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Google, Citrix collaborate on cloud-based desktop apps

Kgaogelo Letsebe
By Kgaogelo Letsebe, Portals journalist
Johannesburg, 25 Jul 2017
Google and Citrix have integrated Google Docs with Citrix ShareFile.
Google and Citrix have integrated Google Docs with Citrix ShareFile.

Business software company Citrix is expanding its relationship with Google in a bid to bring cloud delivery of applications and desktops and secure cloud-optimised endpoints to their enterprise customers.

The companies say businesses are continuously looking to both public and hybrid clouds to solve their business requirements for secure digital workspaces.

Cloud adoption has been on the increase with a Gartner study showing that the worldwide public cloud services market is projected to grow 18% in 2017 to total $246.8 billion, up from $209.2 billion in 2016.

In a blog post, Nan Boden, head of global technology partners for Google Cloud, says customers often asked for such a collaboration. "Customers often tell us they want to be able to use their current desktop applications from any device and any place just as easily and securely as they can use G Suite. Managing and delivering hosted desktop applications requires several pieces of technology: Google brings highly scalable and reliable infrastructure, a global network to reach customers and employees wherever they may be while Citrix brings the application management, backup and redundancy from XenApp, its desktop virtualisation suite, and application delivery with Netscaler," he explains.

The partnership expansion will further enable customers to use Citrix cloud to run and manage secure digital workspaces, including Citrix Workspace Service and Netscaler CPX through the Google cloud platform. The company aims to have the services available in the Google cloud launcher marketplace by the end of September 2017.

Further integrations announced include Citrix ShareFile and Google G Suite that enables follow-me-data when using Citrix workspace solutions. "A new ShareFile plug-in will allow the secure sharing of files via Gmail and a ShareFile connector to Google Drive provides users with one place to find all their documents," he added.

Steve Blacklock, vice president of global strategic alliances at Citrix, added that many companies of various sizes have been asking for such a product. "They now have an opportunity to embrace cloud transformation and empower their people to work securely from anywhere using digital workspaces."

Citrix confirmed that there will be additional product announcements in early January 2018 at the Citrix Summit.

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