Citrix Unveils Open, Extensible, Turnkey Cloud Solutions

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today at Citrix Synergy, the event where virtualization, networking and cloud computing meet, Citrix Systems, Inc. announced seven new turnkey solutions that make it easy for cloud providers to deliver practical business services to enterprise customers. The new solutions leverage core Citrix virtualization and networking technologies that are used daily to power the world's largest and most demanding cloud and internet sites. Unlike proprietary solutions from other virtualization vendors, however, the new Citrix Cloud Solution portfolio is based on an open framework that allows cloud providers to add their own innovation to each solution, creating unique, differentiated services that address real business needs.

"Some vendors would have you believe that the cloud is merely a carbon copy of your enterprise datacenter that should be offloaded to someone else," said Klaus Oestermann, Group VP and GM, Networking and Cloud Product Group, Citrix. "Citrix believes in a far more open world where customers can choose from a wide variety of innovative cloud services designed to enhance and extend their own internal IT capacity. These cloud services should work with whatever enterprise customers currently have - not because they are all built on the same locked-down, cookie-cutter virtualization platform, but because they are designed around an open framework that encourages both innovation and interoperability."

The new Citrix Cloud Solutions are based on an open technology stack with deep interoperability between layers, enabling enterprises to leverage existing investments, including third-party virtualization technologies and tools. Unique integration of Citrix platform virtualization, edge networking, and desktop delivery services are augmented with targeted capabilities aligned to specific workloads, such as application lifecycle management, migration and regulatory compliance.

By targeting the practical business-oriented scenarios that make the most sense for customers to purchase as a cloud service, Citrix is focusing its strategy on a more pragmatic approach to cloud computing that meets the real-world needs of customers today. Customer choice is built into each solution as a key tenet with technologies designed to transcend traditional datacenter and networking boundaries, providing unfettered mobility of application workloads among multiple cloud providers without requiring forklift upgrades of existing infrastructure. In addition, customers can be confident with the assurance that the solutions have been verified via the Citrix Ready program. The initial Citrix Cloud Solutions include:

    * On-Boarding - Enables seamless migration of existing applications and workloads into cloud infrastructures, including secure access, optimized network delivery, virtual machine migration and full support for the open virtualization format (OVF). Services based on this solution can dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of datacenter-to-cloud migration.
    * Development and Test - Incorporates on-demand application lifecycle management to help organizations cut both the time and budget required to set-up and allocate new infrastructure for test and development workloads in the cloud.
    * Disaster Recovery - Helps customers prevent unexpected interruptions to applications and data by leveraging virtualization, storage, data replication and orchestration services to support cloud-based delivery of disaster recovery services. Cloud providers delivering services based on this solution can offer customers a compelling alternative to dedicated 'hot-site' standby facilities.
    * Compliance - Helps customers in regulated industries meet strict compliance requirements, while providing unparalleled control over sensitive data stored in both enterprise datacenters and public clouds. This approach reduces compliance costs, allowing customers to focus on their core competencies, while bringing proven expertise to industry-specific compliance mandates.
    * On-Demand Applications - Transforms traditional Windows enterprise applications into a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering that can be delivered over the web as an on-demand service to users anywhere, on any device.
    * On-Demand Desktops - Enables enterprise customers to deliver complete Windows virtual desktops from the cloud, combining the cost and manageability benefits of desktop virtualization with cloud elasticity and capacity-on-demand.
    * On-Demand Demos - Lets software companies make their product demos available to customers and prospects over the web with no setup, downloads or configuration required.Starting today and continuing throughout 2010, Citrix Cloud Solutions will be available from leading cloud service providers.