The thin-client computing space was one of those markets that was always niche, and many channel players preferred to concentrate on selling complete systems for individual staff as there was more money in it.
But the fall in tin being sold overall means a new form of thin-client, that focuses on the software rather than the hardware, could well be ready to make in-roads into the productivity market. This, while at the same time opening up new opportunities for resellers, service providers and system integrators.
The likes of HPE, Dell, Citrix, VMware, Microsoft and AWS are all major players in the established thin-client market, and another one that has been around for some time is IGEL. IT Europa attended the firm's 2019 IGEL DISRUPT End User Computing Forum in Munich this week, along with well over 400 customers and partners, to explore the channel opportunities. At the conference IGEL, which now describes itself as a software-defined endpoint optimisation and control solutions provider, told delegates that it had surpassed the $100m revenue mark for the first time in the year ended 31 December 2018.
Contributing to the landmark year was “exceptional software sales performance”, it said, which saw software sales increase 50% and the company deploying nearly 500,000 net-new IGEL OS clients during the year.
While the company hardware/software split is still hardware-dominant at between 70/30 and 60/40 depending on what territory you are looking at, the company is now very much focusing on growing the software sales. Products offered are able to run on whatever hardware client you already have or want to deploy, and that includes rival thin-client hardware.
“The groundwork we have laid as an innovative provider of software for simple, smart and secure end user computing (EUC) is truly paying off,” said Simon Townsend, IGEL chief marketing officer for EMEA. “We’re out-performing and rapidly displacing our larger competitors and attracting the industry’s best partners and people. We anticipate even greater growth acceleration going into 2019.”
The IGEL OS is an operating system designed to deliver secure, high performance access to virtualised desktops and applications. The IGEL Universal Management Suite (UMS) simplifies endpoint management, “regardless of the scale or diversity of the environment”, says IGEL, and the IGEL Universal Desktop Converter (UDC) enables organisations to repurpose existing hardware by converting nearly any x86 device into an IGEL client.
Marcus Gregory, head of sales and marketing at Intelligere, an IGEL UK partner, said: "IGEL's software-driven approach to desktops and management, regardless of the hardware, is a game-changer for businesses and something we see as a significant growth driver for IGEL’s channel partners in 2019.”
In support of the growth momentum, the company has expanded its UK and European staff with recent appointments in marketing, sales and the channel. Townsend only recently joined IGEL and brought over 20 years’ experience in the evolution of endpoint computing technologies, having worked at Ivanti and AppSense.
Andrew Gee joined the firm as VP sales for Northern Europe from Teradici and brings 20 years’ experience of desktop and VDI solutions. James Dunn joined from VMware to drive field marketing for Northern Europe, and Tom Illingworth and Alec Connell joined from Dell Wyse to build out the customer-facing solutions team. Meanwhile, Kevin Markwick came from Tech Data to drive channel engagement for Northern Europe.
Gee told IT Europa the firm had big plans to rapidly grow its channel. As the firm was established in Germany 20 years ago, and has its headquarters in Bremen, it is no surprise that the vast bulk of existing EMEA partners are located there.
But Gee said there would be a much greater balance going forward. He said IGEL currently had around 40 partners in Northern Europe not including Germany. “Going forward we expect to put either a “1” or even a “2” in front of that by the end of this year. We are 100% channel and we see no reason why we can't scale up quickly with the new products we have.”
At the event, the firm launched IGEL Workspace Edition. Powered by the IGEL OS 11 operating system, IGEL Workspace Edition “de-couples the hardware from the software” through new, flexible and transferable software licencing options, that are designed to “increase the value of endpoints”, while simplifying their acquisition, control and management. If you want to transfer some IGEL licenses from a set of laptops to a set of smartphones, you can do it easily via a control console.
“With the launch of IGEL Workspace, we’ve made endpoint management and control even easier and more cost-effective than ever before,” said Townsend.
