Citrix Synergy 2014 and New Announcements!
There were many major announcements this year at Synergy. Citrix has been in the virtualization and EUC space for the last 25 years now, and they never cease to surprise me. With many other solutions out there, none in my opinion are capable of holding the torch for that "complete" overall solution, giving users that seamless look and feel across any type of device at any time.
Regarding those announcements, I wanted to touch on some of the pieces that will truly benefit the customer, whether they are currently a Citrix shop or they are deciding on what solution to leverage in their respective environments:
- Citrix Receiver X1: As you all may already know, Citrix Receiver is an integral part of the Citrix suite where the users would be able to enumerate their apps and desktops from. Receiver is also mainly used on our mobile devices for gaining access to your respective Citrix environment. Now, Citrix took Receiver to another level. It has now essentially become a single receiver, having integrated MDX and HDX protocols into one. This is to allow for that same user experience on mobile devices. Customers could now brand it as their own, and the UI is completely HTML5 driven. You will now be able to make bundles of apps and desktops to present to the user. These can be branched off into categories and folders as well. Furthermore, it will be server-delivered so it will work the same across all devices such as laptops, mobile, etc. While at Synergy, Citrix also coined the slogan for this as, "Your Mobile Workspace From One Button."
- NetScaler 10.5 and MobileStream Technology: With all the leaps and bounds the NetScaler technology has made in the virtualization networking space, 10.5 will do one major thing that I know current and future customers alike may appreciate.... NO MORE JAVA DEPENDENCIES IN THE NETSCALER CONSOLE! Now, Citrix has made the change to HTML 5 for this version, the configuration aspects of it will be a lot easier to deal with instead of having to worry about which version of Java will break the interface...
MobileStream Technology is a new component in the NetScaler architecture that has shown five times improvement in mobile app performance from within the Citrix environment! This contains a multi-layered technology that intelligently optimizes the amount of data to be downloaded. It also essentially eliminates sporadic connectivity caused by legacy communication platforms with dual network mode technology. MobileStream also integrates with NetScaler Insight Center (HDX Insight) which is currently being leveraged for HDX (web) traffic analysis.
- XenMobile 9 and ShareFile Enterprise: Before I go into some of the new features for XenMobile 9, I need to touch on one of the new ShareFile features, the ability to securely "hook" into your other personal cloud solutions such as DropBox, Google Drive, and SkyDrive via ShareFile Storage Connectors! This now helps with users that need to migrate data over to their secured ShareFile solution from their personal cloud solutions that may have already be in place. Once again, Citrix shows that it tries to play and integrate well with others in a SECURED fashion. There is also a new StorageZone Connector SDK that will allow any IT partner or provider to create additional hooks into any other enterprise content management (ECM) system.
Some other XenMobile highlights include:
- WorxMail & WorxWeb Enhancements – Adds new, intuitive features in WorxMail for secure mobile email to help people navigate quickly between email, calendar and contacts. The latest version reduces the time spent reading, deleting and sorting through emails. For example, people can quickly go through emails with a swipe up to mark the email read, or swipe down to delete the email. WorxWeb for secure web access sports an improved user interface and support for offline viewing of webpages.
- Windows Phone 8 Support –Integrates and extends support for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8. IT organizations can manage iOS, Android and Windows devices from a single platform with a common feature set and improve productivity with new WorxMail and WorxWeb for Windows Phone 8.
- Enhanced Security Capabilities - Secure data in motion and at rest on mobile devices with cross-platform FIPS 140-2 compliance, including iOS and Android devices, and third party penetration testing.
- Cloud Enhancements – All of the new capabilities are also available for XenMobile cloud deployments in high availability configurations.
- Citrix Workspace Services: Citrix also announce the first platform for designing, building, and delivering mobile workspaces built on Microsoft Azure called Citrix Workspace Services. The cloud-based platform allows both partners and customers to rapidly build and offer desktops-as-a-service (DaaS), virtual application delivery, and mobility services for any cloud or datacenter. DaaS, or Desktops as a Service, has been up and coming for the last few years now, and the idea of simply provisioning new VDI and virtualization infrastructure via the cloud or with the hybrid approach (on-prem datacenters) will gain even more acceleration with this product offering for partners and customers! Citrix Workspace Services is a cloud-based platform that enables partners, enterprises and independent software vendors (ISVs) to quickly and simply design and deliver mobile workspaces that allow people to work better and increase business productivity, agility and efficiency. Workspace Services builds upon a full range of Citrix technologies including the open architecture of Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenDesktop virtual app and desktop delivery, the market-leading user experience of Citrix HDX technologies, the most robust mobility solution with Citrix XenMobile, and follow-me secured data with Citrix ShareFile.This is also a great next step for partners to leverage a technology and more easily host/provision a Citrix environment.
For more information on the above topics as well as release dates, please refer to following Citrix URL on announcements:
http://www.citrix.com/news/announcements.html
Labels: 10.5, Announcements, Azure, Citrix, Cloud, DaaS, Enterprise, Microsoft, NetScaler, Receiver, Secure, Services, sharefile, Suite, Synergy 2014, Windows, Workspace, Worx, X1, XenMobile