Maybe the Path to Any Device is a USB Key?

Maybe the Path to Any Device is a USB Key?

The long held target of every IT professional responsible for end user computing and/or end point management has been to enable the mythic any device/anywhere environment.

And I will say many have achieved it for some portion of their end user population. I can say personally I have been working that way for 20 years, accessing my work applications via Citrix, using a weirdly arcane mix of personal devices or experimental work devices. Toshiba Libretto, HP Jornada, Compaq IPAQ, every known variant of fixed or mobile thin client, Chromebooks, personal Windows devices, personal Mac’s, IPAD, & IPhone, and even a Blackberry Playbook a few times. I can’t remember but I am thinking we successfully established a Citrix session from a Xbox.

So I know it is possible J And I have worked in firms where we managed to virtualize very significant elements of the overall population, but usually with some discomfort, some teams not buying in, etc in spite of improved security, much better performance over the WAN, that freedom to use any device, and if you do it right small cost reductions.

And now we find ourselves in an environment where I would argue thinner, more lightly managed end points and centralized/virtual/cloud applications and data should be a slam dunk.

·     Most employees working in a distributed fashion at home, often with constrained bandwidth

·     The difficulties of provisioning and supporting enterprise owned and managed equipment in so many non enterprise locations (essentially creating both the need for a new supply chain and remote support construct)

·     And the performance issues associated with latency over ISP links, home WI-Fi, and the general nature of fat laptop client responsiveness

And in truth many firms used the great move homeward to increase centralization and virtualization of apps and Windows OS, go to a BYOD  or unmanaged end point that could be ordered by the employee, or shipped to the employee without imaging/intervention, and to generally simplify their environment while greatly improving security.  Many others however rushed to provision and send laptops home, and upgrade VPN capabilities…and I would be hard pressed to do anything but commend most IT teams for being so responsive. I believe however these models will become unsustainable longer term for many reasons including  depreciation costs, the difficulty of managing imaging and patching remotely,  issues related to latency and b/w, and oddly enough the shift when folk do come back to the office, where most IT folk know many people will NOT carry a laptop back and forth and will agitate for a second device, further increasing cost.

So good times for we virtualization and thin champions right? The time is right for any device/anywhere. Hmmm not so fast….a few things have shifted and we need to resolve some challenges before we can advocate massive change.

1.    The shift home drove a lot of device convergence. That laptop is now not just for standard business and collaboration applications..it has become employees phone, video conferencing unit, and multi-media hub and that put a lot more demand on virtual environment and “thin clients”. We need to prove virtual/cloud solutions can deliver great TEAMS/Zoom Performance

2.    The heightened focus on security and data leakage means that for many firms it not enough to simply put a Citrix Workspace or Microsoft WVD client on the end point and count on central policies. Security teams are wanting more controls and sometimes software on the end point, which does not fit a BYOD/lightly managed paradigm

Which is why I think the IGEL OS and the UD Pocket, their Secure Linux Cloud OS on a USB key, is the key to change in the EUC space. We need a new vision

·     It is a Secure, thin, yet powerful OS with optimizations for Collaboration Platforms like Microsoft teams, the ability to run secure s/w clients like Citrix Workspace with policy controls, lots of onboard security controls to minimize risks of printing, downloads, etc if needed….and ridiculously simple management from their UMS (universal management server). Bottom line Teams and Zoom work great if you configure IGEL and the cloud VDI properly!

·     All that capability on a USB key that delivers a secure, enterprise end point when inserted, and returns the machine to its original state when removed! Perfect for contractors, BYOD employees, and as a means of simplifying the provision of devices for employees that won’t go BYOD. Send them an off the shelf consumer laptop, and a UD Pocket. All they have to do is plug the UD pocket in (smiley)

Of course it is not quite that simple but close.  I truly believe this kind of simple, secure end point will facilitate (finally) a true change in how enterprises deliver end points. Secure Linux OS on the end point, facilitating secure browser based access to SaaS applications, and a secure access to rich Windows experiences in the Cloud.

You need to try it! I can help

One of the major challenges highlighted with BYOD from home in the pandemic is the massive user support overhead for supposedly 'self supported' devices with a range of OS versions on MAC and Windows. 10 year old MACs, even Windows XP! Spurious intrusive security products, pre-existing faults, laptops that hadn't been turned on for 2 years all commonplace on devices users want to use for work and expect solved to allow a client like Citrix Workspace to be installed for access the corporate network. iGel boot key offers a great advantage here in bypassing all of that to give a standardised, managed end point without having to deal with the user's existing 'baggage', with total reversibility at the end of the day when users remove the USB key and reboot back into their device's normal OS.

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