IGEL Ready Advisory Board Gathers to Discuss the Future of Hybrid Work Enablement

Last month, IGEL welcomed many of our IGEL Ready Partners to San Francisco for the IGEL Ready Advisory Board meeting at VMware Explore. The event was kicked off with an opening keynote from our sponsor AMD, followed by insightful sessions on the future of EUC from other top executives from Citrix, Lenovo, Microsoft, and VMware. More than 50 attendees representing companies including 7Signal, ControlUp, eG Innovations, HID Global, Liquidware, Nexthink, Nutanix, Rimo3, Tehama, ThinPrint, Tricerat and Vasion/PrinterLogic, joined us for the meeting on the afternoon of Monday, August 29.

One of the key take-aways from this meeting is that the growing IGEL Ready ecosystem, which now includes 120+ alliance partners, is making significant strides in helping our mutual partners and their customers successfully adapt to the evolving needs of the hybrid workplace.

Some of the highlights from the IGEL Ready Advisory Board meeting include:

David Rosado, Senior Marketing Manager for AMD’s Adaptive Computing Group shared insights and updates on how AMD is collaborating with Microsoft, VMware and IGEL to enable and enhance modern virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments. In the case of IGEL, AMD is optimizing the IGEL UD3 endpoints for cloud workspaces through the AMD Ryzen™ Embedded R1505G system-on-chip. By engaging with AMD through IGEL Ready, partners benefit from more performance to drive productivity and collaboration; increased security to protect virtualized applications; and connectivity options designed to offer flexibility, seamless integration, and ease of use.

Sridhar Mullapudi, General Manager for Citrix, provided an update on Citrix and shared how future success depends on the ability to deliver a unified, secure, and simplified work experience across every work channel and location. Desktop delivery is evolving, and Citrix provides a Desktop-as-a-Service solution designed to meet the needs of the hybrid work world. Citrix is also embracing the hybrid cloud, multi-cloud world through its alliances with AWS, Microsoft, VMware, and more. With a partnership that spans 20+ years, Citrix and IGEL are teaming up to deliver a modern workspace that is resilient, drives productivity and performance and aligns with the hybrid, multi-cloud requirements of today’s organizations.

Andy Nieto, Senior Solutions Manager for Lenovo, explained how Lenovo envisions a world where every person and business has access to the technology that allows them to achieve their own intelligent transformation. He shared that Lenovo, working together with other IGEL and IGEL Ready ecosystem partners Citrix, VMware, NVIDIA and Nutanix, is delivering end-to-end VDI solutions encompassing endpoints, software, infrastructure, and services. He also highlighted the enablement programs that Lenovo offers with IGEL to help partners create new opportunities and build pipeline, for example, the “Why Compromise” campaign which demonstrates how the choice of endpoint doesn’t have to compromise the choice of endpoint, security, or management experience.

Kam VedBrat, Director of Azure Virtual Desktop for Microsoft discussed the flexibility of Windows for hybrid work, and how virtualization can unlock key hybrid work scenarios by supporting data security, high-capacity computing, Bring-Your-Own-PC programs, disaster recovery, temporary workforces, and mergers & acquisitions. He also explained the value of Windows 365 in terms of providing a personalized, powerful, simple, and secure Windows 11 or Windows 10 experience, and offered best practices for selecting the right Windows 365 solution, depending on the needs of the organization. Additionally, the importance customer-led innovation and collaboration, as well as alliances with key ecosystem partners including IGEL, Citrix and VMware, were also highlighted during the session.

Bharath Rangarajan, General Manager and Vice President of Products – EUC for VMware shared an update on VMware’s commitment to its alliance and partnerships within the VDI and DaaS space, new developments with VMware’s Anywhere Workspace that are designed to improve scalability and security, reduce operational complexity, and optimize the digital employee experience (DEX). He also shared insights on what the industry has learned about hybrid work since 2020 and how organizations are finding success today with hybrid work. During the presentation, he also emphasized the importance of being able to deliver, measure, analyze and remediate, and how VMware’s alliances with IGEL and the IGEL Ready ecosystem are helping the company empower partners and their customers to enable employees to do their best work.

During the meeting, attendees also heard from our team about the key benefits available through IGEL Ready and how they can maximize their IGEL Ready partnership.

We also shared a few success stories and examples of how IGEL is driving co-marketing activities with its IGEL Ready partners to enable a better customer reach.

Some of the highlighted go-to-market opportunities included co-branded content; webinars and events; joint marketing, PR, and social media activities; and demand generation programs that partners can use to reach more customers, generate new pipeline, nurture leads and close more deals. For more information on the benefits of IGEL Ready, access our program guide here.

Further, we presented a preview of the plans for 2023, including a sneak peek of the DISRUPT 2023 prospectus. Next year, we will be doing two large-scale events in North America and EMEA during February. These events will provide IGEL Ready partners around the globe with yet another fantastic opportunity to showcase their technology offering and share insights and industry thought leadership with IGEL partners and customers. More to come on this, so stay tuned!

Also joining us for the IGEL Ready Partner Advisory Board meeting was IGEL CEO Jed Ayres, who thanked our partners for believing in IGEL and the power of the IGEL ecosystem and shared the many ways in which IGEL and its partners can win together in the delivery of VDI, DaaS and cloud-native digital workspace applications.

If you have any questions about the IGEL Ready Program or would like to take advantage of any of our program benefits, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at saggar@igel.com. For more information on the IGEL Ready program, visit https://www.igel.com/ready/.