Citrix Systems has upgraded its XenDesktop platform with XenClient and XenVault technologies that it says incorporates laptop devices into a unified enterprise desktop virtualisation strategy.
The virtualisation company hopes the technology will address the security challenge many organisations face as employees bring their own consumer devices into the workplace.
Citrix says the desktop virtualisation solution provides IT with central security management of virtual desktops on company-owned laptops as well as personal laptops.
According to Dave Austin, Citrix director of product marketing for Europe, Middle East and Africa, there is a growing trend towards employees bringing in their personal laptops, which are not controlled by IT.
“Corporate IT today struggles with providing a secure virtualised environment to applications on mobile and desktop devices,” notes Austin. “This results in the user getting restricted to what applications he can interact with. There needs to be a balance with regards to flexibility in the user environment.”
He explains that in these scenarios, users do not want IT installing software on their personal laptops, nor does IT want to take on the cost and hassle of managing personal devices.
“The way XenDesktop addresses the challenge is if the user wants the application, the application can be delivered as a virtual application. XenVault then makes sure that the application itself is secure no matter what device it is on.”
Austin says the technology tackles the security fears businesses have around allowing a personal laptop to run in the organisation's virtual environment.
XenVault technology is designed to deliver corporate applications to user-owned devices as an on-demand service, while ensuring that any data created is automatically encrypted. Citrix indicates that XenClient, a feature of XenDesktop, enables more than one virtual desktop to run directly on the client device even when offline.
Earlier this year, Citrix released a report indicating that the South African virtualisation market will grow in spend by 18.9% this year. This is an increase from 3.7% spend in 2009.
Citrix predicts the strongest area for growth coming out of the recession will be in desktop virtualisation, as the South African IT market is set to grow by 18.9% in 2010 and 39.4% in 2011.
The company adds that around 48% of organisations will adopt desktop virtualisation within 12 months, with that percentage increasing to 64% within 18 months.
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