Tyler Independent School District (ISD)

Texas school district saves money by improving secure endpoint management with IGEL

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The read-only “IGEL OS lets us securely ‘set and forget’ our endpoints. Our team can accomplish so much more now that we don’t have to worry about the endpoints.Daryl KisosondiNetwork Security Engineer

SUMMARY

  • Updates to the existing digital workspace delivery solution caused headaches for the school district’s IT team and impacted the experience of staff and students.
  • IGEL improved the experience for staff and students with VMware Horizon on the existing endpoint hardware.
  • The endpoint management capabilities available through IGEL exceeded the district’s security and compliance requirements and eliminated third-party software.

THE CUSTOMER

  • As the largest school district in Northeast Texas, Tyler Independent School District (ISD) encompasses 193 square miles, maintains a total of 36 campus and auxiliary facilities, and serves an enrollment of over 18,000 students. The district comprises four high schools, a Career & Technology Center, two Innovative K-8 schools, four middle schools, 15 elementary schools, and one special education campus.

THE CHALLENGE

  • Tyler ISD has thousands of endpoint devices connecting to VMware Horizon. The endpoint hardware was old and impacted the end users. The challenge for Tyler ISD, however, was that it didn’t have the budget to replace its entire endpoint infrastructure.
  • In searching for a new digital workspace solution, Tyler ISD came across IGEL and immediately liked what they saw. “The demo of IGEL OS with the IGEL UD Pocket showed us that it could easily meet our needs,” said Kisosondi. “We were pleased with the functionality of the solution and how well it would meet our security and compliance requirements, but we needed to identify a funding source in order to adopt IGEL.”

THE IGEL SOLUTION

  • IGEL OS
  • IGEL UMS
  • IGEL UD Pocket
  • VMware Horizon & Applications
  • MS Teams & Office
  • Adobe Creative Cloud
  • Canvas, Frontline ERP, SIS, Gradebook & more

The district first embarked on its effort to replace its digital workspace infrastructure in stages. When the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in March 2020, it dramatically changed how Kisosondi and his team approached this project.

“Having students and staff learning and working remotely meant we had fewer endpoint devices to worry about on our campuses,” said Kisosondi. “Then, we received an unexpected windfall in the form of funding for pandemic-related technology upgrades. Suddenly we had the money we needed to start deploying IGEL OS across the board.”

He added, “IGEL opened the door to simplifying the management and security of our digital workspaces – all in one shot. At the same time, it has also enabled us to dramatically improve the experience our students and staff have with their endpoints.”

THE OUTCOME

Tyler ISD has thousands of endpoints running the IGEL OS. The district has found that whether the endpoint is being used by a student or by a staff member, the user experience and management of the device are the same. There is no training involved; IGEL is transparent to the user; they walk up to a device and log into their virtual desktop.

“It’s nice that the students and staff can access the resources they need consistently,” noted Kisosondi. “And the image management is incredibly simple.”

For Tyler ISD’s staff, IGEL has also provided a seamless experience. “With the integration between IGEL and VMware, our staff only have to log in once as the credentials they are using are passed from IGEL OS to their VMware Horizon VDI client automatically,” said Kisosondi.

Kisosondi also reported that the security of IGEL OS has been a game-changer for the district. “No longer do we have to pay for anti-virus software or licensing, which helps to offset our costs,” he said. “IGEL is inherently more secure. With IGEL, we can ‘set it and forget it,’ which allows our team to accomplish so much more now that we don’t have to worry about the endpoints.”

Tyler ISD is looking for other use cases for IGEL and currently has plans to expand the deployment to students attending school from Juvenile Hall. “IGEL will enable us to fully lock down these machines so that our students can’t get around the controls and permissions,” explained Kisosondi. “This has been a challenge with other operating systems, and we are excited about what IGEL can do for us to ensure our students aren’t gaining access to restricted websites, data, and applications.”

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