IGEL Technology, the world's third largest thin client vendor with its virtualization-oriented Universal Desktop range, recently announced a new distribution agreement with IQ Sys Ltd., the UK's leading Citrix distributor. In the past two years, IQ Sys has won five Citrix Distributor Awards including the categories "Best Distributor", "Best Market Development" and "Fastest Growing."

 

UK resellers and systems integrators involved in delivering desktop virtualization now have access to the complete IGEL range of 20 different Universal Desktop models plus the most powerful remote management software in the industry. IGEL devices support 14 different hypervisors, four different virtualization brokers, and support the Citrix XenDesktop Appliance standard. The standard, published by Citrix in Q1 2008, ensures that any compliant access device connected to Citrix XenDesktop behaves exactly like a normal PC. IGEL's latest firmware upgrade allows all IGEL thin clients to be switched, with just one mouse click, from a traditional IGEL Universal Desktop to a tightly defined virtual PC using ICA to access Citrix XenDesktop.

 

"There is a rapidly growing demand for desktop virtualization from companies looking to reduce costs and increase the flexibility of their systems," said David Turner, IQ Sys vendor development manager. "Our new partnership with IGEL, combined with our existing partnerships with Citrix, Gemalto and Thinprint, now allow us to offer a total virtual desktop solution to the market."

 

Simon Richards, UK general manager for IGEL Technology, commented: "IQ Sys is one of the most experienced distributors in the existing server-based computing and rapidly emerging virtualization markets. This relationship will ensure our resellers and end users continue to receive the high quality of service they have come to expect from IGEL."

 

The IGEL Technology range includes traditional desktop designs, PC upgrade cards, 19" LCD integrated units and quad screen units. This wide variety of choice allows organizations of all types to deploy desktop virtualization solutions to almost any part of the business, including office workers, space constrained point-of-sale areas and multi-screen environments such as dealing rooms.

 

IGEL's Universal Desktop design delivers additional benefits to IT administrators and end-users because organizations are not forced to host all applications on the virtual desktop and deliver it using one protocol. The flexibility of the IGEL approach allows organizations to pick and choose the best digital services to deliver a true PC experience, including web browser, Java, SAP GUI, PDF, terminal emulation and VoIP. This also provides desktop resilience if the virtual PC connection should be lost, for example, users can access email via the local web client or SAP via the native SAP GUI.

 

The final component of IGEL's solution is its Remote Management Suite. This software is bundled free with every IGEL Universal Desktop and allows the terminal to automatically connect to its infrastructure and be remotely managed over a WAN with no scripting and minimal network impact. This allows a desktop to be "drop shipped" to a user and set up within five minutes by simply connecting the power, network, monitor, mouse and keyboard. Everything else is automatic.