Networking, cloud, consumerization and mobility are among top enterprise concerns. The so-called mobile-cloud is set to be the next major architectural transition, as companies everywhere start looking for effective strategies to harness cloud computing benefits, without disrupting their current business models. With an eye to these new trends, Citrix unveiled the next stage of its strategy to help enterprises and service providers of all sizes deliver business-ready cloud services.
The company made several corporate and product-specific announcements, focused on mobility, collaboration and cloud services, at Citrix Synergy Barcelona, Oct. 17-19. As Wes Wasson, Citrix senior vice president of strategy, explained to members of the press, the announcements are based on two major verticals: mobile workstyles and cloud services. The company also announced a significant expansion of Citrix’s partnership with Cisco in three strategic areas: cloud networking, cloud orchestration and mobile workstyles.
“Enabling the mobile enterprise requires devices plus data, plus apps and people. They are the four major components,” Wasson said. Citrix said its releases are aimed at making it easier to transform Windows apps and desktops into cloud services, build new clouds with Amazon-style economics and elasticity, bridge to low-cost capacity in third-party clouds and deliver a wide range of apps, data and video services over any network with the best performance, reliability and security.
“We are accelerating the path to the cloud. When it comes to the cloud, a lot of customers ask what to do first. Our path is based on transform, build, bridge and deliver,” Wasson said.
As for expanding the strategic partnership with Cisco, the companies said they will collaborate to unify best-of-breed technologies into innovative solutions for the mobile-cloud era. This includes a multi-year technology and go-to-market investment that will tightly integrate Citrix NetScaler, XenDesktop and Receiver into Cisco technology offerings. Citrix NetScaler app delivery controller (ADC) will become a part of the Cisco Cloud Network Services Architecture, and Cisco will begin reference-selling NetScaler capabilities.
Among the announcements (check all of them here), Citrix said it is moving forward with key developments for delivering Windows apps and data as a true cloud service under Citrix Project Avalon, announced at Synergy San Francisco in May. Citrix announced two major upcoming releases—the first will feature advancements in simplicity, scalability and rich multi-media services, including new HDX EdgeSight for the advanced visibility and diagnostics needed in a mobile environment. The second will enable automation and cloud services, by bringing cloud-style orchestration, self-service and deployment flexibility to Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop.
In addition, Citrix unveiled its CloudGateway 2, which is a new mobile device experience (MDX) technology, and the integration with the Citrix mobile application suite, offering a single unified point of control for any mix of mobile, Web, SaaS and Windows apps and data, delivered to any mix of corporate and personal devices.
Editor’s note: RCR Wireless News will release a feature report about mobile cloud by the end of this year.
