In this episode of IGEL Weekly, Andy Whiteside sits down with Chris Feeney from IGEL’s Office of the CTO to explore a critical, often overlooked element of disaster recovery—endpoint resilience. They unpack how IGEL is addressing business continuity challenges with innovative solutions like IGEL Dual Boot and USB Recovery, enabling organizations to recover in minutes rather than days.

Chris shares insights into the growing importance of securing endpoints amid rising ransomware threats and operational disruptions like the recent CrowdStrike incident. The conversation dives into:

• Why most organizations fail to plan for endpoint-level recovery
• How IGEL’s dual-boot architecture bridges the gap between prevention and recovery
• Real-world examples of minimizing downtime during breaches and outages
• The future of endpoint strategy as SaaS, browsers, and cloud PCs reshape IT infrastructure

Tune in to learn how IGEL is redefining endpoint continuity and setting a new standard for security and business resilience.

In Episode 103 of IGEL Weekly, host Andy Whiteside and Chris Feeney dive deep into what it means to truly rethink endpoint strategy in 2025. Using James Millington’s recent blog as a guide, they explore IGEL’s Preventive Security Model — a lightweight, adaptive, and policy-aligned approach that moves beyond the bloated, reactive stacks of the past.

From Zero Trust architecture and business continuity planning to repurposing hardware for sustainability and simplifying mergers and acquisitions, Andy and Chris share how IGEL unifies hardware, applications, and security into a failsafe foundation for any organization. Whether you’re managing thousands of endpoints or just a few dozen, this conversation reveals why it’s time to break from the status quo and design for a secure, flexible, and future-ready digital workspace.

I recall a few years ago buying a new car, it was a Hyundai Coupe, I’d never seen one before and thought I’d get something different.

As soon as I got the key and drove it, I saw them all over the place!

Not so unique after all.

This phenomenon is called ‘Intentional Blindness’ or ‘Perceptual Blindness’, when we don’t notice something in our field of view because we are busy focusing on something else.

I think this is akin to the pervasiveness of Digital Signage, it is everywhere we simply don’t see it.

Until it goes wrong…

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Chris Feeney

At IGEL DISRUPT 2024 in Munich this week, Lenovo presented its vision of how generative AI’s next advancement will involve personalizing end-user devices. This means that computers, phones, tablets, and other devices will soon be able to understand the context of our activities and adapt to how we prefer to work.

Overall, the concept of adding AI at the endpoint is gaining a lot of traction. In 2023, Adobe reported that 77% of all devices use some form of AI. Lenovo sees the future of AI moving to a background-running service, first appearing locally in high-end and then consumer devices and eventually becoming ubiquitous across all environments, allowing incredibly high-power models to function at low-power demand.

Lenovo, in partnership with IGEL, has already taken steps to implement these innovative features.

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Chris Feeney

In this episode, Rene talk about the power of the IGEL community, and what makes it so sticky!

Additionally we dive into some product discussions.  Did you know that IGEL OS 11 is going end of life in December 2025.

Finally, we close things out with a discussion of the IGEL Disrupt conference, and it's rebranding to IGEL Now and Next

Host: Barry Browne
Co Host: Rene Recker

There are many exciting announcements that are happening at this year’s annual IGEL DISRUPT event in Munich, one of which was the addition of the Island Enterprise Browser to the IGEL App Portal. In case you missed it, here is everything you need to know about the partnership between IGEL and Island and what it means for end-user computing. 

IGEL’s partnership with Island offers a uniquely agile workspace with unmatched security and optimized workflows. Here are six key benefits users will experience: 

• Zero trust access for applications to protect data 
• Frictionless onboarding and administration 
• Easy app installation and updates 
• Familiar browser interface options 
• Increased enterprise performance 
• Reduced power consumption 

Adding the Island Enterprise Browser offers a secure alternative to desktop virtualization for organizations already using IGEL OS. When paired with the Island Enterprise Browser, IGEL’s Preventative Security Model is a proven solution that provides simplified endpoint management and a familiar browsing experience.  

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Chris Feeney

Windows 10 goes end of life on the 14th of October 2025. By that date, Microsoft will stop providing free software updates from Windows update, no technical assistance will be offered and lastly, there will not be any more security fixes. Security fixes are a crucial part, and if you are on a system where a new vulnerability is exposed, and no more security fixes are going to be provided, you are in big trouble. Looking at last year’s increase of cyberattacks with ransomware, and how it affects companies, that is not an option!

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Bill Sutton
Co-host: Chris Feeney

IGEL helps companies to quickly recover, whenever productive work comes to a halt due to an IT outage.

IGEL offers a secure read-only lightweight Linux Operating System allowing you to convert existing PC’s to IGEL OS or boot from USB (thus not affecting the existing Operating System or data) whilst in a Disaster Recovery situation, allowing users to connect to services such as VDI, DaaS and\or WEB and SaaS applications.

In a DR scenario IGEL OS will work without the need for management infrastructure to be setup and configured, simply boot to IGEL OS, download evaluation licenses for 90 days; install any client applications you require to connect to your VDI, DaaS and\or WEB and SaaS applications and get your users back up and running FAST.

This may also have the advantage of granting the IT team breathing space whilst they continue to troubleshoot any ongoing outages.

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Chris Feeney

In response to the increasing cyber threats identified by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including the aggressive ransomware campaigns by the Black Basta group, IGEL’s Preventative Security Model™ stands as a critical defence mechanism for the healthcare industry. This model prioritizes proactive prevention over merely reactive measures, ensuring that healthcare organizations are not just responsive but fortified proactively against sophisticated malware and ransomware attacks that exploit endpoint vulnerabilities. As threats like Black Basta continue to evolve, employing advanced tactics such as spear phishing and exploiting critical vulnerabilities within commonly used software, the emphasis on robust endpoint security and comprehensive threat prevention strategies has never been more crucial.

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Chris Feeney

Join Seb and I, along with a special guest host on this episode of the IGEL community podcast.

In this episode, we talk about IGEL Disrupt in Munich, IGEL Secure in London, IGEL Disrupt roadshow, and of course, all the IGEL community news that you could ever ask for.

Host: Barry Browne
Host: Sebastien Perusat
Host: Rene Recker

Links:  Behind the Hedgehog Podcast (https://open.spotify.com/show/3nuUydpmdeUzXGgdIsAW2h?si=9939beed97374f7a)