Flexibility is Durabook’s Key to Success in Serving the Federal Sector

Accommodating the Government’s mobile rugged computing needs requires understanding their needs and applications as well as having the willingness and flexibility to tailor solutions to fit them. Knowing that serving the government market warrants its own focused expertise, Durabook Federal was established and is led by President Joe Guest.

Joe is applying over three decades of expertise gained while serving in the U.S. Air Force and the National Guard and then moving to private sector government sales. Prior to Durabook, Joe held positions in business development and executive leadership at other rugged mobile computing and notable tech industry companies.

In this Q&A Joe speaks to meeting the needs of government organizations.

Joe, when looking at rugged mobile computing devices, what makes the Federal market different from the commercial market? 

In the Federal space, our Durabook product line is built to meet Mil-Spec (military specification) 810H requirements, referring to common parameters that must be met in harsh environmental conditions; examples include high and low temperature range, shock, drop, humidity, water resistance, etc. Our Durabook product line, including our semi-rugged offerings, incorporates magnesium protection, sealed I/O ports, proprietary integrated passive cooling designs and provides the highest contrast ratio, helping to eliminate internal reflections for enhanced viewing clarity from multiple angles and in bright sunshine or low light conditions. Commercial market offerings or commodity products do not meet the same criteria.

Federal customers often need a manufacturer to be flexible and nimble enough to meet unique requirements combining the latest features along with legacy options, or removing some features, i.e. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or cameras. The commercial market would consider such features as standard but they can pose security issues for our U.S. Military and Federal Government agencies. Beyond options in configurations, Durabook customers throughout the world operate on a 24x7x365 cycle that requires the support of a strong warranty. The standard warranty for the Durabook product line is three years and can be extended to meet specific customer needs. In commercial offerings, the ability to customize a configuration is typically limited to storage and memory capacity and warranty timelines are limited to one year.

Finally, a selection of our Durabook product line supports a Program of Record (POR) within the U.S. Military. A POR is a formally approved and funded program that has a dedicated line item in the budget. Under a POR, program managers want to see long-term production cycles and road maps that can be supported for multiple years, i.e. five, 10, 15 years vs. commercial markets that typically refresh technology offerings every two-three years.

How do you work differently with one branch of military to the next?

Durabook manufacturing is prioritized for our military customer base and meeting specific needs with this customer set. While the general specs of each branch may differ slightly from one requirement to the next, the overall requirements are similar from one branch to another. Examples include MIL-SPEC 810H requirements, 461G, IPXX, HERO compliance, FIP’s SSD’s with encryption and removable capability, integrated CAC, sunlight viewability, no Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, etc. As one branch may add requirements, we often see other branches or Federal Government agencies adopt the same specs in their requests. A good example of this is our Z14I Fully Rugged Laptop that is used across all branches of the military services and homeland security. The specs of the deployed units vary for each branch of service but the Z14I is the type of laptop that all customers operating in severe environments need for their mission.

Aside from product specs, each military branch and government agency uses various contracts to support the acquisition of their mobile rugged requirements. Durabook partners with many, diverse resellers and system integrators to support multiple contracts across the Federal Government. This gives our customers options for their procurement needs.

What are your observations about the top line trends in Federal Government activities?

Artificial Intelligence continues to be a leading driver of new technology adoption and it’s at the forefront of what our federal customers are focused on. At Durabook, we are integrating AI capabilities across all our product lines, working closely with Intel® to incorporate the latest advancements into each new model release. With AI advancements comes an increased need for enhanced graphics performance. To meet this need, Durabook continues to expand graphics capabilities across both our semi-rugged and fully rugged laptops. Future models will offer improved GPU performance, whether through Intel’s integrated graphics enhancements or via dedicated NVIDIA GPUs for more graphics-intensive or AI-focused workloads.

As our customers take on more complex and varied workloads, extended battery life has also become a top priority. Durabook devices, powered by Intel’s latest energy-efficient processors, now support full-day operation—and often beyond—on a single charge. To further support mission-critical field operations, many of our models also feature extended or dual batteries with hot-swap capability, ensuring continuous performance without interruption.

Looking at military readiness, how can Durabook support that?

At Durabook, supporting military readiness begins with manufacturing rugged computing solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. Consistent engagement with our end-users and system integrators allows us to fully understand the configurations required for their mobile operations. We analyze both current and historical customer requirements to stay ahead of mission demands.

Additionally, we collaborate with leading industry experts to integrate the latest technology into our laptops and tablets, ensuring our users benefit from cutting-edge performance in the field.

Our products are not only engineered for military and government applications—they are built to operate reliably in the harshest environments including extreme temperatures, dust, water exposure, and the day-to-day wear that comes with field use. Every Durabook unit undergoes rigorous, independent environmental testing and complies with, or exceeds, standards such as MIL-STD-810H and MIL-STD-461G.

Finally, rapid deployment capability is a critical aspect of military readiness. We understand that our customers may be deployed anywhere in the world on very short notice. That’s why we prioritize shipping our products quickly, ensuring that mission-critical technology is available when and where it’s needed most.

What are the measures Durabook takes to mesh with SWaP-C?

Size, weight, and performance (SWaP) have been—and will continue to be—a key focus in military operations. Customers consistently advocate for smaller, lighter-weight products with enhanced performance, especially for their deployable communications gear. Over time the military has transitioned from deploying large divisions to smaller brigade combat teams, which directly impacts the equipment they carry and deploy in the field.

At Durabook, SWaP is a guiding principle in every new product release and model update. Our engineers consider SWaP at every stage of product development. A prime example is the recently introduced R8 Rugged Tablet, which embodies all aspects of a compact, lightweight device with a high-end processor capable of operating in the harshest environments. Featuring the unique Coolfinity™ fanless thermal design, the R8 weighs just 1.9 lbs. making it the most compact, comprehensive 8-inch tablet on the market.

Durabook uses magnesium alloy in the construction of our laptops and tablets providing the durability our customers require in the field while also offering a high strength-to-weight ratio that keeps devices lightweight without compromising protection.

In terms of cost—addressing the “C” in SWaP-C—Durabook works closely with resellers and system integrators to ensure our products are competitively priced. We are listed on multiple IDIQ contracts, BPAs, and GSA Schedules, allowing our customers to access the most competitive pricing available.

How important is inconspicuous operation?

Absolutely the quietness of our proprietary Coolfinity™ fanless technology is important for certain operations. Another feature that protects users who may need to not be heard or seen is our NIT rating, the measurement of the brightness of light. The ability to control that is important for many of our users when they’re in the field. They need to be able to go from a high NIT rating where you can see an LCD screen in direct sunlight but also be able to black it out when that is necessary. For example, if you’re operating at nighttime and you don’t want the enemy to see brightness from your screen. This is an important technology that we offer. When you’re building systems for the military and the way they operate whether it’s in an aircraft or in the field, it’s definitely crucial to their survival.

How important is connectivity reliability?

If you’re talking to my colleagues on the public safety or commercial side 5G LTE connectivity, utilizing those features and having a seamless connection is vital to them and, of course, Durabook products support the latest generations of mobile connectivity. It can be different on the DoD/Federal side. Some of our customers will go with Wi-Fi and a few of them will go with LTE whether it’s 4G or 5G available. But the approach can be somewhat different with the military.

In a lot of cases, our U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) customer base is asking us to remove Wi-Fi because they don’t want the signal broadcasting out. When we have DoD customers who need to operate in a “non-comm” environment, we can build their units without the Wi-Fi module. This allows them to utilize other, non-commercial secure communication technology without compromising security. In these cases, being flexible with engineering and manufacturing is essential to satisfying the customer and their requirements.

When a customer is using an alternative communications system, how is that handled within the laptop or tablet?

Whether communicating through satellite or other means the comms will typically come back through an RJ45 connection, which they would hardwire in when needed. And when it’s not, the RJ45 would be more of a data collection point.

The other option would be to communicate through an RS232 port to a radio. So, we still offer serial ports also called RS232 ports on our units which gives customers the ability to hook up our tablet or our laptop into their radio on the battlefield or other remote locations.

It’s counter-intuitive but in sensitive areas, the customer may want a system without a camera, without Wi-Fi, without Bluetooth, or with some legacy capability. And they want connectivity where it’s simply controlled. That could be satellite communications or other types of communications that they’re using internal to their organization. It’s a lot more difficult to hack into a secure Satcom or other type of system than it potentially would be Wi-Fi signals.

One of the first things my team does when we get on the phone with a potential customer is clarify if they need wireless in the systems. Often, the answer is no. That’s something that Durabook Federal easily responds to and accommodates in our product line.

What are other ways Durabook protects its devices from hackers?

Preventing access is what it’s all about. We have biometrics with Durabook systems as a security option. But one of the things that’s still in demand today is the common access card reader (CAC), otherwise known as a smart card, which in the military is the soldier’s ID. It’s got a chip and it allows them to log into the system. All our units accept a CAC for authenticating the user into the system. Once there’s data on board, controlling access is the most important way of protecting data. That is a legacy security attribute that Durabook supports 100% with our customer base.

We offer additional security features with our drives for added layers of protection, such as FIPS 140-2. In U.S. government procurement all solutions that use cryptography must complete FIPS 140-2 validation to ensure that end users receive a high degree of security, assurance, and dependability. That provides an extra layer of security that our customers may be interested in.

Also, SSD drives with an encryption circuit built into the drive are a very reliable means of securing data. An example from a partner application would be an OPAL-compliant drive. OPAL 2.0 is a security standard for self-encrypting drives. This technology encrypts all data on the drive without impacting performance, ensuring that sensitive data remains secure even if the drive is removed from its host device. These technologies are in demand by our DoD customer base and available as options in our product line.

In addition to meeting encryption and security standards, are there other criteria or standards required by governments for mobile computing equipment?

What we’ve been seeing is that the U.S. military is still very focused on MIL-SPEC technical guidelines and standards used by the DOD. They are used to ensure that military equipment and products meet certain quality, reliability, and compatibility requirements. They’re getting much more specific in RFQs about meeting, for example, MIL-SPEC 810H and, on the Air Force side, there’s A10H461G HERO testing. HERO refers to hazards of electronic electromagnetic radiation to ordinance, basically how close can your laptop or tablet be to munitions.

Another important factor is an Ingress Protection (IP) rating that is a two-digit code indicating how well an enclosure protects against dust and water. The International Electrotechnical Commission developed IP ratings.

In general, MIL-SPEC ratings on rugged IT products have been around for a while. However, we’re seeing more programs with specific requirements now. In the past, people may have called something rugged because of the way it was built, maybe with hardened ABS plastic, some shielding on an adapter, or an after-market case on a non-rugged product. Now the military is becoming much more specific in most cases with what these rugged requirements mean and referencing the MIL-SPEC requirement itself in their RFQ documents and in their contracts across the board. With the RFQs that we’re seeing lately, it’s common to see these spec requirements listed and OEMs having to meet them.

How does Durabook show that its laptops or tablets meet a spec or standard?

When supporting the U.S. Military or Federal Government agencies, all computing devices must meet a variety of specifications and military standards. Durabook has a long-standing history of working with these agencies, and our tablets and laptops are specifically designed and built to comply with these rigorous requirements.

Key standards Durabook meets include:

• NIST 800-171 – A cybersecurity standard for protecting Controlled Unclassified Information.
• MIL-STD-810H – Focuses on environmental testing to ensure equipment can withstand harsh conditions such as extreme temperatures, shock, vibration, and humidity.
• MIL-STD-461G – Addresses electromagnetic compatibility and interference, ensuring devices operate reliably in environments with electromagnetic radiation.
• AS9100 – A quality management standard used in the aerospace and defense industries, ensuring components are traceable and manufactured by compliant suppliers.

To comply with these standards, Durabook conducts rigorous internal testing to validate that our design and manufacturing processes meet the required criteria. Once internal testing confirms compliance, we submit our products to accredited third-party laboratories for independent verification and certification.

What does Durabook do to ensure compatibility with the many systems or software environments where it may be used?

From a compatibility standpoint, we’re tested with Microsoft and for the applications specific to DoD that are used on our systems.

Whenever we have a customer that has an interest in our product line, they’ll typically take an eval unit, install their own applications on it, make sure that it runs in their environment, even take it out to the field or the flight line and they’ll just run it through their tests to ensure that it’s compatible. They need to ensure that it meets their requirements not only from an application standpoint but for the functional use of the system as well.

Do the military branches share information with each other about things like rugged mobile computing options?

In recent years, the consolidation of installations into joint bases—where multiple military branches operate together—has led to greater collaboration and information sharing across services. This includes shared contracting mechanisms, which allow technology and equipment, including rugged mobile computing solutions, to be purchased and used across multiple branches. As a result, contracts that may have originated with one branch are now accessible to all, enabling more efficient procurement and broader standardization.

Additionally, the rugged requirements for personnel across services—whether soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine—have become more aligned. The adoption of common standards like MIL-STD-810H and MIL-STD-461G has driven consistency in rugged specifications, making it easier for different branches to share, evaluate, and adopt proven rugged computing solutions.

As Durabook supports program-level initiatives across the military, we’ve seen our rugged laptops and tablets, initially procured by one service—such as the Army—used by other branches in the field. This cross-service use reflects the increasingly integrated nature of military operations, where missions often span multiple branches.

What are your thoughts on supporting unmanned systems and other remote-control applications with mobile computing devices?

Durabook is actively supporting unmanned systems through the integration of our R8 Rugged Tablet into various base control stations used for First Person View and remote-control operations. These applications span simulation and training, weapons systems, and surveillance. We work closely with systems integrator partners from engineering and design through to manufacturing, ensuring seamless integration of the R8 into these platforms.

The R8 tablet delivers a powerful combination of performance and durability. Featuring a 12th Gen Intel processor, it is purpose-built for tactical edge operations. Its 8-inch LCD with proprietary DynaVue® technology ensures exceptional visibility even in direct sunlight.
Weighing just 1.9 lbs., the fanless R8 boasts a versatile expansion design and is built to withstand harsh environments. With an IP66 rating, 6-foot drop resistance, MIL-STD-810H, and ANSI/UL C1D2 certifications, the R8 stands out as one of the most rugged and reliable mobile devices for remote operations across a wide range of unmanned applications.

As the demand for unmanned systems and remote-control devices continues to grow across industries, Durabook is committed to expanding our presence in this space and enhancing our solutions to meet evolving needs. We’re looking forward to continued success in supporting this type of application.

What are the kinds of things you want a potential customer in the military or the government to know about working with Durabook?

The one thing that I would want them to be aware of is the flexibility of Durabook. A lot of larger OEMs today are not able to or interested in making many changes to their product line configurations. We’re different. We can and do support unique requirements on a regular basis. One example that we’re very proud of is an Air Force program that we have supported for almost 15 years. We sold them a unit that gave them the design quality and reliability they needed but it also gave them the legacy interface with their equipment because we could support the 32-bit OS platform. This product gave the customer what their aircraft dictated they needed to support with their IT equipment.

At some point it does become end of life and it does become legacy to the majority of our customer base, but to this smaller population it’s still a product that’s in demand. The bottom line is we manufactured a product for 15 years to support a customer’s mission and program because it provided compatibility to the Air Force. We were able to slowly transition them to the next technology offering and even bring some of the legacy technology into our new product offering. We also capitalized on the new features like the new IO ports and the new 64-bit platform. Durabook products support not only the latest technology, such as Thunderbolt 4 and USB 3.2 type-C, when it comes to wired connectivity, but also legacy ports, like RS-232, So, in partnership with our long-term customer’s needs, we balanced their legacy requirements as well as helping them transition to new technology.