IGEL and ControlUp – Driving Digital Employee Experience Innovation

The Fontainebleau in Miami Beach will be the place to be later this month as IT professionals, industry experts, and End-User Computing (EUC) enthusiasts come together for IGEL Now & Next 2025, the premier event for EUC, endpoint security, and digital workspaces.

This four-day convergence of forward-thinking strategies, innovative solutions, and deep insights will showcase the future of digital workspaces, and we are thrilled to have ControlUp as a Gold-level sponsor!

We sat down with Simon Townsend, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Office of the CTO at ControlUp, to learn more about the relationship between IGEL and ControlUp and what attendees can expect to learn about how the collaboration between the two companies helps to reduce the total cost of ownership associated with digital workplaces, help deliver the very best employee experiences, and ensure employees work in the most secure way.

Tell us about your company and how you partner with IGEL. How long have you been an IGEL Ready partner?

Simon Townsend: ControlUp is a leader in Digital Employee Experience (DEX) and modern workplace management. This includes helping organizations manage DEX on IGEL OS-enabled endpoints and the IGEL ecosystem. Combined, ControlUp and IGEL allow organizations to deploy cost-effective, secure digital workspaces free from friction, enabling employees and IT to work more productively.

We have been a close partner of IGEL for many years, sponsoring all IGEL events since the first Disrupt event in 2017! ControlUp was one of the first partners to add its solution to the IGEL App Portal, and today, ControlUp has both BYOD and fully managed DEX apps on the IGEL App Store.

What are some things your organization is doing together with IGEL to shape the future of EUC?

Simon Townsend: Regardless of whether you are deploying VDI, DaaS, or SaaS digital workplaces, IGEL and ControlUp combined help reduce the total cost of ownership associated with digital workplaces, help deliver the very best employee experiences, and ensure employees work in the most secure way.

If deploying VDI or DaaS, ControlUp offers complete end-to-end visibility from the virtual machine down to the IGEL endpoint, including visibility into the cloud, hypervisor, and protocol. If Deploying SaaS-based applications, ControlUp offers real-time SaaS monitoring. By having ControlUp installed on IGEL-enabled devices, IT can further reduce the cost of management and ensure employees are getting the best experience.

How has being a part of the IGEL Ready program improved your business or enhanced customer experience?

Simon Townsend: Working with IGEL and being part of the IGEL Ready program means the most for our joint customers. Tested solutions that just work enable organisations to deploy the two technologies with ease. The program allows our field sales, field CTOs, product management, and Development teams to work together for the good of our customers.

What are some key trends impacting your partners and customers in 2025, and how is your organization solving these?

Simon Townsend: Windows 11 migrations, the move to Desktop as a Service, and the rise of SaaS-based applications are challenges many organisations are facing right now. Supporting this heterogeneous and ever-changing workplace is a challenge for many organizations and those in IT. Never has there been so much choice and change in end-user computing, yet IT budgets and time are under pressure to optimize its operations and reduce cost.

By looking at ControlUp and IGEL, organisations can save on operating costs and CAPEX by extending the life of desktops, reducing support costs, and automating much of what IT has been doing for some time. In a world of hybrid work, technologies like IGEL and ControlUp become a necessity for both IT and the employee.

Why is your organization a sponsor of Now & Next 2025?

Simon Townsend: ControlUp has recognised the value in sponsoring IGEL’s annual customer events for eight years. As long as our prospects and customers can take advantage of our solutions, we will meet them where the important networking happens. The event has grown over the years to include more customers, more partners, and more vendors…it really is the event of the year when it comes to end-user computing.

Is this the first time you are sponsoring an IGEL event? If not, what keeps bringing your organization back to these events?

Simon Townsend: People and the format continue to be the reason we sponsor. It’s a great format, including tons of educational sessions from both vendors and customers. It’s a great place to network and learn. It’s a relaxed, fun format that even the biggest vendors would be proud of.

What will you present to attendees at Now & Next 2025?

Simon Townsend: We will highlight the latest version of ControlUp—the ControlUp ONE platform. This includes new features and capabilities to support the heterogeneous world of end-user computing. We will be demoing our new Control for Apps capabilities, designed for SaaS-based application monitoring, ControlUp for Compliance, and, of course, our integration into IGEL OS alongside Microsoft AVD, Cloud PC, Citrix, Omnissa, and other VDI technologies.

What do you hope attendees learn from the content you share at Now & Next 2025?

Simon Townsend: We hope they learn to understand the meaning and value of managing digital employee experience and how ControlUp offers additional ways to manage the modern workplace, including devices running IGEL OS. DEX is no longer an add-on technology but instead a new way of securing and managing endpoints remotely.

What do you and your team hope to take away from participating in Now & Next 2025?

Simon Townsend: We would love to meet new customers and partners and continue to strengthen our relationships with the many sponsors and ecosystem partners in this exciting place

What is one thing you plan to do/accomplish either personally or professionally in the next three to six months?

Simon Townsend: Highlight the importance of sustainability and the responsibility we, in IT, have to measure, monitor, and report on things like carbon footprints. IGEL and ControlUp both have solutions that help reduce carbon footprints and the impact IT has on greenhouse gases. We will continue to educate and innovate in this area to ensure more people can save money, save the planet, and still be secure.

Don’t miss IGEL Now & Next 2025 in Miami Beach. Register today!