It’s clear from the headlines that today’s approach to endpoint security isn’t working: take your OS, install antivirus, the latest XDR and DLP, make a lot of settings, harden that with custom scripts, install your applications, keep updating those applications and the OS and the AV and DLP….. and hope that all these steps keep the wolf from the door and the ransomware out of your systems.  Does your business financial data, personal health information or any other data feel secure?

With many of today’s workloads moving from the endpoint to SaaS, DaaS, VDI or being accessed through secure browsers, and many organizations looking at how to apply Zero Trust, isn’t it time to re-evaluate the endpoint?

What if you could put an endpoint OS into your workforce’s hands that was designed for the cloud-first world that doesn’t need high levels of care and feeding to remain healthy? Something that is more robust by its nature, that had built-in preventative components or measures, as in “Prevention is better than cure.”?

IGEL OS applies a number of core principles that make it a secure choice as an endpoint OS – the Preventative Security Model.

A Safe Place for Your Data

The best place for your business data is definitely not on the endpoint device that could be lost, stolen, left on a plane,   Put your applications and data on servers in a data center – whether you call this approach server-based computing, VDI, cloud, DaaS or SaaS. Windows and its applications run great there, SaaS applications have proven to be more secure than the endpoint – patched by professionals, constantly updated, protected by network security, physical security, fire protection, uninterruptible power supplies, backup, failover…

With this approach, your endpoint can run a minimal system that excels in securely enabling access to your hosted workloads. The endpoint now holds nothing of interest for an attacker – ticking the device box for your Zero Trust review.

Encrypted

The configuration information which is the only item of potential value is stored by IGEL OS on a separate disk partition encrypted with industry-standard AES256 in XTS-plain64 mode with 512 bits of key material. If your hardware supports TPM 2.0, IGEL OS will use it to protect the encryption keys.

Read-Only Is Robust

The rest of IGEL OS, its Linux operating system and the programs, are mounted read-only. This means that a user  – or malware – can’t change them by mistake or by ill intent. And it also means that malware can’t find a foothold there and persist. Its solid Linux foundation kept NHS hospitals using IGEL OS functioning when many others were brought down by the WannaCry malware wave that affected Windows in 2017.

Additionally, all the disk partitions on IGEL OS are cryptographically hashed and signed. This guarantees they come from IGEL and have not been tampered with. The signatures are checked on every boot, during runtime, and before you install a system update or an IGEL OS app. Also, IGEL uses UEFI Secure Boot with a signed bootloader and Linux Kernel to make sure the booted system is trustworthy.

Endpoint Control

Besides this core OS robustness, IGEL’s Universal Management Suite (UMS) lets you lock down every IGEL’s endpoint to control everything from a system’s network configuration to when the screensaver and screenlock kick in. With the IGEL App Portal, you install only what your staff need to do their work, and nothing more. IGEL native apps are available from Citrix, VMware, Imprivata, Cisco, Okta and more.  IGEL OS logs can be forwarded to your SIEM of choice integrating with your monitoring and alerting frameworks for familiar and coherent visibility.

Restore and Update Fast

It is also easy to replace an IGEL OS endpoint that has failed: IGEL ships from the factory on HEP, Lenovo and LG devices, or you can IGEL an existing device that you may have to hand within a matter of minutes. A complete factory reset on the existing hardware will pull down its latest configuration and apps from UMS and is ready to be used.

Due to the much smaller IGEL OS footprint, a full system update finishes within a few minutes and can be scheduled outside office hours using UMS. IGEL’s failsafe update keeps the previous system as a fallback should the update fail, maybe because of a power cut. This means that an IGEL OS device will always be able to boot, get on the network and keep employees productive.

Tested and Trusted

To make and keep IGEL OS secure IGEL has a dedicated Security Team and employs a Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC) that covers all steps from the idea and design of a new feature up to its release in a new product version. It contains in-house tasks as diverse as threat modeling, design review, code review, static and dynamic application security testing and documentation. Additionally, we have all our software undergo independent penetration testing by external providers every year.

Save Time, Money and Nerves

This is, in very short terms, the Preventative Security Model of IGEL OS. It is supported by a company with more than 20 years of experience in end user computing and Linux – a company with the experience and knowledge to support you. IGEL will help you save time, money, and nerves, despite the ever-increasing crescendo of security issues clamoring for your attention.

The post Preventative Security for your Endpoints – Prevention Is Better Than Cure appeared first on IGEL.

Have you ever been in a situation where you have a user with brand new endpoints out in the field, at home, or elsewhere, and you need to guide them to be able to access your Citrix published Desktops and/or Apps environment? Has there at any time been any problems when onboarding users, making them install the right components and configure their machines in the correct way?

IGEL has been working hard to make onboarding IGEL OS users in the field very easy. With the release of the IGEL Cloud Gateway (ICG), this has already been a reality for many years. Let me explain to you what is needed to make a very smooth onboarding of remote users and actually get them productive within minutes from the first power on of their IGEL OS endpoint.

The goal is to have a brand new IGEL OS endpoint be onboarded by a non-technical user and have that user not have to understand the technology or install any software – just follow a simple guide, fill out the information that the user knows, and get going!

The minimum requirement will be to have the user select the language of the operating system, set what keyboard layout to use, then connect to a wireless network if that is needed, and finally use their email address to tie the IGEL OS endpoint to the secured IGEL OS management infrastructure. This is almost what is needed, but there is actually a technical thing necessary, that is to fulfill the security aspect, so you will need to have a deployment key distributed to the user, to ensure that only authorized users can enroll devices. The deployment key can be issued in either Single Use mode or Mass deployment
– Single Use = you will send a unique key to each user. When the key is used, it can’t be used again
– Mass Deployment = You will send a generic key to your users that can be used over and over again (until you disable that key)

Prerequisites

• IGEL Universal Management Suite – Installation instructions: UMS Installation and Update (igel.com)
• IGEL Cloud Gateway – Installation instrucktions: Installation and Setup (igel.com)
• Brand new IGEL OS endpoint, or an IGEL UD Pocket

As a baseline for this article, I’m currently using a IGEL UMS and IGEL ICG that’s running in my Azure Tenant at the Sweden Central location. I have my Citrix Cloud hosted in European Union (I assume that is located in the Azure WestEU datacenter), and I have my Citrix Desktop delivered from virtual machines in Sweden Central. My IGEL OS endpoint that you see in the video at the end of the article is in my home office on the west coast of Sweden.

Here Is How You Do It, Let’s Get Started!

I will assume that you already have an IGEL Universal Management Suite (UMS) installed together with an externally (from the internet) reachable ICG Cloud Gateway (ICG). The further below steps are what is needed to be done to get the simple onboarding to be a reality.

Add The DNS TXT Record

IGEL UMS and ICG leverage the DNS TXT records to find the correct ICG server to connect to, when you have set up the TXT record in your public DNS, the ICG agent on IGEL OS will be able to resolve the ICG address based on the email address that the user provides, which makes the onboarding. An example could be that the ICG is having a DNS name that is icg.azure.virtualbrat.com while the user email address will be user1@virtualbrat.com, the DNS TXT record resolves @virtualbrat.com part (domain name) of the email address to icg.azure.virtualbrat.com.

If you have a running UMS + ICG environment already, but don’t use the TXT record resolving yet, you simply need to login to your DNS provider and add the TXT record.
Set the TXT ‘Node Name’ to igel-cloud-gateway and value to https://your.icg.fqdn:yourport/usg/endpoint like in the below screenshot:

Set Up Your Default Directory Rules

The whole idea of Fast onboarding is to make the process super easy for a user in the field to gain access to the corporate desktop or published resources, so be it in the cloud or on-premises. The IGEL Universal Management Suite (UMS) has a nice feature called Default Directory rules, giving the opportunity to push distinguished configurations based on the container (or folder) that the IGEL OS endpoint belongs to. IGEL UMS can automatically place an IGEL OS endpoint in a specific container based on certain criteria. This complete ruleset can be extended in very advanced ways, it is all about thinking of what use case you want to fulfill, finding the correct criteria to apply the default directory rules to and the rest will be handled by the IGEL UMS! As a matter of fact, there is a default directory rule that I will use that is very simple –

1. Create a new Default Directory Rule
2. Select the “IGEL Cloud Gateway” criterion, click Next
3. Select “Last Boot via ICG”, click Next
4. Select “Choose target directory”, click Next
5. Select your appointed target directory in the tree view, and check “Overrides existing directory membership” plus “Apply when device boots”
6. Click “Finish”

You have now created a Default Directory Rule that will place ALL IGEL OS endpoints connecting from remote through the IGEL Cloud Gateway to be placed in the selected directory.

Automatic IGEL OS License Deployment Of Brand New IGEL OS Endpoints In The Field

The IGEL UMS can automatically assign licenses to the newly configured IGEL OS endpoint no matter if they are on-premises or out in the field. First off you will of course need to have new IGEL OS licenses available. When this prerequisite is met, you can assign a license deployment rule to the container of your field IGEL OS endpoints.

Create The Set Of Profiles And Assign Them To Your IGEL OS Remote Endpoints

I will do this very simple, and just create one IGEL UMS profile pointing the Citrix Workspace App to my Citrix Cloud Workspace connection address (This could be the Citrix ADC gateway address for on-premise scenarios) and some administrative settings, like setting an NTP time server sync, etc. Plus I will create an IGEL OS Firmware Customization to set a specific wallpaper and some other customizations to modify the user interface on IGEL OS. I will then assign the profile and firmware customization to my container of remote IGEL OS endpoints. The ultimate goal when I configure my IGEL UMS profiles in my scenario will be an auto-launching Citrix Workspace App connecting to my Citrix cloud environment and asking for user credentials, this will be the default behavior every time all my IGEL OS endpoints start’s up to provide a simple and consistent user experience.

That’s it! By following this guide from start to end you will enable simple enrollment of IGEL OS endpoints in the field, leaving your Users to have a very simple onboarding experience. What’s extra nice about this is that the time it took for you to read this article, actually in practice is only a few minutes of configuration to be done when you know what to configure, and how. In the video below you have the end result, showing the user experience of onboarding an IGEL OS 11 endpoint and enabling the user to be productive within minutes.

The post Fast Onboarding to Citrix Desktops with IGEL OS – Better together! appeared first on IGEL.

In episode I talk to Ewen Anderson who is the CIO of PX3.

Ewen starts with an overview of his career in which he has been working in IT for 30 years including some time as an IGEL partner. Four years ago, Ewen and his co-founder Justin Sutton Parker founded PX3 to address a gap they saw in the IT industry around independent science-based information on sustainability and IT.

We then look at what is sustainability and why it has become so important to companies. In fact, most companies annual reports now include sustainability as a strategic business objective.

We look at the pandemic and the impact it is had on the environment and how remote working is a key driver in reducing emissions.

We also investigate how EUC has a major impact on emissions and is responsible for 1% of Global emissions which is on a par with the airline industry which I thought was a shocking statistic.

We discuss the partnership with PX3 the work with one of IGEL’s customers and the environmental and cost savings they made by extending the life of existing devices and also how it saved the resources because 3,120 new devices were not manufactured.

We review how efficient the hyperscale data centres are and how from an environmental perspective it makes sense to move your local workloads from your own “Data Centre” to the cloud. In fact, running those workloads in the cloud can be 7 times more efficient than running locally.

To quote Ewen Green IT can be Great IT!

To conclude we look at companies’ sustainability goals and how Ewen would like to see net zero embedded into all companies as a strategy.

We need to make the consumption of excess electricity  and disposable of devices as socially unacceptable as smoking has become.

You can see further information on sustainability and the details of the report at: IGEL Sustainability – Join the Revolution – IGEL

Watch the Life on the Edge Podcast Season 2 Episode 2

UPCOMING ON LIFE ON THE EDGE PODCAST

Stay tuned for our next Life on the Edge podcasts we have lots lined up for 2022!

Subscribe today to IGEL’s channel on YouTube so you don’t miss any of our upcoming episodes. You’ll find the latest and all previous episodes on under the Life on the Edge video podcast playlist. When you subscribe, be sure to enable notifications so you know as soon as a new episode is posted. As always, we aim to deliver the valuable content that will make your Life on the Edge an amazing experience.

For all of those who like to listen to podcasts on the go Life on the Edge is now available as on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.

Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy the episode.

The post Life on the Edge Season 2 Episode 2: Sustainability appeared first on IGEL.

Tarkan began innovating new products and apps at the age of 15 when he and his friends developed the first pre-online version of what would be a combination of Google maps and Trip Advisor today.  They sold the map to Istanbul restaurants and hotels to businesses who could put their logo on them, and Tarkan’s entrepreneurial journey began. Born in Ankara, Turkey, he spent part of his youth in Germany due to his dad’s electrical engineering career. Fluent in Turkish, German, French and English, he earned degrees in industrial engineering management, an M.B.A., as well as credentials from Harvard’s advanced management program.

He joined Computer Associates, taking on a number of roles for founder Charles Wang, and then CEO Sanjay Kumar, developing expertise in product management and business development. While representing the company in Asia he met the founders of Wyse. The company at the time was in financial distress. Tarkan moved to Wyse and was instrumental in turning the company around and rebuilding its business. In 2012 Dell completed its acquisition of Wyse, renaming the company Dell Wyse.

Tarkan and IGEL agree that the hybrid environment opens up new opportunities for EUC innovation, and that Nutanix’s approach to closer collaboration with cloud providers is the right strategy for companies wanting to increase market opportunities in the EUC, VDI and cloud space.

Tune in and hear Tarkan talk about where Microsoft and IGEL fit in the hybrid environment of the future. And you’ll never guess what Tarkan did to earn money as a student when he first came to the U.S.!

On Wyse Zero Clients. “Cheaper was not the differentiator. It was complete control and secure computing, that you can control and manage users…and provide ultimate security with no attack surface.”

On Recruiting Talent. “To attract people, you need to give them the autonomy, the environment where they can learn and excel…we treat every employee as a partner and CEO in their own right.”

On Product Management. “Companies sometimes fail because they don’t pay attention to product management. Great engineers cannot achieve great goals unless the right product management is established….Product managers run a business.”

On the Channel. “There is a myth that the channel is dead…it is never going to be dead because we cannot do this alone as vendors…the key differentiator to succeed in the channel is to be authentic…to walk the walk.”

On EUC’s Future. “EUC and EUC as a service in a hybrid world is going to be a bigger opportunity…The pandemic showed us you need to be careful about security control and remote life.”

Watch Episode 8 Here:

Thanks for stopping by The Attic. Some of our upcoming guests include Scott Manchester, Director of Program Management for Windows 365, and ‘godfather’ of the Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) product.

Exciting news:  “The Attic” is now available across all major podcast stations, including Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music and more. New episodes are added to The Attic every month. Don’t miss a single episode! Tune in to The Attic by subscribing to the IGEL YouTube Channel or visit The Attic on PodBean for direct links to all of the ways to listen in on your preferred podcast platform.

The post “The Attic” Video Podcast Episode 8: How EUC is well positioned in the hybrid world with Tarkan Maner appeared first on IGEL.

Malware is also becoming an increasingly simple endeavor for cybercriminals, even those who are new to the space. “With tools like PowerSploit, PowerWare and Cobalt Strike, even low-skilled attackers can take everyday malware payloads and execute them using sophisticated memory injection techniques to evade detection,” the report said. Similarly, ransomware-as-a-service is helping escalate ransomware attacks. “Would-be criminals no longer need coding skills to carry out devastating attacks against organizations thanks to commoditized offerings available on the dark web and underground forums,” WatchGuard noted.

The post Ransomware Endpoint Threats: How to Fight Back appeared first on IGEL.

82% of company leaders plan to continue offering hybrid work models (Gartner) and 73% of workers want them to continue. Source: Microsoft 2021 Work Trend Index

Virtual Apps, desktops and digital workspaces are core elements to enabling a secure and productive hybrid work model.  At IGEL, our focus is to provide a secure and consistently compatible workspace on a familiar graphical user interface making it easier for people to navigate across various devices and work sources from any location.

Citrix Workspace simplifies the job of managing apps, devices, users, and networks. It gives people a unified view of all their documents and applications, and protects company data with industry-leading security, activity monitoring, and analytics.  IGEL OS on the endpoint device delivers a compatible and intelligent solution for fast, frictionless, and secure access to Citrix Workspace.

With over two decades of experience and a dedicated team of developers with a steadfast focus on the customer’s needs, IGEL OS is purpose-built for streamlined access to virtual desktops at scale in enterprise environments. It can run on any compatible x86-64 device, and is validated on HP thin clients, LG All-in-One, and Lenovo devices. The unified endpoint management and control solution allows IT admins to deploy and manage hundreds of thousands of IGEL OS endpoints from a single console without a VPN.

As a longstanding Citrix Ready partner, IGEL stays in lockstep with the latest version of Citrix Workspace and Citrix Workspace app. The Citrix Ready team, along with Citrix and IGEL product teams, work closely to plan, integrate, test, and validate the required functionality and criteria to achieve the Endpoint Premium and Cloud levels of partnership.

Eagle-Eyed Visibility – Simplify Management and Increase IT Agility Across Your Organization

Identify the status of and manage each workspace with Citrix and IGEL through unified endpoint management and control. The IGEL Universal Management Suite (UMS) enables IT to easily configure, deploy and update up to 300,000 IGEL OS-powered endpoint devices from a single console. With IGEL Cloud Gateway, you can manage remote “off network” endpoints without requiring a VPN.

Quickly and easily access Citrix Workspace on IGEL OS endpoint devices through an embedded browser for Citrix Workspace app. Regardless of whether the workspace is deployed across a VDI or cloud (on-prem, public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud), the Citrix Cloud platform hosts and administers Citrix services. It helps IT admins extend existing on-premises software deployments by connecting to resources on any cloud or infrastructure. It allows IT to create, deploy, and manage secure digital workspaces with apps and data to end-users from a single console.

Simply Connect, Communicate, and Collaborate

Citrix and IGEL deliver an immersive and high-fidelity unified communications and multimedia user experience within VDI or cloud workspace environments, providing Microsoft Teams and Zoom as a Citrix App client with HDX optimization. IGEL OS supports offloading much of the multimedia processing to the local operating system, while running critical real-time communications components on the device.

IGEL’s ecosystem of over 120 integrated technologies validated as IGEL Ready provides seamless integration with enterprise software and peripherals.

From the Edge to the Cloud — Protect System Integrity

Citrix in the cloud, enterprise-level security, and IGEL’s unique “chain of trust” help boost end-to-end security. Moving Windows from endpoints to the cloud provides immediate security benefits by eliminating the burden of remote Windows patching.  As a modular, read-only operating system, IGEL OS presents a much smaller attack surface on the endpoint. It also features a unique chain of trust architecture that validates every step of endpoint execution – from the endpoint device to the cloud –cryptographically.
IGEL’s management console monitors every workspace in real-time and automatically pushes security updates and firmware patches, helping to mitigate fraudulent access and breaches on the endpoint.

The Citrix Zero Trust Approach equips organizations with end-to-end solutions for realizing a zero trust architecture that defends protected surfaces. From Citrix Analytics for Security to Citrix Gateway, organizations are able to implement all mission-critical components of a zero trust architecture—all in one secure digital workspace solution.

As the IT industry still faces extended delivery lead times, optimizing the hardware and resources available is the best solution for your budget, and can support you in achieving your sustainability goals. Citrix and IGEL are focused on supporting the broadest choice of apps, cloud services, and endpoint devices for our customers. Providing a secure and consistently compatible workspace on a familiar graphical user interface makes it easier for people to navigate across various devices from any location.

Watch the video on how Citrix and IGEL offer an unbeatable combination for virtual desktops

Try it out with a free demo of IGEL OS with Citrix Workspace.

The post Secure, Productive Hybrid Working From Any Endpoint Device With Citrix and IGEL appeared first on IGEL.

The pandemic shone a spotlight on the importance for universities and colleges to have a virtual education continuity plan in place. Establishing a consistent hybrid learning space is emerging as the norm rather than the exception to enable students to securely access applications and resources whether on-campus, at their home, or in their dorm room. Equipping faculty and staff with reliable lecturing, tutorial, and administrative capabilities from a remote location play a crucial part in this space.

‘The pandemic shone a spotlight on the importance for universities and colleges to have an education continuity plan in place.’

Empower faculty and students with a collaborative and secure learning space on any device in a hybrid university campus. Sounds easy enough right? Below, I’ll highlight some ways you can streamline and mobilize your university’s learning environments and set yourself up for success.

Hybrid Learning and UYOD

As hybrid learning plans continue to be put in place, more higher learning establishments are relying on “Use Your Own Device” or “UYOD” policies. As universities continue to prioritize hybrid and remote learning options, it is becoming a necessity for students and faculty to have access to their own device. Before the pandemic, when universities were almost 100% in-person, computer labs and campus resources were heavily promoted as services for students. Now that hybrid learning is here, seemingly to stay, universities should continue to utilize UYOD policies. By equipping them, and their personal devices, with the technology (software, platforms, internet, what have you) that they need to success, you can allow your students and staff to continue their work wherever they go.

While these devices and environments may not need to be as strictly secure as they might for some companies, they still need to protect your university’s (as well as student’s) information and data. Consider all of the options before just allowing, or even asking, anyone to endanger their privacy. Make sure whatever environment you choose has the capabilities needed to provide security. These capabilities may include, but not be limited to, profile-based end-user access control, multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, and encryption.

Be Ahead of the Curve

Gone are the days of paper report cards and printed lectures. Prepare your staff for the possibility of full remote learning by offering them the resources they might need. This could be training for your university’s new virtual workspaces, or even lessons on virtual lecture best practices. Whatever it is, make sure your staff is equipped with whatever they might need to continue educating regardless of what unforeseen disruptions may occur. The same goes for your students. As your university continues to utilize hybrid learning, and continues to adopt various forms of a UYOD policy, consider what your student’s need to know, or need in general, to be as successful as possible.

Provide additional resources online as well. Students and faculty will need access to certain programs, secure testing environments, and even virtual labs. Rather than stress about moving everything online, choose services that help provide these needs.

Consider Costs

University needs are expensive – save yours and your student’s money by thinking ahead and working to move your learning environment to the cloud. This can be a stressful process, so you will want to choose technologies and structures that work with you, rather than simply sell to you. Consider options that are sustainable and flexible as well. By reusing existing hardware, as well as having your students and staff use their own devices , you can offset, or at the very lease delay, any investments in new hardware. This can in turn help you save capital expenses and reduce emissions and energy consumption incurred by the production and procurement of new devices.

Streamline solutions for your university by planning ahead, putting policies in place for remote or hybrid learning, and considering the tech needed to make those policies succeed. Highlight productivity and security, and empower your distributed faculty and students to connect, communicate, and collaborate through virtual workspaces.

This article was written by Dan O’Farrell, Sr. Director of Product Marketing for IGEL, and first published in Ed Tech Digest. 

The post Why Virtual Learning Environments Matter for Student Success appeared first on IGEL.

Christiaan became interested in computing around the age of 12 when he took apart his first PC, a Pentium 3, swapping it out for a cooler one with a transparent LED side panel. As a 14-year-old entrepreneur he built websites, then owned a computer service shop. With degrees in computer science and IT management, Christiaan later worked for an MSP, and as a consultant, focusing on Citrix and VMware. It sparked his career long passion for cloud and desktop virtualization.

His cloud experience prompted an offer from FSLogix which was developing Cloud Cache. Christiaan was hired as a technical evangelist and cloud solutions architect, leveraging his community visibility in the VDI space to introduce the product to a global audience. When FSLogix was sold to Microsoft in 2020, Christiaan moved with the team to Microsoft, and initially focused on helping integrate and educate the Microsoft teams and customers on FSLogix. Now, as part of the Windows 365 engineering team he is wearing two hats, shipping Windows product features and sharing tips and ideas to help evangelize the Windows 365 community mindset.

Christiaan and IGEL share a deep belief in moving Windows to the cloud and the value of Linux in facilitating Windows 365 Cloud PC. Tune in and hear Christiaan talk about the impact Windows 365 is making in the EUC community. Having re-located from the Netherlands to Redmond, Christiaan also has a fun story to tell about his newborn child’s passport.

On Cloud Computing. “The future is connecting to a cloud PC environment as the need to have your resources locally becomes less relevant. Cloud PCs run in the cloud so you can [scale] by purchasing another license and pay for that time. Some Windows 365 early adopters are spinning up 3,000 to 4,000 cloud PCs in a day.”

On Hardware Limitations: “Over the last 30 years you always had to purchase a new laptop to do that [EUC]. That flexibility that you get from the cloud right now is really game changing.”

On Microsoft Culture: “People from the outside think that Microsoft is the complete opposite of a startup but Microsoft has a community, and as well, a startup kind of mindset. Even in a big company like Microsoft you can still be a smaller team and create a startup culture.”

Watch Episode 7 Here:

Thanks for stopping by The Attic. Join us again next time for more insightful conversations. Some of our upcoming guests include Tarkan Maner, chief commercial officer, Nutanix.

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

The post “The Attic” Video Podcast Episode 7: How a startup community mindset is changing the future of EUC with Christiaan Brinkhoff appeared first on IGEL.

Sanjay – never a status quo believer – sought opportunities with companies beginning to innovate disruptive products and technology. He began as an engineer at Apple in the early days of Mac development, helped develop startup Alphablox (analytic applications) acquired by IBM; then spent eight years at SAP, as president of its platform, applications, and industries group, expanding SAP beyond its original ERP model.

Sanjay became an EUC icon after leaving SAP in 2013 and joining VMware to build its EUC business, recruiting the best of the best from Citrix, MobileIron and others to map the future in virtualization and deliver the tools to make EUC a viable choice for enterprises. Always a disruptor, Sanjay shook up the industry in 2014 with VMware’s acquisition of AirWatch, an enterprise mobile management and security provider. The $1.5 billion price tag was a startling number at that time.

IGEL and Sanjay have been strategic allies for more than a decade, as the two companies have had a common goal of growing the EUC business and delivering the best, most secure cloud workspace experience to enterprises and their end users. Tune in and hear Sanjay talk about the next wave of EUC innovation, why security is paramount and his new adventures.

On Security’s Future: “The next frontier is protecting source code…. developer security and understanding the vulnerabilities…. i.e. code used in early detection to detect disease as opposed to reacting later.”

On Breach Concerns: “It’s certainly a boardroom topic, as having economic impact when there’s a breach. But imagine a scenario very similar to what happened in Bopal in the 1980s. That type of incident could happen again through a hack. It’s not just economic impact, it’s lives too.”

On EUC Growth: “Work from anywhere is just starting to take off in a whole new way. End user computing is hot again. If you’re in sales you’re still going to be selling to the same buyers. They haven’t gone away..but they’re not just buying VDI now. They’re buying many other tools.” – Sanjay Poonen

Listen in and find out which security company Sanjay says could be the next CrowdStrike. Watch the Attic: Episode 6 – Sanjay Poonen.

Thanks for stopping by The Attic. Join us again next time for more insightful conversations. Some of our upcoming guests include EUC influencer Christiaan Brinkhoff, Principal PM and Community Lead, Windows 365 at Microsoft, and Tim Minahan, CMO of Citrix.

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

The post “The Attic” Video Podcast Episode 6: Why EUC is Headed for Next Major Growth Wave from Sanjay Poonen, former COO, VMware appeared first on IGEL.

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is widely used as a method to securely deliver virtual desktops and apps. However, many organizations still struggle to overcome the high entry bar needed to deploy an effective VDI. Large investments in staff/time and hardware and technical expertise stand in the way of most organizations trying to take advantage of the security, management, and end-user experience benefits VDI can offer.

Additionally, organizations normally have to maintain Windows on all their physical endpoint devices. This calls for further ongoing investment in both money and time. However, there is a workaround for companies eager to get the numerous benefits of VDI: repurposing thin clients and other computing hardware.

How do you repurpose a thin client?

Repurposing is the process of converting something to be used for something more than it was manufactured for. When it comes to thin clients, repurposing allows you to use them for a vast range of business workloads. Essentially, the process allows you to convert existing PCs and thin clients into more powerful and efficient endpoint devices while adding years of continued productive operation.

A traditional thin client is a watered-down version of a computer. It comes with limited CPU and memory resources. Additionally, it lacks plenty of local storage, with much of what is available being taken up by the device’s operating system. However, the device does have networking and graphics. Thin clients are mostly used to connect to remote servers, which host virtual apps and desktops within a datacenter or cloud.

The concept behind thin clients is to provide businesses with “terminals” from where they can run all of their applications on a centralized server group or from the cloud. Users can access their data and applications by remotely logging onto desktop sessions on the provided servers. The major advantages with a setup of this kind include greater security, stronger management and control at less cost, and reduced endpoint hardware costs. While some investment is required in the data center or cloud to house the virtual apps and desktops, the initial cost of investing in fully functional desktop computers is eliminated, since users only need small, inexpensive client devices.

Why repurpose thin clients with IGEL OS

Any given repurposing solution cannot possibly be enough. Modern enterprises require a secure, flexible solution that prevents vendor lock-in and lowers the IT cost overhead associated with patching and maintaining endpoints running on Windows. You need a comprehensive solution that encompasses both endpoint management and repurposing. IGEL OS offers exactly that.

IGEL OS ensures effective thin client repurposing and endpoint management and control by deploying a lean, modular Linux-based OS. This brings about the following benefits:

• Minimal hardware costs. You will eliminate the need to make a heavy capital investment in computing hardware since old PCs and thin clients are sold at a throwaway price. IGEL OS is hardware agnostic and runs on 99% of all devices currently available.
• Enhanced security. With IGEL OS, there is rarely a need to invest in antivirus or malware on the physical endpoint. As a secure OS, IGEL helps protect your company’s end-users and their devices from malware.
• High scalability. Over 100,000 IGEL OS-powered endpoints can be easily managed from a single management console. Added reliability is available in the form of high availability (HA) of the management console, if desired.
• Streamlined endpoint management. An easy-to-use and intuitive management interface make it incredibly easy to manage all of your IGEL OS-powered thin clients. This saves the IT team enormous time, especially when it comes to updating and patching hundreds or thousands of endpoints, along with the expenses associated with hiring extra managerial staff.
• Zero maintenance. With IGEL OS installed on your repurposed thin clients, you do not have to worry about frequent maintenance on the endpoints. You can instantly perform all essential updates from a single management console in a centralized location.

Repurposing aging but still useful computing hardware is one of the ways to mitigate the current chip shortage dilemma and to curb IT spending without compromising your company’s productivity. Thin clients, being some of the most basic and economical computer forms, are some of the most practical devices you can repurpose. However, repurposing thin clients should be paired with effective endpoint management that is easy and highly scalable. IGEL OS supports a wide range of devices and peripherals and enables you to transform any existing compatible x86-64 PC or thin client into a robust endpoint device.

Get in touch with us for a free trial and consultation on IGEL’s VDI solutions.

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