 countries. For more information on IGEL, visit www.igel.com.
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]]>The post Park Holidays UK Relies on IGEL to Support Ambitious M&A Growth Strategy, Cloud Adoption and Use of Microsoft 365 appeared first on IGEL.
]]>An IGEL customer for over a decade, Park Holidays UK is one of the largest operators in the country. It offers static caravan and lodge holidays, ‘glamping’ and holiday home ownership in locations from Cornwall to Scotland.
Park Holidays UK has grown organically and through numerous acquisitions. This includes Bridge Leisure in 2021 which added nine parks, Bodmin Holiday Park in 2022, with Park Leisure purchased this month. This has increased its portfolio by a further 11 sites which now totals 54 locations.
For the year ending 2021, revenues were £228 million and EBITDA at £79.6 million[1] – a record performance for the group. The business was formally acquired by Sun Communities, Inc. on April 8, 2022 for £950 million – a 162% growth in the value of the business in just five years.[2]
Standardized IT using VDI supports a geographically diverse organisation
Park Holidays UK is a long-term user of VDI and thin client technology. A combined IGEL and Citrix solution was first deployed 10 years ago. This addressed bandwidth issues at some sites, standardized the desktops used, allowed the business to move away from unreliable and high maintenance PCs so that support could be simplified and endpoint deployment, configuration and management made faster and easier.
Michael Procyshyn, Park Holiday UK’s IT director says, “We’ve taken a ‘cookie cutter’ approach to the desktop. In other words, we have one uniform system across the company so that when new parks are acquired, we just drop in Citrix and IGEL to rapidly deploy desktop services. It allows us to scale up our infrastructure and systems quickly and cost effectively, with the joint solution a real enabler for growth.”
In recent years, Park Holidays UK has completely modernized its entire IT environment investing in new desktops, server virtualization, SAN storage as well as a MPLS[3]-based Wide Area Network to interconnect all the holiday park sites.
In 2019, the business also shifted IT applications and its Avaya phone system to the cloud – running in Microsoft Azure. Furthermore, Microsoft 365[4] and Dynamics 365 Business Central have been implemented, with Elite Parks software – built on Dynamics 365 – used as the company’s ERP system.
Procyshyn adds, “One of the key strengths of Park Holidays UK is our IT. Our networking, infrastructure and applications are robust, reliable and all the same; we don’t dual run anything as this just adds complexity.”
Citrix and IGEL OS-powered endpoints deliver a variety of other benefits:
Procyshyn concludes, “When we last reviewed our desktop approach, we concluded that moving away from IGEL’s technology to laptops or PCs would be cost prohibitive. IGEL and Citrix helps our rapid expansion plans because we know we can deploy endpoints simply and painlessly.”
Simon Townsend, IGEL’s chief marketing officer, says, “At first glance, Park Holidays UK might appear to be a simple caravan related business, but it’s actually a diverse organization. They run a large hotel chain – selling holidays in lodges and caravans – but it’s also a restaurant and pub company, and a property and maintenance firm given it manages the parks and the holiday homes purchased by owners. So, it has a variety of staff who all need simple access to corporate IT systems and the Internet. Citrix and IGEL enables this, resulting in lower desktop TCO and a great end-user experience.”
About IGEL
IGEL is the world’s leading provider of the most secure, high performance, easy-to-manage operating system for VDI, DaaS, and cloud-delivered digital workspaces. The company’s innovative software products include IGEL OS, IGEL Universal Management Suite
(UMS), and IGEL Cloud Gateway
(ICG). These solutions comprise a more secure, manageable and high-performance endpoint management and control platform across nearly any x86 device and some ARM/RPI4 devices. Easily acquired via just two feature-rich software offerings, — Workspace Edition and Enterprise Management Pack — IGEL software presents outstanding value per investment. IGEL enables enterprises to save vast amounts of money by extending the useful life of their existing endpoint devices while precisely controlling all devices running IGEL OS from a single dashboard interface. IGEL has offices in Europe and the United States and is represented by partners in over 50 countries. For more information on IGEL, visit www.igel.com.
[1] Source: Annual report and financial statements, December 31, 2021.
[2] Intermediate Capital Group plc purchased Park Holidays for £362 million in 2016 before selling to Sun Communities Inc
[3] Multiprotocol Label Switching
[4] The new name for Office 365
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]]>The post McMaster University’s Faculty of Engineering Standardizes on IGEL for its End User Computing Solution appeared first on IGEL.
]]>Replacing end-of life thin client terminals from Devon IT and Dell Wyse, IGEL offered the configuration, stability, security and usability the IT team was looking for, with IGEL Universal Management Suite (UMS) providing the critical management capability to control a large number of devices in five buildings. IGEL UD3 endpoints connect to VMware Horizon and support the Blast Extreme Protocol for graphics display – crucial given the widespread use of 3D computer aided design software within the faculty.
Founded in 1887, McMaster University is a public research university based on a 300-acre campus in Hamilton, Ontario – the waterfall capital of Canada. Ranked at 69 in The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, it is home to more than 31,000 students and is an award-winning employer with over 6,000 staff including around 1,000 full-time faculty members.
McMaster University is a pioneer in the use of VDI
With 1,000 students in the first year alone, the Faculty of Engineering is one of the largest faculties at the university and has been a long-term user of virtual desktop infrastructure.
VDI was originally deployed in 2009 when a CAD$48 million six-story glass Engineering Technology Building was constructed which is eco-friendly and energy efficient. To meet LEED gold certification requirements, VDI combined with thin clients solved the challenge of what desktops to install in the main computer lab given noisy, power-hungry PC workstations which generate a lot of heat were not an option.
Michael Curwin, IT manager at McMaster University’s Faculty of Engineering, explains, “The HVAC[1] systems would have had to been totally redesigned costing literally millions if we’d used traditional desktops. Clearly that wasn’t realistic plus when you’ve got 55 students in a room, workstations are far too loud and it’s impossible to teach. Also, our endpoints required a big spec to run processor intensive CAD software from AutoDesk and other ISVs which all first-year students have to learn how to use.”
The IT project team first considered using laptops and Apple iMacs during the proof of concept,. These were rejected in favour of investing in VDI as all the necessary computing power, cooling and EUC management overhead could then be centralized at its datacenter on campus.
Twelve years ago, VDI as a technology was on the cusp of shifting from a hardware to software-centric architecture. Curwin says, “Many people didn’t think you could run CAD over it properly because of latency and jitter with the graphics when you take a 3D object and start spinning it around. With the support of our IT partners, we got everything working so well that 25 higher education institutions in Canada came to see how we did it.”
Today, the new IGEL UD3 endpoints connect to VMware Horizon running on 20 dedicated virtualized IBM servers, each with two 30 GB graphics cards. NVIDIA virtual GPU technology load-balances this graphics processing power to enhance the user experience of every student connected to the network. A vSAN cluster comprising 160 hard drives also helps speed up the read/write process and data storage.
Elliptical shaped computer lab aids effective teaching
Given the success of VDI over the years, IGEL UD3 endpoints have been installed throughout the five Engineering Faculty buildings with administrative staff using them as well as students. But it is in the main computer lab where VDI and thin clients have really come to the fore.
The lab has an innovative elliptical shaped design – the first in North America – which lets lecturers stand in the middle of the room while students are seated around the edge of the ellipse looking in. After a presentation, they can then ‘spin around’ in their chairs and work accessing VDI-delivered applications using a IGEL UD3 endpoint connected to a monitor, keyboard and mouse positioned behind. This allows lecturers to stand at their shoulders and provide close guidance as necessary.
Furthermore, when not physically in the lab, 500 VDI licences purchased by the university enable students to log in using any browser-based device like smartphone, Chromebook or iPad to access a virtual Windows 10 desktop and applications like Ansys, MatLab, YouTube and Microsoft Office. This means they don’t have to buy expensive high-end computers to study and can work from anywhere at any time which has been hugely important during the coronavirus pandemic.
Curwin adds, “As it turned out, we were pandemic prepared and able to support students to do CAD design 24/7. And as we now move to a hybrid learning future – where some students work from home and others are on campus – we have the infrastructure in place to enable this easily.”
The advantages of using IGEL UD3 endpoints are numerous. Over and above the power and heat consumption benefits, endpoint security is improved and there is a huge amortized cost gain as these solid-state devices last three times as long as a PC or laptop. This results in better use of finite budgets and less IT into landfill. And there are additional ‘soft’ benefits, too. Controlling endpoints is quicker, easier and done remotely, including shadowing, using IGEL UMS with devices ‘locked down’ and auto-configurable if accidently unplugged.
Curwin says, “As much as you can make IT sexy, this is it. The investment in VDI has really paid off in terms of day-to-day management but also student recruitment. A year after the computer lab opened, the then provost visited and asked first year students what they thought of it. Unsolicited an undergraduate said that it was one of the reasons why she came to McMaster University to study which was a beautiful moment for us.”
Ken Shipman, IGEL’s regional sales manager in Canada, says, “McMaster University has become a huge evangelist about the value and benefits of VDI. They have a high-performance state-of-the-art system for students which – combined with easy to manage and reliable endpoints from IGEL – shows just what a compelling solution it is for academia.”
About IGEL
IGEL is one of the world’s leading providers of next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. The company’s innovative software products include IGEL OS, IGEL Universal Management Suite
(UMS), and IGEL Cloud Gateway
(ICG). These solutions comprise a more secure, manageable, and high-performance endpoint management and control platform across nearly any x86 device and some ARM/RPI4 devices. Easily acquired via just two feature-rich software offerings, — Workspace Edition and Enterprise Management Pack — IGEL software presents outstanding value per investment. IGEL enables enterprises to save vast amounts of money by extending the useful life of their existing endpoint devices while precisely controlling all devices running IGEL OS from a single dashboard interface. IGEL has offices in Europe and the United States and is represented by partners in over 50 countries. For more information on IGEL, visit www.igel.com.
[1] Heating, ventilation and air conditioning
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]]>The post United Living Turns to IGEL to Reduce EUC Costs, Connect Site Offices and Enable Home Working appeared first on IGEL.
]]>Driven by its strong company values to leave a positive, sustainable legacy behind, United Living is always exploring ways to reduce its carbon footprint. The use of IGEL OS has seen the conversion of around 130 PCs. As a device’s carbon value is typically incurred during the manufacturing process, it can take two years to offset. By extending the life of these devices, United Living has ensured that it becomes incrementally more sustainable. In addition to the actual hardware savings, further costs were realised as a three-year anti-virus software and maintenance subscription was not renewed given the built-in security features of IGEL OS.
United Living provides essential services to the owners and operators of critical UK property and infrastructure assets and creates the communities where people want to live, work and play. The business employs 1,100 staff and has revenues of over £500m.
United Living uses Citrix Virtual Apps to provide a standard desktop for a range of staff who work on projects and temporary site offices around the country. They access standard Microsoft Office applications, Microsoft SharePoint along with the company’s finance system.
John Merrick, United Living’s IT service manager, explains, “We move these desktop PCs around from project to project. Getting a great Citrix experience for colleagues who use them was impacted as the endpoint hardware and associated operating system were old. We were looking for a solution which meant we could reutilise existing investment in hardware while boosting the end-user experience which is why we selected IGEL.”
Supplied by Bytes Software Services, one of IGEL’s authorised expert partners, IGEL OS has been used to convert the PCs into locked-down and easy to manage endpoints.
The PCs at site offices link back to a private cloud environment using Citrix SD-WAN[1]. Merrick adds, “We made the transition to IGEL OS easily, cost effectively and efficiently.”
Users are presented with a desktop with a similar ‘look and feel’ to Windows which has helped with uptake and adoption. IGEL OS also allows digital cameras and other external storage drives to be connected – devices commonly used in the construction industry.
United Living has realised a range of other benefits:
Merrick says, “Ultimately, end-users have commented how much quicker the PCs are – they turn them on and they’re working in seconds not minutes. That’s been the best feedback as no one ever really thanks you for boosting efficiency.”
The use of IGEL OS meant that United Living was able to respond quickly to COVID-19 by loading the OS onto laptops – typically used at the main offices – for staff to then use at home. Merrick says, “We’ve used some of our IGEL licences to mobilise people to work from home. The laptops connect to Citrix NetScaler providing access to our virtual desktop and applications.”
Moving forward, United Living is positive about the future. Merrick says, “IGEL is a trusted partner. We know that when we introduce new technologies or functionalities whether that be Microsoft Teams or a new version of Citrix for example, IGEL will support us.”
Simon Townsend, IGEL’s chief marketing officer, says “Working from anywhere is here to stay. IGEL OS is designed to enable firms to support their staff to do this and the United Living project is an excellent example. Irrespective of whether their staff work at different project sites or from home, our software offers easy management, security, performance and, the best bit, lower EUC costs to the business.”
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About IGEL
IGEL is one of the world’s leading providers of next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. The company’s innovative software products include IGEL OS, IGEL Universal Management Suite
(UMS), and IGEL Cloud Gateway
(ICG). These solutions comprise a more secure, manageable and high-performance endpoint management and control platform across nearly any x86 device and some ARM/RPI4 devices. Easily acquired via just two feature-rich software offerings, — Workspace Edition and Enterprise Management Pack — IGEL software presents outstanding value per investment. IGEL enables enterprises to save vast amounts of money by extending the useful life of their existing endpoint devices while precisely controlling all devices running IGEL OS from a single dashboard interface. IGEL has offices in Europe and the United States and is represented by partners in over 50 countries. For more information on IGEL, visit www.igel.com.
[1] Software-defined wide area network
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]]>The post Severn Trent turns to IGEL OS for an Easy to Manage and Secure End-User Computing Solution appeared first on IGEL.
]]>Severn Trent is a FTSE100 company employing around 7,000 staff. It provides clean water and wastewater services to more than 4.6 million households and businesses in the Midlands and Wales, as well as developing renewal energy solutions such as anaerobic digestion, hydropower, solar and wind turbines. It supplies 2 billion litres of clean water every day – that’s over 83 million litres every hour – whilst treating 3.1 billion litres of wastewater.
The company first implemented thin client computing in 2010 when it moved into a custom-built head office in the centre of Coventry. The technology was installed to lower desktop power consumption and boost energy efficiency thereby eliminating the need for air conditioning throughout the building.
Mark Challis, Severn Trent’s technical specialist for end-user computing (EUC), explains, “Running our legacy thin client environment over the years has been incredibly difficult verging on the impossible. The management software has been hard to use such that we couldn’t easily update or patch the 6,000 endpoints we have across the business. Device security had become a major issue, too.”
In addition, the incumbent hardware couldn’t support Severn Trent‘s cloud migration journey. The business operates two UK-based data centres – one in Solihull, the other in Wokingham. The adoption of cloud services wholesale across the company has been driven by the need to vacate the Solihul site – the building lease was due to expire – rather than incur the huge cost of investing again in a physical location.
Working closely with Microsoft and Cognizant, all compute and storage platforms have been migrated to Microsoft Azure, with Office 365 now adopted across the business.
In tandem, Severn Trent has shifted end-user computing from an on-premise Citrix virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment to a Citrix Cloud service hosted on the new Microsoft Azure platform.
Challis adds, “The legacy thin client terminals had an old version of Internet Explorer ‘baked’ into the firmware which doesn’t work with the version of Citrix Storefront we use for our VDA connections. This meant we couldn’t move forward with our Citrix estate upgrade, so it was absolutely crucial to change the endpoints as well as deploy a solution to enhance management.”
Challis continues, “In terms of selecting a new partner, our enterprise architect has a good relationship with Microsoft who recommended we speak to IGEL given they are dynamic vendor and are ahead of the curve when it comes to EUC digital workspaces.”
Severn Trent has purchased 6,000 IGEL OS licenses along with IGEL’s management software, the Universal Management Suite (UMS), to seamlessly manage the whole environment. This enables the EUC team to create profiles and distribute them quickly to each endpoint device. Challis explains, “The IGEL OS is lightweight at 1 GB. We can push a whole image out in minutes and have full visibility of each endpoint in real-time. It’s the speed we can update each endpoint which is impressive, along with the usability of UMS. This is of paramount importance given the number of locations we have.”
In addition, IGEL OS is fully optimized to work flawlessly with Office 365 including modern communications software like Teams. The previous solution could not.
Endpoint hardware updated with IGEL OS installed
As part of the project, the decision was made to update endpoint hardware and install IGEL OS on this. Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny-in-One (TIO) 24-inch monitors have been purchased which enable a ThinkCentre M625 thin client terminal to be docked within it. It is a neat and elegant solution requiring only one power socket – not multiple messy cables – and means ugly monitor arms can be avoided for each desktop. The TIO monitors come with a 1080p webcam and built-in speaker bar for video communications.
The business is currently in the implementation process. Around 2,400 devices have been installed at the Coventry HQ, chairman’s office in London and Severn Trent’s main call centre in Derby. Over time, the roll out will cover all 110 locations to include water treatment and sewage works, two other call centres and a disaster recovery site. Here existing thin client hardware will be converted using the IGEL OS rather than new equipment being bought. The business is also looking at how it can utilise IGEL’s UD Pocket to provide third party contractors secure access to its systems.
Simon Townsend, IGEL’s chief marketing officer says, “The use of VDI and IGEL OS in a company like Severn Trent is ideal where you have thousands of employees across many sites. Staff can work from home, on location or in the office as they like. And the management of these geographically disperse endpoints is made far easier. This reduces costs and boosts efficiency which is key given Severn Trent is Ofwat regulated and Asset Management Plans and spending are scrutinized heavily.”
For images to accompany this press release, click on the link below
https://www.severntrent.com/media/media-library/
IGEL on Social Media
Twitter: www.twitter.com/IGEL_Technology
Facebook: www.facebook.com/igel.technology
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/igel-technology
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/IGELTechnologyTV
IGEL Community: www.igel.com/community
About IGEL
IGEL provides the next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. The company’s world-leading software products include IGEL OS, IGEL UD Pocket
(UDP) and IGEL Universal Management Suite
(UMS). These solutions comprise a more secure, manageable and cost-effective endpoint management and control platform across nearly any x86-64 device. Easily acquired via just two feature-rich software offerings, — Workspace Edition and Enterprise Management Pack — IGEL software presents outstanding value per investment. Additionally, IGEL’s German engineered endpoint solutions deliver the industry’s best hardware warranty (5 years), software maintenance (3 years after end of life) and management functionality. IGEL enables enterprises to save vast amounts of money by extending the useful life of their existing endpoint devices while precisely controlling all devices running IGEL OS from a single dashboard interface. IGEL has offices worldwide and is represented by partners in over 50 countries. For more information on IGEL, visit www.igel.com.
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]]>The post IGEL helps 4,500 staff from Standard Life Assurance, part of Phoenix Group, to work from home appeared first on IGEL.
]]>Taking just weeks to roll out in full – an amazing achievement given the scale – the IT team has implemented an easy to use, secure and centrally managed solution utilising IGEL’s comprehensive suite of EUC technology. Staff then access their normal CRM applications to support customers.
With an operational headquarters in Edinburgh, Phoenix Group, is a member of the FTSE100 index and has around 14 million policies and £338 billion of assets under administration.
Standard Life Assurance customers include individual savers, some of the largest employers in the UK as well as independent financial advisors. Most of its customer-facing operations teams are office-based and use desktop PCs with dual monitors to deal with everything from pension and investment queries to account administration. To respond to the pandemic, it was vital to get the Edinburgh teams quickly set up to work effectively from home.
Kevin McVitie, Technician, IT Service Operations, Phoenix Group, explains, “When we started looking at how to deliver WFH, we considered purchasing more laptops. The business had about 1,200 but – to cater for 4,500 employees – we struggled to buy more given the increase demand for laptops from organisations globally. And as many staff didn’t have appropriate endpoints at home, this drove us to look at how we could repurpose our existing estate of PCs which were now sitting idle in the office.”
IGEL OS has been used to convert these PCs into ‘locked down’ endpoints which then connect to Citrix Workspace. Everyone has been provided – literally in a box – an IGEL OS-powered desktop, two monitors, keyboard, mouse, Ethernet cable and headset. IGEL multimedia UD3 endpoints with built in Wi-Fi have also been sent to some employees.
John Kerr, Senior Delivery Manager, IT Service Operations, Phoenix Group says, “Our customers are at the heart of everything we do. It was vital to us that we ensured continuity of service for our customers and ensured that all our teams were set up for success, to work from home . With normal large scale IT projects, we may take several months to agree requirements, review the market, build a solution and undertake operational and end-user testing. Responding to Coronavirus, we knew we had just weeks to be ready to ‘go live’ which is why we came up with the ‘Office in a Box’ idea.”
McVitie adds, “To facilitate our WFH deployment, IGEL Cloud Gateway is used to connect and manage all the home-based devices not on our corporate network. We’ve used Cloud Gateway before so we knew the platform worked well and, in conjunction with IGEL OS, that’s why we were confident we could implement ‘Office in a Box’ so fast and reliably for the business.”
Delivering WFH also highlighted that some colleagues didn’t have fast enough broadband to underpin a stable service. For those needing it, a dongle providing 4G mobile broadband was also provided.
IGEL OS has delivered immediate benefits
McVitie adds, “IGEL is also assisting us from an ongoing business resilience perspective. We work with a third-party workspace supplier who provide physical desktops, chairs, phones and shared PCs for business continuity purposes. IGEL’s UD Pocket is a simple solution – which comes on a thumb size USB drive – to get around the security issues of using shared equipment. In the event of an outage, we provide colleagues with a UD Pocket each which they insert into a PC, IGEL OS boots up directly, with a network connection then established to our datacenter so Citrix can be accessed.”
Moving forward, ‘Office in Box’ hardware will remain with employees, meaning irrespective of whether they work at home in the future or come into the office, they’ll have access to the same applications. Kerr says, “The bottom line is we delivered a two-year project in weeks. That’s because of IGEL OS, the ease of management of the whole environment, plus the hard work of our IT department and logistics teams. People have been able to work pretty much as normal offering the kind of customer service that our clients expect. It’s been fabulous.”
Ken Dougan, IGEL’s regional sales manager for Scotland, says, “The whole idea behind delivering an IGEL OS-powered PC was simplicity – the user can’t get anything wrong. They don’t have to worry about installing Citrix, thinking about what version they have and there’s nothing to break either because all the endpoint does is present them with a familiar login screen.”
To watch a film about the project, click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3mgvuhxi_8
IGEL on Social Media
Twitter: www.twitter.com/IGEL_Technology
Facebook: www.facebook.com/igel.technology
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/igel-technology
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/IGELTechnologyTV
IGEL Community: www.igel.com/community
About IGEL
IGEL provides the next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. The company’s world-leading software products include IGEL OS, IGEL UD Pocket
(UDP) and IGEL Universal Management Suite
(UMS). These solutions comprise a more secure, manageable and cost-effective endpoint management and control platform across nearly any x86-64 device. Easily acquired via just two feature-rich software offerings, — Workspace Edition and Enterprise Management Pack — IGEL software presents outstanding value per investment. Additionally, IGEL’s German engineered endpoint solutions deliver the industry’s best hardware warranty (5 years), software maintenance (3 years after end of life) and management functionality. IGEL enables enterprises to save vast amounts of money by extending the useful life of their existing endpoint devices while precisely controlling all devices running IGEL OS from a single dashboard interface. IGEL has offices worldwide and is represented by partners in over 50 countries. For more information on IGEL, visit www.igel.com.
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]]>The post Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust invests £5m to upgrade IT infrastructure, refreshing its EUC estate using IGEL appeared first on IGEL.
]]>This is part of a £5 million investment the Trust is making to replace and refresh its entire IT infrastructure including compute, storage, WAN/LAN network and thin client platforms. This significant upgrade project is putting in place modern, class-leading technology to support the Trust, provide high quality clinical care and services for around 820,000 local residents.
Located in the Northeast of Manchester, Pennine Acute Hospitals serves the communities of Bury, Rochdale and Oldham along with surrounding towns and villages. Employing 10,000 staff, it operates four hospitals: Fairfield General Hospital, North Manchester General Hospital, Royal Oldham Hospital and Rochdale Infirmary.
As part of the overall project, the necessity to change the EUC platform was pressing. Pennine Acute Hospital’s existing thin client solution was already a decade old, over 2,000 hardware devices were end-of-life and no longer supported; and it had a requirement to expand the use of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and thin clients across the organisation. To complicate matters, the devices couldn’t be centrally or easily controlled because the server-based management software was not up-to-date.
Jav Yaqub, the Trust’s head of infrastructure, explains, “The upshot was we were consuming a huge amount of time trying to maintain and run our thin client desktops, with major platform mismatches hindering our ability to roll out new operating systems like Windows 10 or deploy Office 365, which was crucial as NHS Digital has mandated that Windows 7 be removed from all desktops. ”
After a successful trial, the decision was made to select IGEL for the new EUC solution. In tandem, the Trust updated its entire compute systems in its datacentre installing a Dell EMC VxRail hyperconverged infrastructure platform as well as Dell EMC network attached Isilon, Data Domain and ECS storage.
The new VxRail compute platform is also used to host VMware Horizon – the Trust’s VDI solution – with 3,000 IGEL OS licenses and 500 new IGEL UD3 endpoints purchased, along with IGEL’s management software, the Universal Management Suite (UMS). IGEL Cloud Gateway was acquired to centrally manage endpoints not on the corporate network. Furthermore, NVIDIA virtual GPU technology is being trailed within the VxRail environment to share graphics power and capability across the VDI estate.
IGEL OS deliver significant operational and financial advantages
The move to IGEL OS and UD3 thin client endpoints is already delivering substantial benefits:
Yaqub says, “The infrastructure update project has been hard work. We’ve done about four years work in just two with staff now commenting that they’ve seen big improvements in system performance, speed, flexibility and the IT teams’ ability to deliver. This makes all the graft worthwhile and rewarding, and IGEL has played an important part in enabling this.”
Moving forward, Pennine Acute Trust is reviewing how it can increase the scope of VDI and thin client usage within the organisation. Using the IGEL OS, the goal is to convert more desktop devices in other departments like estates and finance into locked down, centrally controlled and secure endpoints.
The IT team is also working on a proof of concept within the radiology specialty to capitalise on the graphics capability of the new backend infrastructure. This could allow radiologists working internationally to access its systems using VDI and powerful multimedia IGEL endpoints – rather than expensive laptops being provided – to review and study MRI and X-ray scans to aid with patient illness diagnosis and treatment.
Simon Townsend, IGEL’s chief marketing officer says, “Ultimately technology in the health service is all about delivering better patient care. As an IT provider, we have our part to play in this so that clinicians and other health professionals have high performance, reliable desktop solutions offering them the very best user experience. That’s what the IGEL OS running on any endpoint hardware is designed to do.”
IGEL on Social Media
Twitter: www.twitter.com/IGEL_Technology
Facebook: www.facebook.com/igel.technology
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/igel-technology
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/IGELTechnologyTV
IGEL Community: www.igel.com/community
About IGEL
IGEL provides the next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. The company’s world-leading software products include IGEL OS, IGEL UD Pocket
(UDP) and IGEL Universal Management Suite
(UMS). These solutions comprise a more secure, manageable and cost-effective endpoint management and control platform across nearly any x86-64 device. Easily acquired via just two feature-rich software offerings, — Workspace Edition and Enterprise Management Pack — IGEL software presents outstanding value per investment. Additionally, IGEL’s German engineered endpoint solutions deliver the industry’s best hardware warranty (5 years), software maintenance (3 years after end of life) and management functionality. IGEL enables enterprises to save vast amounts of money by extending the useful life of their existing endpoint devices while precisely controlling all devices running IGEL OS from a single dashboard interface. IGEL has offices worldwide and is represented by partners in over 50 countries. For more information on IGEL, visit www.igel.com.
The post Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust invests £5m to upgrade IT infrastructure, refreshing its EUC estate using IGEL appeared first on IGEL.
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