IGEL Technology: Deployment of UC Solutions Simplified

Heiko Gloge, Managing Director & Partner

Growing expectations of the latest generation workforce is one of the major challenges that business face today. Unified Communications has become a natural tool for the millennials to use. As they move into the business world, they expect to have access to such tools at work. Despite the obvious efficiency benefits of the technology, the deployment and integration of Unified Communications into the Enterprise IT infrastructure can have its challenges. In the same way that IGEL evolved its thin clients to handle multimedia applications, thus developing their desktops and management software to ensure IT administrators can easily deploy and manage Unified Communication solutions in their IT environment. IGEL Technology is the provider for Managed Workspace solutions and Thin or Zero Client hardware. “Our products give customers access to the richest set of protocols, clients and local applications, supported by powerful remote management software. They also provide maximum control while minimizing cost and complexity,” says Heiko Gloge, Managing Director and Partner of IGEL Technology.

IGEL ensures that all major Unified Communications applications are easily deployed and configured to work seamlessly with their Linux and Windows-based thin and zero clients. To achieve this, they integrate the local drivers of the Unified Communications platform into the IGEL device firmware. This ensures that the Unified Communications application can be deployed quickly and efficiently using the IGEL UMS (Universal Management Suite) software. Alongside they fine-tune the Citrix, VMware or Microsoft client to ensure that the Unified Communications application delivers the best end-user experience.

Cisco Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI), Microsoft Lync and Skype for Business have been supported on IGEL devices for more than three years. Any updates are automatically installed by the company, in their solutions to benefit their users.

Our products give customers access to the richest set of protocols, clients and local applications, supported by powerful remote management software

For instance, recently Citrix announced that it will now be supporting Skype for Business HDX RealTime Media Engine 2.0 (RTME), which benefits the users with new features and HD video conferences. Within just few weeks IGEL also updated their operating software to make the RTME package part of the new IGEL Linux firmware 5.09.101, which is available, free to their customers for immediate download. IGEL’s management software helps customers with vertical specialist application needs with easy deployment. In the same way, IGEL UMS management software is used to organize and deploy applications across an entire, diverse desktop environment, including IGEL devices, PC’s and notebooks. The company doesn’t offer IP telephony and video conferencing solution, but they have led the market in thin client support for this technology. IGEL Universal Desktop thin clients have integrated the Ekiga open-source software client since 2007, which allows important sub-areas of unified communications to be economically implemented.

IGEL strongly focuses on customers thereby delivering exceptional, affordable thin and zero client solutions. In an instance, Halton Housing, a housing association, deployed Sun Ray zero clients on their desktops, but with Oracle acquiring Sun, the development of devices fell behind the times. They were in need of a solution that could handle the multimedia functionality seamlessly. With the deployment of IGEL devices their systems became more centralized and flexible.

IGEL meets its customer requirements by delivering devices that are secure, reliable, future proof, and easily managed, using open systems, across any operating environment. “Our future, and our commitment to our customers, is to continue to develop our Managed Workspace solutions as well as our thin and zero client devices to enable businesses to deploy new applications, quickly and efficiently across their organization,” adds Gloge.