Industrial and Rugged Thin Clients for IGEL Anywhere

[The following blog post is a guest post from Michael Walsh, OnLogic Senior Product Manager]

Industrial and rugged IGEL Ready thin clients allow expansion of your IGEL environment out of the office and into more challenging environments on the edge.

The benefits of the IGEL OS are many. At a time when crippling ransomware attacks are making headlines, IGEL offers resistance to viruses and other malware. In addition, IGEL delivers ease of management. You can control, update and provision all of your devices running IGEL OS from a unified dashboard.

This ease of device management is important in an office environment. But what if you want to extend your endpoints out of the office to the edge of your enterprise? That is where industrial and rugged hardware with IGEL OS can deliver value in locations where most conventional endpoints will fail.

IGEL Out of the Office and Onto the Edge

Today’s businesses demand constant connectivity and a reliable flow of information. Access to data is required at every point in the value chain – from a climate-controlled office space to a dusty warehouse. And, what happens when products leave the warehouse? IGEL OS-powered endpoints are needed there too – on forklifts, trucks, shipping containers, and more.

Commercial off-the-shelf hardware isn’t designed for those kinds of challenges. In contrast, industrial and rugged systems are designed for extending your IGEL environment into challenging environments.

What are Industrial and Rugged PCs?

Industrial and Rugged computers typically have the following characteristics:

• Fanless and ventless design
• Completely solid state
• Ability to withstand harsh environments
• Highly configurable
• Extensive I/O options
• Long lifecycle

While both rugged and industrial computers offer these features, rugged computers offer additional design features that make them suitable for even more challenging environments, including locations subject to extreme temperatures. Rugged computers are also tested against standards for shock and vibration tolerance, such as MIL-STD-810.

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Rugged Thin Clients

A hardware device that fails can have a direct and substantial impact on your company’s productivity and bottom line. In addition, the inconvenience and cost to replace a unit at a remote or hazardous location can place stress on your IT or OT teams. With so much at stake, you need robust hardware specifically designed for today’s challenging computing environments. Rugged thin clients are uniquely equipped to provide the value of the IGEL OS in some truly unique situations.

For example, the OnLogic IGL300 is certified for in-vehicle use, configurable with 4G LTE wireless, and available to ship directly to its installation location with IGEL OS pre-installed. That makes it the ideal choice for use on a forklift, in refrigerated shipping containers, or on a fleet of transportation vehicles, whether you’re the end customer or you plan to distribute them to your own clients.

Thin Client Features that Matter, Everywhere

What if your entire operation IS located in a climate-controlled environment? You should consider how industrial-grade components and fanless cooling reduce failure points, no matter where they’re installed.

Passive cooling eliminates the single most common point of failure in any computer – the fan. A well-designed fanless computer is also ventless, which adds additional reliability by protecting internal components from outside debris. And even in the cleanest office, dust can cause a problem over time. In addition, a fanless computer limits external air movement making it a great solution for environments that demand cleanliness, like healthcare facilities or cleanroom manufacturing floors.

Dust coating the inside of a computer is a common sight in fanned computers

In addition, small form factor fanless computers offer extensive mounting options. IGEL Ready thin clients can be mounted nearly anywhere, including cabinets, under counters, and inside server rooms.

IGEL Ready Out of the Box

With the extensive testing and verification required to create IGEL Ready hardware, you can have confidence a new device with the “IGEL Ready” designation will integrate smoothly into your existing IGEL infrastructure. And if you’re looking to blaze a new trail to connect the edges of your business in challenging environments, industrial and rugged hardware can help you get there with confidence.