Citrix Announces New Innovations in Desktop Virtualization

Updated: June 04, 2012

At Citrix Synergy™, the conference where mobile workstyles and cloud services meet, Citrix announced a set of new innovations that help organizations transform their Windows desktops and apps into a cloud-like service that can be managed centrally and delivered to any device in any location. New releases of Citrix desktop virtualization products and new game-changing Citrix HDX Ready SoC-based endpoint devices from key partners are helping to ease the transition to virtual desktops, drive down the acquisition costs and provide expanded capabilities targeting broad use cases from the call center, to high-end engineering and mobile workers in enterprises, the public sector and SMBs, enabling organizations of all sizes to deliver anywhere, anytime access to desktops, applications and data to users.

With the tremendous explosion of new devices, operating systems and applications, organizations are struggling to keep up with the challenge of managing desktops and applications in this new highly mobile world. At the same time, trends such as consumerization and bring your own device (BYOD) programs are putting added strain on IT resources. Citrix is raising the bar once again delivering new innovations across its desktop virtualization products and working with partners to drive down the costs of virtual desktops.

Easier On-ramp to Desktop Virtualization

• New Remote PC Option in XenDesktop FlexCast – The new RemotePC option is part of the FlexCast® delivery technology in the Citrix XenDesktop® product line. Using the new RemotePC capability, XenDesktop customers will be able to quickly turn existing office PCs into distributed VDI hubs without setting up additional servers and storage in the datacenter. This innovative new solution makes it easy for IT to give end users fast, secure remote access to all the apps and data on their office PC from any device. Once IT is ready to move to a more full-service VDI implementation, these distributed RemotePC images can be easily moved into the datacenter to run in a traditional hosted VDI model for better consolidation, security and management efficiency. Remote PC functionality will be included in XenDesktop 5.6 Feature Pack 1, which will ship in June, 2012.
• New AppDNA Software Release – To ease the transition to Windows 7 and a virtual desktop infrastructure, the new release of Citrix AppDNA software brings a simplified overall installation, setup and user environment to accommodate a broader range of enterprises, the channel and global SIs. Citrix AppDNA also provides even more in-depth application details so enterprises can accurately assess, rationalize and act on applications before a project begins. The AppDNA 6.1 software will be available in Q2, 2012.

Reducing the Acquisition Costs of Virtual Desktops

• First Wave of Game-changing Endpoints Arrives – The first results of the Citrix HDX System-on-Chip initiative that was announced at Citrix Synergy Barcelona are being delivered to the market. The initiative was designed to enable an entirely new generation of devices that deliver high-definition virtual desktops and apps at game-changing price points and form factors. These devices reduce the cost of high-performance HDX Ready thin clients by more than half, further driving down the cost of desktop virtualization. New devices from ATrust, Centerm, HP, NComputing and ThinLinx are being announced today at Citrix Synergy San Francisco and are built for Citrix XenDesktop, and Citrix VDI-in-a-Box.
• Personalized VDI for Less than the Cost of PCs – The Project Aruba technology preview delivers a cost-efficient yet complete VDI solution by extending the simple affordable Citrix VDI-in-a-Box™ with layering technology using personal vDisks to deliver highly personalized virtual desktops that retain the cost-efficiencies of pooled desktops.  Project Aruba also provides a validated blueprint for service providers looking to deliver cost-effective VDI-based Desktops-as-a-Service.

Citrix has also made available a license migration path from VDI-in-a-Box to XenDesktop for customers that want to extend beyond VDI to leverage the full flexibility of XenDesktop while preserving their investment. The end-user experience is consistent across both products as both VDI-in-a-Box and XenDesktop use the same HDX stack and Citrix Receiver.

Delivering Expanded Functionality for Broad Use Cases

Citrix is delivering new innovations that create a very seamless experience for end-users, delivering a more complete solution than other alternatives on the market.

• Empowering Point-to-Point Unified Communications for Cisco and Microsoft - With the introduction of HDX Real Time technologies for voice and video collaboration, industry-leading unified communications (UC) solutions including Cisco VXI Unified Communications and Microsoft Lync 2010 can process voice and video locally and create a peer-to-peer connection for the ultimate user experience while taking the load off datacenter processing and bandwidth resources. XenDesktop delivers new levels of efficiency and quality of service for the most demanding use cases. HDX Real Time will be available with XenDesktop 5.6 Feature Pack 1 in June, 2012. - Support for HDX Real-Time with select Cisco VXI clients was recently announced in April, 2012 representing the first optimized UC solution for desktop virtualization on the market. This solution represents one of the first deliverables from the recent collaboration agreement between Cisco and Citrix to optimize HDX for Cisco networks.- The new Optimization Pack for Microsoft Lync 2010 will be included in XenDesktop 5.6 Feature Pack 1. This pack supports Microsoft Lync 2010 for point to point voice and video communications to Windows and Linux devices and will extend across all Citrix Receiver™-enabled devices over the coming months.- Beyond traditional unified communications support, XenDesktop also optimizes voice and video collaboration for cloud-based solutions including Citrix GoToMeeting® by compressing voice and video traffic on the client before transmission over the network.
• Cutting Network Bandwidth for Demanding 3D Engineering Environments – Whether collaborating with design engineers across oceans using advanced CAD/CAM or GIS apps or consulting medical imaging at a patient’s bedside with an iPad, the secure, high performance delivery of GPU accelerated 3D applications and desktops with XenDesktop has never been more powerful or efficient. Using new deep compression codec technology that reduces bandwidth requirements by 50 percent, XenDesktop with HDX 3D Pro technologies secures sensitive intellectual property and privacy-sensitive data while improving collaboration and performance eliminating the need to synchronize and transfer massive data files. Meanwhile, users leverage state-of-the-art graphics processing hardware in the datacenter to access designs and images from any device, anywhere. HDX 3D Pro will be available with XenDesktop 5.6 Feature Pack 1 in June, 2012.
• New XenClient Enterprise and Acquisition of Virtual Computer – Citrix announced the acquisition of Virtual Computer, provider of enterprise-scale management solutions for client-side virtualization. Citrix will combine the newly-acquired Virtual Computer technology with its market-leading XenClient® hypervisor to create the new Citrix XenClient Enterprise edition. The new XenClient Enterprise, available in Q2, 2012, will combine all the power of the XenClient hypervisor with a rich set of management functionality designed to help enterprise customers manage large fleets of corporate laptops across a distributed enterprise. The combined solution will give corporate laptop users the power of virtual desktops “to go”, while making it far more secure and cost-effective for IT to manage thousands of corporate laptops across today’s increasingly mobile enterprise.
• Simplifying Printing with New HDX Universal Print Server – Now, Citrix desktop virtualization products tame the complexity of printing by completing a universal printing architecture with the Citrix HDX Universal Print Server. Combined with the previously available Universal Print Driver, administrators may now install a single driver in the virtual desktop image or application server to permit local or network printing from any device, including thin clients and tablets, leveraging HDX optimization technology to reduce bandwidth load over wide area networks and manage printing communications outside of the virtual desktop channel for enhanced quality of service. HDX Universal Print server will be available with XenDesktop 5.6 Feature Pack 1 in June, 2012.