Why do entire organizations invest millions in building resilient data centers, but leave their endpoints exposed to outages that can last days? That question kept coming up during my conversation with me James Millington from IGEL on the Now and next eventbecause it highlights a gap that most IT leaders still underestimate.
James walked me through the reality he sees every day. Companies are deploying high availability strategies for their servers, cloud platforms and networks, but the devices employees rely on remain the weakest point. When ransomware or a system failure occurs, the response is often to find spare laptops, call suppliers and hope there is stock. As James noted in our chat, many companies quietly rely on a handful of unused machines sitting in a closet. That approach might have worked a decade ago, but today’s threat landscape exposes any delays.
Our discussion focused on IGEL’s dual-boot approach, a new way to restore access in minutes by co-locating IGEL OS with Windows on the same device. Rather than waiting hours or even weeks to rebuild machines, organizations can simply switch to a secure environment that restores access to cloud apps, collaboration tools and virtual desktops. James shared stories of analysts who admitted that no comparable solution exists, and of customers who had a light bulb moment when calculating the true cost of endpoint restoration. The underlying theme was simple. You can’t coordinate your crisis response unless your people have a working device in their hands. Everything else depends on that.
This episode also reflects a broader shift in the way organizations think about resilience. Leaders are beginning to question old assumptions about failover, preparation, and what it takes to keep people productive when attacks or outages occur. The conversations I heard during Now and Next showed that companies realize that the end point is no longer an afterthought. It is the gateway to every service that keeps a business running. If that gateway fails, everything slows down.
James also shared lighter moments from his journey. His career started as a DJ, something he returns to at IGEL events, and it was fascinating to hear how skills from that era still shine through in his approach to communication and timing. It reminded me how varied experiences shape the leaders driving today’s conversations about security, SaaS evolution, Zero Trust, and the growing overlap between IT and operational technology.
So here’s my question for you. As cyber risks increase and downtime becomes harder to tolerate, how ready are you for the disruption that starts at the endpoint? I would like to hear your opinion.
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