IGEL Is Seeing A VMware Workspace ONE Sales Lift

IGEL, which is hosting its own Disrupt End User Computing Forum at the same time as VMworld later this month, is seeing a big sales uplift from enterprise customers pairing its Linux based operating system with VMware's Horizon View VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) software and Workspace ONE app delivery platform.

"VMware is growing their $1 billion plus End User Compute business at a double digit rate and it is fueling triple digit growth for IGEL," said IGEL North America CEO and Global Chief Marketing Officer Jed Ayres, who has helped refashion IGEL into a secure endpoint management platform powerhouse. "We are being attached to very large enterprise deals with VMware. The bigger the deal with VMware the more IGEL makes sense because we are driving cost and headcount savings with a secure, software-defined endpoint."

[Related IGEL Software Offensive Driving Big Sales Gains, Secure Endpoint Market Taking Off]

The IGEL momentum comes in the wake of VMware’s shift to their Blast Extreme display protocol in Horizon 7 - which is driving a better end user compute experience hand in hand with IGEL, said Ayres.

"IGEL was the first Linux endpoint management vendor to support Blast Extreme," said Ayres. "Since then we have seen steady growth in the number of large customers moving to VMware Workspace ONE with IGEL powered endpoints. We have 100 plus software engineers in Germany that are in lockstep with VMware. The Blast Extreme protocol has put real life into the partnership between VMware and IGEL."

The IGEL Universal Desktop Pocket (UDP) and Universal Desktop Converter (UDC) software is particularly attractive to large enterprise customers looking to upgrade existing thin clients or desktops with a more secure operating system without making a big capital expenditure on new hardware.

In fact, there has been a wave of hospitals that have adopted VMware VDI with IGEL to provide robust security capabilities with the added benefit of not being required to make multimillion dollar investments in new endpoint hardware, said Ayres.

"We are telling customers they can avoid big hardware expense by moving to the best Linux operating system with the highest security and best end user management platform," said Ayres. "The largest deals we are seeing are with VMware.

Ayres, in facts, credits VMware with helping to significantly reduce the cost and complexity of VDI solutions. "VMware has brought a complete VDI solution to the market and we are benefitting from that," he said. "Not only that, but they have allowed customers to leverage their ELAs (Enterprise Licensing Agreements) by adding VDI licenses to their existing agreements."

In the case of a major Texas hospital deal last quarter, IGEL saved the healthcare provider the cost of buying 5,000 new thin clients at an estimated cost of $5 million by investing just $500,000 in IGEL’s desktop converter software.

IGEL endpoint management platform powered a move by the hospital to support smartphones and other devices which has been roundly cheered as a major productivity boost by doctors and nurses.

The hospital's IGEL investment also drove significant IT cost savings by dramatically reducing client management costs including a reduction in endpoint device imaging from 60 minutes on a Windows client to a mere five minutes with the IGEL endpoint management platform, said Ayres.

In the case of another hospital deployment with VMware, doctors credited the IGEL OS with solving a perennial inability to access the network in emergency room environments. "In that case, within 24 hours of converting to IGEL OS, a doctor thanked the hospital CTO for fixing the wireless network," said Ayres. "From the doctor's perspective they thought the network was broken. It was actually a thin client software problem that we solved with our OS."

Alchemy Technology Group, a two year old endpoint compute solution provider, is seeing a "multiplier effect" by combining VMware with IGEL, said Travis Graham, a breakout solution provider superstar which has won “Partner of the Year” for Citrix, Ivanti and Okta.

"Bringing VMware Horizon View together with IGEL is really creating a best of breed end-to-end solution," said Graham, a former global strategic manager at VMware who was responsible for the HP and Dell relationships. "IGEL is enabling VMware to have an end-to-end solution conversation they weren't having before. We are seeing large enterprise organizations making the move to VMware and IGEL."

Graham praised IGEL for doing an "amazing job" of driving home the power of security and remote management with its Linux based OS. "I give Jed and his team credit for raising that awareness and for being a major disruptor in the marketplace," he said. "IGEL understands the user experience and corporate requirements and is making the effort to build that functionality into their solutions. They have a very agile and dynamic product roadmap that is allowing them to capture more market share."

Alchemy, which is also disrupting the marketplace with its end user compute software prowess, has become IGEL's largest Platinum partner with its innovative solutions and extraodinary team of industry experts, said Ayres. "We are closing huge VMware deals with Alchemy," he said. "They have a new approach to reselling that is benefitting customers and vendors."

IGEL plans to single out Alchemy as a superstar solution provider at its IGEL End User Computing Forum in Las Vegas which is being held August 26-29 at the Border Grill at Mandalay Bay.

The forum, which coincides with VMworld, will showcase IGEL solutions at an Innovation Theatre highlighting the ability of IGEL OS to provide a more secure endpoint management platform while at the same time reducing IT costs and manpower.

IGEL is expecting thousands of end users at the forum which includes happy hours, a pool party and an IT Baller giveaway of $20,000 to one lucky end user, said Ayres.