VMworld 2021 digital.  Will you be in attendance?  Make sure you check out IGEL Technologies!

VMworld, the world's largest virtualization and cloud computing event hosted every year by VMware, is back again for 2021 in a digital setting.  And one of the show sponsors this year is a company called IGEL.

IGEL is one of the world’s leading providers of next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces.  The company’s innovative software products include IGEL OS, IGEL UD Pocket (UDP) and IGEL Universal Management Suite (UMS).  These solutions comprise a more secure, manageable and cost-effective endpoint management and control platform across nearly any x86 device. 

Are you gearing up for VMworld 2021?  Get started now by reading this exclusive interview with Dan O'Farrell, Senior Director, Product Marketing at IGEL, to learn more, and start getting excited for what's to come!

VMblog:  Your company is back, sponsoring the upcoming VMworld 2021 digital event.  Can you talk about what that sponsorship looks like?  Do you have any speaking sessions during the event?  If so, can you give us the details?

Dan O'Farrell:  IGEL is a Gold Sponsor for VMworld's 2021 digital event, and during the event will be presenting a breakout session (SEC3251S) titled "Are we there yet? Navigating to the un-mapped ‘new normal' with IGEL and VMware."

• Just when it seemed we were about to arrive at the post-pandemic world we were longing for, the Delta variant arrived. With many communities now being hit hard by a third wave of COVID infections, hospitalizations, and unfortunately deaths, organizations need to yet again fall back on a mid-pandemic way of work, with most people working entirely from home. Those companies who were already embracing digital workspaces in the form of virtualized desktops, apps, and cloud-delivered workloads were able to fare much better than those who did not, and the current state of uncertainty once again illuminates the importance of taking full advantage of the cloud. Or in many cases, multiple clouds.

Some of the exciting elements of the session will include:

• Presentation from IGEL technology experts
• Customer interviews highlighting success with IGEL and VMware
• A demonstration of the integration of IGEL and VMware Anywhere Workspace

VMblog:  What type of things will people be able to do and find at your virtual booth this year? 

O'Farrell:  IGEL will have a virtual booth in the DEMO ZONE and be presenting two videos on-demand - "Securing Life on the Edge with IGEL OS" and "MS Teams Optimization Demonstration with IGEL OS."

VMblog:  Are you giving away any prizes at your virtual booth or participating in any prize giveaways?

O'Farrell:  VMworld 2021 attendees who visit the virtual IGEL booth to learn about "Security on the Edge with IGEL" and either download a resource or begin a live chat with an IGEL representative, will be entered for a chance to win an Oculus Quest 2 - Advanced All-In-One Virtual Reality Headset - 256 GB.

 

VMblog:  Many attendees are chomping at the bit to get back to a physical VMworld event.  Is your company ready for the same?

O'Farrell:  Yes, when everyone knows it's safe IGEL is excited to return to in-person events. In fact, IGEL will be hosting our DISRUPT Unite in-person road show during September and October in five cities in EMEA and five cities North America. Registrations for the in-person event going very well, which demonstrates to us that there is an appetite for face-to-face interactions. For more details on DISRUPT Unite, visit https://www.disrupteuc.com.

VMblog:  What are you personally most interested in seeing or learning at VMworld 2021 digital?

O'Farrell:  VMworld always provides a host of new innovations and this year we will be excited to hear about how VMware and its partners are enabling the anywhere workspace. End user computing continues to play an important role in this new way of work and VMware and it's ecosystem partners have the technologies to do this in the most secure way.

VMblog:  Can you give us the high-level rundown of your company's technology offerings?  What kind of message would a virtual attendee hear from you?

O'Farrell:  IGEL offers IGEL OS, the next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. Designed specifically for accessing digital workspaces, IGEL OS replaces Windows or any other endpoint OS on end-user endpoint devices and integrates with VMware Horizon for a more secure, more efficient, higher performance user experience that is easy for IT teams to manage and control at scale.

VMblog:  Talking about your product solutions, can you give readers a few examples of how your offerings are unique?  What are your differentiators?

O'Farrell:  IGEL OS is unique in that it is designed specifically for secure, efficient, and high-performance access to digital workspaces and nothing else. It essentially turns all end-user endpoint devices into "non-targets" for malware given its extremely small attack surface, its read-only modular structure, and the fact that all user data is not stored on the device. 

The IGEL chain of trust offers extra system integrity assurance.  IGEL OS is also unique for its ease of management from the IGEL Universal Management Suite (UMS) software console and the 110+ technology integrations of the IGEL Ready program (VMware is included) that makes IGEL OS very easy to seamlessly integrate into almost any existing and future enterprise IT environment.

VMblog:  For those individuals attending the VMworld 2021 digital event, or those who have attended VMworld in the past, why should they be interested in your company and solutions? 

O'Farrell:  For those looking to complement Horizon View with the ideal endpoint operating system for maximum security, efficiency, and performance, they should give a very close look at IGEL OS. For the Anywhere Workspace, IGEL OS is the perfect lean, lightweight, and secure endpoint OS that is known for its ease of management and integration, at scale.

VMblog:  Normally, VMworld is the time of year that people in this industry announce a new product or product update.  Do you have anything new that you've recently announced or plan to announce?  Can you give us the details?

O'Farrell:  The very latest version of IGEL OS, called IGEL OS 11.06, launched on September 22.  A big part of IGEL OS 11.06 revolves around unified communications, specifically support for Microsoft Teams Media Optimization on Horizon.

Also worth mentioning, as part of 11.06, are the following new features:

• Support for Horizon client 2106
• Support for the latest version of the BLAST protocol
• Support of the latest version of the Amazon Workspaces client, including DeviceTRUST
• Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) Windows 365 Cloud PC, including DeviceTRUST integration
• Chromium browser
• HP t430, t540 and t640 thin clients
• Pre-boot authentication
• Support for EAP Fast protocol
• Broad range of integration with a wide variety of protocols and peripherals - see the IGEL Knowledge Base at kb.igel.com

VMblog:  How does your company work with VMware?  Where do you fit within the VMware ecosystem?

O'Farrell:  IGEL works closely with VMware to verify the full integration of Horizon with IGEL OS with every release of the software.  VMware is an IGEL Ready partner, and likewise IGEL is a VMware ready partner.  We promote our joint solutions on each other's web sites.  Our sales teams and channel partners oftentimes recommend solutions consisting of products from both VMware and IGEL.

VMblog:  VMware may be covering things in their keynote, but what big changes or trends do you see taking shape in the industry for 2021 and heading into 2022?

O'Farrell:  At IGEL, we see greater use of multi-cloud delivered apps, desktops, and services in support of the Anywhere Workspace. That is why we view VMware as such a huge technology partner as we look to help our joint customers realize the full value of the cloud. For the rest of 2021 and through 2022, we see more organizations looking to a post-pandemic world where their people are free to work as they wish, where they wish, and on their devices of choice, while IT teams retain full management and control to enable a hybrid "anywhere workplace" style of work.  The key is optimal use of cloud-based services and resources, and jointly with VMware, we at IGEL believe we can help our customers do just that.

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