Citrix made a range of announcements at last month’s Synergy event in the US and Irish country manager Grace O’Rourke Veitch spoke to ComputerScope on some of the highlights.
Chief among the announcements was the launch of XenDesktop 7, the first release of the Citrix ‘Project Avalon’, multi-phased initiative to deliver Windows as a cloud service. As businesses use Windows applications that were never meant to be mobile, according to Citrix, this enables any Windows application to function intuitively and transparently on mobile devices.
"We’ve been optimising our technology to work on any device," said O’Rourke Veitch.
XenDesktop 7 includes compression and redirection technologies, (such as H.264, which cuts the bandwidth required for a remote client in half), that automatically adjust to accommodate 3G mobile broadband networks, as well as touchscreen capabilities and native menu controls.
"It integrates XenApp and desktop virtualisation technologies into a unified Flexcast management architecture (FMA)."
"What that does is it replaces 22 separate interfaces with just two purpose built consoles for service design and ongoing performance management with Director.
"It makes it a lot simpler to build, provision and manage for the IT department."
It also includes simplified workflows and automated configuration checking, meaning that IT managers can simultaneously publish dozens of apps, eliminating as much as 80% of the time and effort needed to deploy new services, according to Citrix.
Also, because it is built as an open platform, it can be deployed on any hypervisor or cloud management solution, including Citrix CloudPlatform, powered by Apache CloudStack, or Amazon Web Services.
Citrix has also launched XenMobile Enterprise, which combines mobile device, app and data management (from its acquisition of MDM vendor Zenprise) and a mobile app store for business users known as the Worx App Gallery.
Worx App Gallery combines Citrix Worx mobile applications, such as WorxMail for secure email, calendar and contacts, WorxWeb for secure web browsing and Citrix ShareFile, with more than 80 third party apps from the likes of Antenna, Appcelerator, Box, Catch, Concur, Expensify and Xora.
The integration of the ShareFile data sharing solution with XenMobile allows users to view, edit and share data within a secure container on their mobile device. XenMobile is also integrated with Citrix GoToAssist, enabling users to initiate service-desk tickets and chat sessions instantly from their mobile devices.
Xenmobile Enterprise edition is now a "complete enterprise mobility management solution that secures devices apps and data," which now includes access to Sharefile Enterprise.
"Users want their data to follow them securely, wherever they go," said O’Rourke Veitch.
The company also announced new StorageZone connectors for ShareFile. This includes added support for Microsoft SharePoint and network drives, helping enterprises provide secure mobile access to data behind the corporate firewall.
ShareFile also includes a built-in mobile content editor, which supports standard SharePoint functions, such as check-out, edit and check-in from mobile devices.
StorageZone now supports Windows Azure as cloud storage option, allowing IT managers to store data in Microsoft hosted data centres, in addition to Citrix-managed clouds or on-premise within their own data centres.
These new tools are important for the Irish market, as according to O’Rourke Veitch, there is no lack of understanding of the value proposition of mobile and flexible working.
"The more we go out and talk to customers about the likes of MDM and Xenmobile, the more confidence they gain that there is technology there that will securely enable them to deliver BYO."
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