The program is designed for organizations looking to repurpose their x86-64 compatible devices with IGEL OS, and the assessment identifies which machines will and will not be good candidates for conversion.
Jason E. Smith, VP of Alliances and Product Marketing at Liquidware
Today, workspace management solution maker Liquidware and IGEL, which makes a Linux-based edge OS for cloud workspaces, are announcing the extension of their more than decade-old partnership, to provide a free assessment program for enterprises looking to repurpose x86-64 compatible devices with the IGEL OS.
IGEL and Liquidware are long-time strategic partners.
“We have worked together since 2010, and we have had parallel Go-to-Market all across the way,” said Jason E. Smith, VP of Alliances and Product Marketing at Liquidware. “We began working together with a large home improvement chain, which wanted the visibility on the endpoint devices that we provide because they were about to embark on a VMware Horizon View project. We have both kept up in this parallel Go-to-Market, and we developed a purpose-built agent that’s now in the firmware for the IGEL OS. We brought this new opportunity forward after we started using it in the field ourselves. It bubbled up from real world needs.”
The joint program was spurred by two outside developments: the worldwide chip shortage, and the requirements of Windows 11.
“The idea initially began with the chip shortage,” Smith indicated. “That was a very real thing. Even a year ago, it became harder to get your hands on hardware. But within the last month, we realized that less than 50% of our customers’ machines were capable of running Windows 11. Windows 11 requires more horsepower per CPU, more RAM, and SecureBoot. That will delay adoption. Many of our customers won’t run it until the second half of next year or the year after, and we think this will be an ongoing issue.”
Smith said increased system demands have led to issues in assessing how many machines can be converted to IGEL OS.
“We provide a free assessment on a joint customer site, where we run our Stratusphere UX on existing workstations, and see how intensively they are being used,” Smith said. “In as little as a week, we give them a report on how it is being used and how many can be converted to the IGEL OS. They can see graphics intensity on a machine, so they can identify if it can be used by power users. We tell them how many units were assessed, and categorize what type of desktops they should be repurposed to, as well as identify those that would have a poor experience on Linux, which IGEL runs. Those are typically older, with less RAM on the device, or require multi-media. We found that one assessment run found 1334 good candidates, and 58 non-candidates.”
The relationship is managed through the IGEL Ready program
Divya Sagger, IGEL Ready’s Director
“We launched IGEL Ready last year in July 2020,” said Divya Sagger, IGEL Ready’s Director. “It is is basically our flagship partner program, so we can work more closely with partners, giving customers confidence that our technologies will work together. It incudes joint testing and joint GTM around a complete end-to-end enterprise-ready solution. With companies like Liquidware, we have a full Go-to-Market strategy around webinars and media.”
Sagger said that they have added more than 100 partners into IGEL Ready over the last year, with double digit growth each quarter.
“The basic partner level, Activated, has demonstrated their solution works with the IGEL OS,” Sagger said. “Advanced means the software agent is baked into the IGEL firmware.” Liquidware is an Advanced Level partner.
This partnership around assessments is unique in its area.
“In the analytics space, this is the only one with an assessment so far,” Sagger noted. “We do some bundling solutions with others, but assessments are exclusive with Liquidware. We do have different custom programs we run with different IGEL Ready programs in other areas, like marketing and regional events with companies like LG.”
Smith said that while the assessment program hasn’t even been advertised yet, it has brought in good results.
“Some assessments we have done has led to a sale of one or both of your solutions,” he stated. “We don’t always get a sale. Sometimes the customer isn’t ready right now. But we have helped the customer and they remember that. Often they tend to have budget, but not an idea of the next clear step. This gives them that. It’s not about just how many machines can be repurposed, but what applications have to be supported. With Windows assessments, we recommend they run for a month and show how machines are being used, the graphic intensity, the connections. We then give the customer and partner clear next steps to support what users they will consider, and what platform they will put them on.
“It really helps with companies that measure every dollar spent,” Smith concluded. This can pay for transformation of desktop projects in the replacement of hardware alone.”
IGEL and Liquidware will hold a customer-facing webinar on Thursday, November 18 at 10:00 am (PT) to discuss the full parameters of this joint initiative. Register for the webinar here. A joint solution brief detailing the free assessment program can be downloaded here.
