Technology Reseller v20 2019

01732 759725 24 COVER STORY Simon Townsend, IGEL CMO for EMEA, describes IGEL as an 18-year-old start- up. This is not as fanciful as it sounds, as three years ago IGEL reviewed its product offering, which at the time was reliant on selling thin client hardware, and took the decision to decouple its operating system from its devices and focus its efforts on selling software. This decision, says Townsend, has transformed the company’s fortunes, driving “fairly outrageous” EMEA software sales growth of 76% and helping IGEL to crack the US market for the first time. “The unique selling point of our thin client hardware had always been the IGEL operating system and its ease of management. Then, a few years ago, we said ‘Hang on; if people are buying our thin clients because of the operating system and the ease of management, why should it matter what hardware people acquire? Why can’t they repurpose and reuse existing hardware to extend the life of that hardware and still get the benefits of using our operating system?’ Initially, we introduced the Universal Desktop Converter to enable customers to transform old PCs and laptops to run like a secure thin client. This was quickly adopted by the market. So, the next step was to completely decouple the hardware from the software and allow our partners and our customers to purchase and deploy the operating system and the management of that operating system completely independently from the hardware,” he explained. This development has led to IGEL being an OS in its own right – an Operating System that enables the user to access applications in the cloud (public, private or hybrid), from their corporate desktop or from home. “If you read our case studies you see that what customers like about IGEL is that it’s fully manageable across the Primed for growth estate, with a fraction of the management overhead resources and costs associated with other solutions. Using our UMS ‘Universal Management Suite’ transforms the expectations of what can be done from a modern OS for the Cloud,” explained Townsend. At the same as productising its software, IGEL has made deep inroads into the US market, becoming increasingly attractive to enterprise customers through its continued product development and technology alliances. “We have moved from being an organisation that sold to 1,000 or 2,000- seat organisations to one that can scale up to 100,000, 150,000 and 200,000- seat organisations,” said Townsend. “And, because we are committed to developing an operating system that is 100% focused on this type of market, we are finding that organisations that have acquired an HP or a Dell thin client in the past are re- purposing that same hardware but with the IGEL operating system. One customer, for example, has just rolled out the IGEL OS onto 100,000 Dell devices.” Windows migration In the past, the financial case for switching to a VDI infrastructure was already compelling, due its security benefits, its support for flexible and mobile working practices, its easy management and its lower environmental footprint. By extending that concept to the edge, you can double down on the security benefits and realise Sales at IGEL are booming following a change of product strategy that has seen the company transform itself from a thin client specialist into the provider of a next-generation Operating System for cloud workspaces. Technology Reseller speaks to EMEA CMO Simon Townsend about why IGEL’s proposition is more compelling than ever, with the launch of a new UK channel program in January and the rapid market acceptance of cloud- delivered applications Simon Townsend