IGEL & CloudJumper: Keeping Your End Users Secure, From Themselves

(A Guest Blog Post from Mike Walsh, VP Product Strategy, CloudJumper)

It’s Monday morning. You sit down at your desk, open your laptop and prepare to start knocking items off your to-do list. But as your device boots up, you notice something’s not quite right.

So who’s responsible for the malware? Did a hacker get into your company’s network? Did someone access your information while you were working at the local coffee shop? Chances are, no. Chances are, the culprit is…you. Statistically, the number one security threat is the end user. You’ve downloaded a gaming program or plugged in a USB that you thought had the latest new track, and now your computer is infected.

We’ve talked at length about how Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) on Azure and managed by CloudJumper’s Cloud Workspace Management Suite (CWMS) provides heightened security to your VDI deployments. In short, CWMS is a very controlled environment, using the built-in security and compliance features that come with CloudJumper and Azure. But to access a WVD environment, users need a device. And that device needs an OS to provide a jumping off point to get into the environment. And that jumping off point – the physical endpoint – is still vulnerable, regardless of how secure CWMS is.

Ask any IT professional, and they’ll tell you, managing physical devices is complex, costly and time-consuming. CWMS simplifies cloud VDI deployments, including WVD, but what about the device itself?

That’s why CloudJumper has partnered with IGEL, the world leader in next-gen edge operating systems (OS) for the secure delivery of cloud workspaces. Their adaptive Linux-based universal desktop OS provides an ultra-secure, simplified solution for managing physical endpoints. Together, CloundJumper and IGEL simplify the end-to-end deployment and management of cloud workspaces, including WVD workspaces delivered on Azure.

(Read the Press Release here.)

IGEL + CloudJumper: A Complete End-to-End EUC Solution
IGEL’s purpose-built Linux-based OS has many fewer access points than a typical OS, which means it has a much smaller footprint for malware, hackers and other security threats. The OS prevents users from doing anything “bad” before they get into their virtual desktop. The entire OS fits onto a transportable USB key that plugs it into any device. The device boots to the IGEL OS, which runs entirely in available memory, using only 2GB of RAM. Its only job is to create an access point where the user can provide a password to log into WVD. Users log into the OS, and then onto WVD.

(See IGEL’s Chief Marketing Officer Jed Ayres talk about the next-gen OS.)

Two Parts of the Whole
IGEL and CWMS are complementary technology. We represent two parts of the whole EUC – they’re physical environment and we’re the virtual environment on Azure. Together, we’ve built a dynamic, highly secure end-to-end solution for your entire virtual desktop setup. IGEL provides a secure physical desktop lockdown, and we configure, deploy and manage WVD.

Together, the two solutions:

• Reduce overhead: If a device dies, just plug the USB component into a new device, and use that to access all of your applications and files stored in WVD managed by CWMS. Nothing is lost. And with Win7 EoL in a few months, IGEL and CWMS provide a future-proof solution without all the headaches of costly and time-consuming upgrades. Further, CWMS’s patent-pending Wake on Demand technology provides additional cost savings.
• Simplify deployment and management of cloud workspaces: CWMS’s unified management allows you to deploy and scale WVD desktops and applications in minutes. Both solutions allow the management of your entire network of EUCs from one single console.
• Provide an ultra-secure environment: WVD managed by CWMS provides a highly controlled cloud workspace solution, and IGEL does the same of the physical endpoint. When paired, the end user’s entire environment is locked down and secure.
• Offer native, built-for-the-cloud solutions: CloudJumper is a Microsoft preferred partner; CWMS is WVD-native and provides a true Windows 10 experience. IGEL is currently working on supporting WVD with a Linux client. This means that both solutions are fully compatible and supported by Microsoft.

We’re really excited about this partnership, and what it brings to our customers. Like CloudJumper, IGEL is focused on simplifying and optimizing WVD deployments and future-proofing today’s cloud workspace. And together, we can do great things for your business.

Interested in learning more about CloudJumper and IGEL?
Be sure to attend IGEL Disrupt 2020, where Paul Finn will be speaking about the benefits of the joint solution. With two stops in Nashville and Munich, it’s the cloud workspace forum of the year.