IGEL Product Lifecycle

IGEL always endeavors to offer customers a great user experience along with planning reliability and a product lifecycle process that customers can rely on. Due to the fact that products and licensing offers change over time and IGEL offers a wide software and hardware portfolio, this document is intended to clarify how the product lifecycle is defined at IGEL.

IGEL OS 11

IGEL guarantees at minimum a full 3-year product lifecycle for every major firmware release version starting with IGEL OS 11, which was initially released in February 2019.

Within this 3+ year time period, IGEL provides 3 to 4 releases per year (minor releases), including

• new features, software clients, drivers, etc.
• bug and security fixes
• Select support (included with IGEL software maintenance or valid IGEL OS 11 subscription)
• additional hardware support

Outlook IGEL OS 12

Due to general trends in the software market, IGEL plans new major software releases every 2 to 2.5 years. So, two major firmware versions are commonly run in parallel to allow for some time to offer a transition period for the migration to the newer, major version. Switching to IGEL OS 12 and later versions will require an active IGEL software maintenance license or a valid IGEL OS 11 subscription.

For IGEL OS 12 in particular, customers can expect a significant time overlap between the launch of OS 12 and the EOL of OS 11. This is due to the significant architectural and feature advancements of OS 12. IGEL customers can rest assured that IGEL will offer a generous amount of time for customers to migrate from OS 11 to OS 12.

End-of-Sale (EOS)

• OS 11 Perpetual license available until the end of November 2022
• OS 11 Workspace Edition Renewals (1 year) available until the end of 2023

End-of-Life (EOL)

As soon as the 3+ year product lifecycle of an IGEL major OS release is designated end-of-life (EOL), IGEL immediately ceases to provide any further software enhancements.

The customer has the choice to remain on that software version, but IGEL recommends upgrading to the next major release to benefit from all the latest advancements in the software.

IGEL Software Maintenance

An active IGEL software maintenance agreement (or a valid IGEL OS 11 subscription) is required to receive and use all software updates (all releases – major and minor). See the diagram below:

IGEL OS 10

IGEL OS 10 preceded IGEL OS 11. The licensing of IGEL OS 10 was completely different from the current version, IGEL OS 11:

• IGEL OS 10 was not available for purchase separately, it was bundled with an IGEL UD endpoint device.
• Software maintenance was included.
• Software maintenance is available up to three years after end-of-life (EOL), so IGEL OS 10 software maintenance will expire on July 31st, 2022.

The end-of-life (EOL) date for IGEL OS 10 was August 1st, 2019, and the end-of-sales (EOS) date was September 30th, 2019. For a list of end-of-life products before IGEL OS 11, see IGEL Devices before the Launch of IGEL OS 11 (before February 2019).

Universal Desktop Converter 3 (UDC3) 

The basis for UDC3 was IGEL OS 10. It was available separately to convert 3rd party devices to run IGEL OS 10. Since it is based on IGEL OS 10, the last UDC3 software maintenance periods will also expire on July 31st, 2022.

IGEL Universal Management Suite (UMS)

IGEL guarantees at minimum a full 3-year product lifecycle for every major release version.

Within this time period, IGEL provides 3 minor releases per year, including

• new features
• bug and security fixes
• Select support (included with IGEL software maintenance or valid IGEL OS 11 subscription)

New major software versions will always be released in parallel with the previous version to offer a transition period for the migration to the newer version. In this transition phase, both versions will be supported.

As soon as the 3+ year product lifecycle of a UMS version is designated end-of-life (EOL), IGEL no longer provides further product enhancements and stops the distribution of the software.

IGEL Hardware

With IGEL OS 11, IGEL separated the purchase of IGEL hardware and IGEL software licenses. An IGEL endpoint device enters the end-of-life (EOL) phase as soon as its successor hardware generation is launched. That does not affect the hardware end-of-sale (EOS) date. IGEL sells hardware devices in the EOL phase as long as there is stock, or IGEL may opt to set a dedicated end-of-sale (EOS) date. This decision is made by IGEL executive sales management. For a list of EOS dates for IGEL hardware, see IGEL Devices after the Launch of IGEL OS 11 (after February 2019).

Since IGEL hardware and software are offered separately, the end-of-life (EOL) date of IGEL OS 11 and later does not affect the lifecycle of an IGEL endpoint, and vice-versa.

In former times, with IGEL OS 10 and earlier, the OS was bundled with the hardware. As soon as an IGEL OS major release went end-of-life (EOL), the device went end-of-life (EOL), too.

Hardware Warranty

IGEL offers a 2-year warranty for all IGEL endpoints. It can be extended to 5 years upon registration (3 years for IGEL UD Pocket and UD Pocket 2) at no cost.

Explanation of Terms

Related Topics

What is the Meaning of IGEL Release Names?

Software Releases Overview

Devices Supported by IGEL Universal Management Suite (UMS)

End-of-Life Products before IGEL OS 11: IGEL Devices before the Launch of IGEL OS 11 (before February 2019)