Seeing opportunities in the desktop virtualisation space, Citrix has secured a collaboration agreement with Intel to develop Xen-based client hypervisor technology.
Citrix says the joint collaboration will involve rolling out a desktop hypervisor that provides higher levels of security, management and flexibility for enterprise desktops. The technology, code-named 'Project Independence' is planned for release during the second half of this year.
Mark Bowker, analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, says in a press statement: “This innovative approach from Citrix and Intel has the potential to swing the pendulum toward desktop virtualisation alternatives and disrupt a traditional desktop management industry that is costing enterprises billions of dollars a year today.”
Innovation through virtualisation
Nick Keene, Citrix country manager, says: “Desktop virtualisation allows Citrix to remove the complexity and high cost of IT management by moving the desktop from the endpoint device to the data centre. The technology can save up to 40% of the cost of traditional managed desktops overall.
“For our resellers it's a high growth opportunity. In SA, we have a number of large financial organisations that are looking at the technology seriously; however, the entire concept has only been around for two years and is still in its maturity phase.”
Keene says despite the economic crisis slowing Citrix's sales structure, the company is bullish on driving its virtualisation technologies to the enterprise. “Companies are tightening their belts and IT is often seen as a raw cost. Virtualisation, be it the server, desktop or application, is an enabler to drive costs down while providing the same amount of services.”
Keene points out that in terms of compliance, virtualisation ensures that business critical information is secure because the dependency is removed from the device. Multiple mobile users can access the same information which is hosted offsite on Citrix's data centre.
Building skills
Citrix's partner account manager, Maike Liebenberg, is responsible for driving Citrix's new channel strategy. “Our channel partners are more focused as we've bought in a strategy to allow partners to engage with us. We have made a few changes around our channel partner certification and we're seeing a lot of interest coming out of this.”
Liebenberg points out that a major challenge facing the channel is skills development. “The main challenge is maintaining and acquiring skill. Citrix is driving a methodology of having a channel-centric model to keep our partners on the right level to support our customers and the right technologies.”
Citrix has an authorised training centre at Bytes Technology and runs a private learnership programme, jointly with Microsoft, according to Liebenberg. In addition, Citrix hosts free online training courses for its sales channel. There are currently eight internationally recognised Citrix courses in total.
Global research firm Gartner predicts the worldwide virtual desktop market will accelerate to 49 million units by 2013, up from more than 500 000 units in 2009. The market revenue is expected to reach $1.5 billion this year.
Citrix has approximately 8 000 partners in more than 100 countries. Citrix's annual revenue in 2008 was $1.6 billion.
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