Last week, I had the pleasure of attending IGEL’s end-user computing (EUC) flagship event: Now & Next 2025. Hosted in Miami, Florida, the event is one of the biggest events for EUC professionals and vendors. It’s rare to get so many EUC professionals in one place all singularly focused on this unique market, which is often an afterthought in the larger tech conferences.
First, a little bit about IGEL: If you’re not familiar with the company, it offers a Linux-based operating system that’s traditionally used in thin client scenarios. IGEL touts the following benefits: ease of management, strong security, and low total cost of ownership. While IGEL exited the thin-client hardware business in 2022, it is now heavily focused on IGEL OS, its Universal Management Suite, a dedicated app portal, and its USB-based OS launcher called UD Pocket.
According to IGEL leadership, the company is growing its annual recurring revenue above 45%. Like many EUC vendors, its growth was accelerated during the pandemic and has slowed since, but today’s growth still outpaces most of the EUC market. And yet our research indicates that Linux adoption hovers in the low single digits, the lowest of all operating systems, revealing that the market for this model is still immature.
So what were the hot topics of the event? And what should you do as an IT professional to prepare?
1) Business continuity is increasingly an EUC purchase driver.
Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) systems have served as a backup business continuity tool for EUC professionals for years, but IT leaders are increasingly seeking to diversify their endpoint OS estate and reduce their reliance on a single vendor, especially after the CrowdStrike event last summer. IGEL OS is highly associated with thin clients and VDI, but there are examples of companies using it as an alternative device for lightweight knowledge-worker use cases.
What it means: Revisit your EUC continuity strategy and consider a broad swath of approaches, such as IGEL, MacOS, ChromeOS, virtual Windows, and other Linux options, that are aligned with company goals and initiatives.
2) The browser is the new endpoint.
The rise of software as a service, progressive web apps, and WebAssembly is whittling away at the thick client install base. Mark Templeton, former CEO of Citrix, took the stage at the event and shared a forecast showing that a vast majority of enterprise apps will be OS-agnostic (i.e., not native) by 2030. Forrester sees a similar trend: 49% of the nearly 5,000 respondents in our Workforce Survey, 2023, said that they can accomplish all of their work within a browser — and that was two years ago!
What it means: Browser management will become more important for EUC admins going forward. That’s especially true for securing generative AI systems that are frequently accessed through the browser. Take an inventory of your existing protections today.
3) Data-driven insights are the future of EUC.
Everyone talks a big game around AI, but none of that opportunity is real without telemetry. Most insights conversation today center around digital employee experience (DEX), and vendors such as ControlUp already collect telemetry for IGEL-based environments. Insights capabilities will expand beyond DEX in the future to help inform Zero Trust environments. For example, IGEL Field CTO John Walsh detailed IGEL’s plans to expand its management capabilities to take advantage of partner integrations to better enable a contextual and continuous approach to Zero Trust.
What it means: IT leaders can no longer fly blindly in their EUC environment. Inventory your existing data sources now, identify gaps, and plan for integration into a unified platform.
4) OT and IT convergence is increasingly in the spotlight.
According to our research, nearly 25% percent of the OS footprint in the enterprise is still running legacy versions of Windows, and many devices will not be compatible with Windows 11 come October 2025. This includes both end user and OT devices. IGEL announced its new IGEL Managed Hypervisor, which enables IT to run legacy operating systems on new devices, whether they are laptops, ATMs, MRIs, or manufacturing machines. Previous efforts to support OT environments have had mixed success, but many vendors are targeting this space.
What it means: EUC leaders will likely play a greater role in supporting OT environments — especially when it comes to supporting legacy Windows and new devices such as augmented and virtual reality devices — but collaboration is key. Meet with your OT peers today to discuss how you can help.
Could you benefit? It depends on your organization’s goals.
The IGEL Now & Next event revealed multiple opportunities for IT leaders to rethink how they deliver, manage, and secure end user computing environments. The question is: Could your IT organization benefit? Consider the following:
- IGEL OS offers management, security, and cost benefits, but it’s a new management and security model, likely requiring some admin upskilling. Of course, this is easier if you can manage this environment with existing toolsets, which IGEL supports. If your goals are management simplification and Zero Trust EUC, it’s worth taking a look. This is especially true for healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and financial contexts.
- Knowledge worker demand for Linux is unlikely to drive adoption, though Linux fanatics in IT certainly exist. Change management must remain a top consideration as users contend with an unfamiliar user interface, especially when used natively. If your organization is making a strategic move to embrace certain types of operating systems (e.g., MacBooks), this type of model may not be a good fit.
- Today, IGEL OS runs on any x86-64 architecture and has partnerships with OEMs such as HP, Lenovo, and LG. Still, these options are relatively limited. For organizations rolling out a choose-your-own-device model, this may not be the best fit, though IGEL can play a strong role in supporting bring-your-own-device use cases.
What do you think of the future of end-user computing? Will approaches like IGEL’s play a larger role in your organization? Why or why not?
If you’re a Forrester client and would like to discuss your EUC strategy with me directly, please reach out to inquiry@forrester.com. EUC vendors are always welcome to set up a briefing with me by reaching out to briefings@forrester.com.
