Come on people! The Cloud is Infrastructure!

I'm going to go on a bit of a rant. Forgive me but I did warn you in advance.

The Cloud is not a new thing. It's an evolution of an old thing. A very old thing. The old thing is IT infrastructure. Yes, infrastructure like boring old server and software systems that you run applications on top of. How many times in the last few months have I heard people tell me "oh, you don't have any cloud experience..." Really? So let me get this correct. The fact that I've spent most of my career working on hardware and software solutions such as blade and rack optimized servers, LDAP and identity management, email and calendaring software, infrastructure for server, storage, networking and desktop virtualization to deliver solutions that solve problems for IT has nothing to do with the Cloud? The Cloud delivers off-prem, multi-tentant to run applications that solve problems for IT right? So please fill in the in that statement... My guess is that it's infrastructure.

The Cloud computing era is a fantastic sea change in the deployment models for IT infrastructure. That is a given. Outsourcing and on-demand elastic capability represents a completely different model for information technologies. However don't view the infrastructure as fundamentally different than what it is: an optimized aggregation of software and hardware delivered virtually from a datacenter somewhere to an end user somewhere else.

I've now worked as a senior executive at four virtualization infrastructure companies: VMware, Citrix, ScaleMP and Pano Logic. In all cases we delivered capabilities to virtualize and deliver services in an on-demand fashion. In all cases we enabled "cloud delivery" methodologies. In none of the cases did we view the Cloud as different from the fundamental disaggregation of services from hardware or locality.

So when did the Cloud become some sort of merit badge? The infrastructure to support the Cloud and SaaS offerings are no more than three to five years old and, in many cases is still dramatically evolving. As a point of fact then how can someone who has spent years developing the infrastructure not be seen as someone with "cloud experience?" And truly, if not someone who has been in the business of IT infrastructure not having cloud experience then who does?

Celebrate the New Year with New Citrix Receivers for Android, Windows, Chromebook and PlayBook!

This blog was originally posted in http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on December 29, 2011:

Lost in the shuffle of a number of strategically important announcements today were the numerous updates and enhancements to Citrix Receiver. Our little client that could just got bigger, stronger, faster and even more capable!

One of the first and most noticeable changes in Citrix Receiver is the new workspace. We call this internally the Green Screen but you should consider this your new workspace. This is where your applications, documents and desktops will appear. And, like some popular mobile devices, the workspace is entirely configurable by end users to prioritize, highlight and rearrange all of their apps in whatever order they choose.

The second thing most end users will notice is multi-tasking. Yes, we have added the capability to access multiple applications at the same time and switch easily between applications with full cut and paste. Multi-tasking may have been one of the most requested capabilities so we prioritized it and will be rolling it out in new updates through this quarter and into the first half of next year.

Thirdly, and probably a bit more invisible to end users is a series of native optimizations. Now, while these modifications may be subtle in many cases, they represent the true differentiation for Citrix Receiver. Receiver is built as a native client for the platform they’re running on. If you’re running Receiver for Mac you’ll notice that it behaves like a Macintosh application. If you’re running Receiver for PlayBook you’ll notice that it leverages the QNX operating system and behaves like other native PlayBook apps. If you’re running Receiver for iOS you’ll notice that you can leverage all the native touch commands and they behave, as you’d expect them to, on an iPad. When you touch a data entry box in an app the keyboard will automatically pop up and the screen will advance so as not to be covered up by the keyboard. When you rotate the screen the applications in Receiver will naturally and smoothly rotate. If the local device can run local multimedia codex then flash or Windows media will run locally providing a smoother and faster experience. If the device can’t support the local codex then it will run remotely. There is so much going on in Receiver that provides the optimal end user experience and that is, by the way, different on every device. (This is important, as HTML5-based end user experience, while good for ubiquitous platform support, will never be able to provide the same kind of experience as a local app can.)

Lastly and a bit obliquely we introduced the new XenApp 6.5 Mobile Apps SDK. This new SDK and its related implementations – often referred to as Golden Gate and Alcatraz, among others – provide true platform-to-platform Windows application optimizations. This SDK is what will make Citrix Receiver truly shine as a native device secure access portal application. The SDK opens up device specific APIs and allows developers to create unique capabilities in their XenApp delivered Windows apps specific to the device or platform their delivering to. This new SDK allows developers to take advantage of local resources specific to an iPad or Android device, laptops or smartphones. Ever thought it would be cool to be able to leverage a smartphone GPS to provide location based services in Excel? This SDK will allow developers to do that. How about leverage a local iPad webcam to provide video support to a PowerPoint presentation? This SDK will allow developers to do that. You should check out this blog from Martin Duursma for more information on the XA 6.5 Mobile Apps SDK!

The best part about all of these new Citrix Receiver enhancements? You’ll see all of these new features and capabilities roll out cohesively across all Citrix Receiver clients by mid-next year. We’ll start with Receiver for Windows, Receiver for iOS and Receiver for Android this year followed quickly with updates to Receiver for Mac, Receiver for Linux, Receiver for PlayBook, and others…

Oh, one last thing that we also announced today: Receiver for Web, our new HTML5-based Receiver client will also be available in Technology Preview this week followed by a formal launch in December. While HTML-based solutions will never deliver the very best end user experience (as compared to native client implementations) we also know that there are devices and use cases – such as guest access or hotel kiosks – we aren’t able to support with native implementations. So, as part of the new CloudGateway Express and Enterprise solutions, we will be shipping the infrastructure for Receiver for Web for free!

Stay tuned for more information and be sure to bookmark http://www.citrixreceiver.com for the latest downloads, information and access to the upcoming Technology Previews!

PS: For those of you using Receiver for iPhone, please note that we updated Citrix Receiver to a universal binary for all iOS products. You will need to delete Receiver for iPhone from your device and search for Citrix Receiver in the iTunes app store for the new distribution. Since it has a new name your iPhone won’t automatically update your older Receiver client!

Citrix Receiver and the New Amazon Fire

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on September 28, 2011:

We’re very excited about the prospects of the newest tablet entry, the Amazon Fire! Announced earlier today this $199 android-based tablet with all the optimizations for Amazon services and content coupled with the rich Android app store will certainly translate into a successful platform.

Citrix has long believed that the broad introduction of new device form factors, capabilities and competition are good for end user choice and freedom. The Amazon Fire is only the latest example of a unique platform offering end users a differentiated coupling of capability, access and services. We want to add our commitment to the platform by adding Citrix Receiver to the mix to allow end users easy, secure, self-service access to Enterprise desktops, apps, and data. By supporting the Android ecosystem, Amazon has made it easy to provide Citrix Receiver out-of-the-box to its customers.

We will also be working closely with Amazon in the coming months to determine if there are additional optimizations and customizations that we can pursue to improve the end user experience for customers using Citrix Receiver on the Amazon Fire. As we have with other vendors, we believe that the experience should be seamless and native. We will continue to aggressively pursue this vision on the Fire and new platforms as they’re introduced.

Stay tuned for more information from Citrix on the availability of Receiver for the Amazon Fire. We will endeavor to insure day one availability starting on the November 15 launch date for Amazon’s new tablet!

Citrix Receiver for PlayBook is Finally Here!

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on September 13, 2011:

It’s been a few months in the making but I’m happy to announce that the Technology Preview of Citrix Receiver for RIM Playbook is finally here!

While this is only a tech preview — think of it as a more robust beta — it will deliver the same value you’ve come to expect from Citrix and the broad range of Citrix Receiver clients. Not only can you now get easy store-like access to your virtual apps and desktops but we’ve been careful to make sure that the coherent features including robust HDX support, multi-touch capabilities and in Receiver app multi-tasking capabilities that took a while to mature on the other platforms are there from the beginning for Playbook users. (One thing that it doesn’t currently support however is multi-factor authentication. We’re working on adding that functionality for V.1 by the end of September.)

Among the Citrix Receiver capabilities the Playbook distribution supports access to virtual computing infrastructure and seamless access, utilizing your enterprise SSO infrastructure, to SaaS and web apps as well.

While this version is considered a Tech Preview, and we’d love to get your feedback and input as we finalize the distribution, we expect to be able to declare a full v.1 by the end of the month! So, please, head on over to the Test Center on the BlackBerry App World storefront — or you can go to Citrix Receiver to get a direct link to the app — download and start testing the newest distribution in the ever growing Citrix Receiver family!

Announcing the New Citrix Receiver for Mac!

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on August 26, 2011:

A few days ago Citrix released a new update to the popular Citrix Receiver client for the Macintosh. In addition to providing needed updates to support the latest features in Mac OS 10.7 Lion, the new Citrix Receiver client provides a rich set of new capabilities that will further enhance end user experience and performance. The new capabilities of Citrix Receiver for Mac 11.4 include:

• Secure remote access through both Citrix Access Gateway and Secure Gateway;
• Multi-monitor support
• Bi-directional audio support
• Support for Communicator and other audio playback
• Improved HDX video performance

We view Citrix Receiver for Mac 11.4 as an important but evolutionary step in providing the ultimate end user experience for Mac users accessing Citrix virtual computing infrastructure. We expect to even further enhance support in the near future.

While Apple and Macintosh users remain one of our most important constituents — and certainly the dramatic growth of the Macintosh user base in the last few years increases the importance of supporting the platform — we have had to make some difficult choices in how and where we provide support in distributing the Macintosh client. Citrix Receiver requires the highest levels of operating system and platform integration and access to insure security and performance. For example, one of our biggest challenges has been the further simplification of application access while insuring the strongest security and best end user experience. Unfortunately, as you may know, Apple App Store policies restrict the kind of applications to those with minimal OS-level interactions. This has created a gap between what we are allowed to deliver in Citrix Receiver via the Mac App Store versus what we want to deliver to provide the highest levels of security, performance and OS level integration. With the introduction of Citrix Receiver for Mac 11.4 we have decided to withdraw from the Apple Mac App Store and instead direct our Macintosh end users to download the Receiver client directly from our website. This decision only impacts the Apple Mac App Store and does not in any way reflect our commitment to the Macintosh platform or any other Apple distribution.

Now the best news: We have completely redesigned the Citrix Receiver website to make it easier to find, install and configure Receiver! You can find Citrix Receiver for Mac along with all the other platform distributions at CitrixReceiver.com or Citrix.com/Receiver.

Let us know what you think of the redesign and keep checking back for the latest news and client updates!

How App Stores Are Changing the Face of Software Development

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on June 21, 2011:

I was in a software strategy and roadmap review meeting the other day when something happened. Something that, in my 20+ years in the tech business, I’d never seen before. In order to determine how to prioritize new feature development and investments one of the PMs in the room put up the iOS app store on the room projector and started reviewing all the customer comments. Now I’ve been part of hundreds of hardware and software products over the years and consider myself a relative expert in the gathering, prioritizing and solving for customer pain points along with the art of developing a value proposition, but never have I seen such a simple and immediate way to gather product feedback. While it makes perfect sense to take to heart the comments from the very end users who have taken the time to download previous iterations of your software, I was simply surprised that I had never considered the App Store as such an immediate and easy way to gather this feedback.

For me, App Store customer feedback has been the place to go — as an end user — to see if the product was worthwhile my dollar; to determine if it was worth my time. I hadn’t considered the impact on product management and development. Of course it was a place for end users to publicize bugs and gaps. I’d just never considered it a go-to place for prioritizing customer feedback for next generation roadmap development. But there I was, reviewing line after line of customer feedback — bad grammar and incomprehensible comments included — trying to figure out how to best address every gap and potential new feature.

The App Store may democraticize software development as much the same or perhaps even in more ways as Open Source has. It provides a smooth and transparent mechanism for any user to quickly and easily provide feedback and suggestion to the very developers writing the code. And, you know what? It appears, at least from where I’m sitting, that developers are actually listening.

This has a significant benefits and drawbacks. By shortening the cycle between end user feedback and developer escalation, bug fixes and next generation features can quickly find their way to market. However with a limited pool of feedback it’s possible that an over reliance on App Store feedback can highlight issues or features that don’t have broad appeal. More importantly — particularly for product managers — it may exacerbate the fundamental PM challenge: aim at where the market will be not where it is. This is the hardest challenge in developing and updating software. However, in this regard, the App Store may present another benefit. It becomes a whole lot easier to quickly identify your competition and outline values and drawbacks in the competition.

Like most in the business, the big market opportunity impact has yet to occur. While Apple has set the tone with the introduction and success of its iOS store — replicated now in virtually every other developer community — we are all eagerly waiting for Microsoft to take the initiative in launching a Windows app store. It’s only a matter of time and the opportunity for the thousands of Windows developers will almost guarantee a thriving ecosystem for ISVs and their product developers.

"Follow-Me Data" Means Secure Seamless Access to Work Whereever and Whenever You Need It!

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on May 25, 2011:

We’ve all seen the impact of seamless cloud storage solutions permeate our daily work lives. You have that DropBox or Box.net account and, for convenience sake and access anywhere, you casually drop that work file into the synchronized folder. Well there it goes into cloud storage infrastructure – out of the well-managed, secure control of your IT organization. Who knows how many corporate secrets now lie outside of the firewall? You know that employee that left your company last week? Did you really get all of his files or is he still accessing the files he stored outside of the network? While certainly convenient and device ubiquitous these solutions are keeping your IT organizations up at night.

Citrix, as the leader in Virtual Computing, is coming to provide both the end user flexibility and freedom, but with all the security and data management IT has long demanded.

Business Safe Zone in the Personal Cloud

Today Citrix announced its vision for seamless Enterprise data access as part of an end user’s Personal Cloud. The Citrix solution will be delivered securely as a Safe Zone plug-in to Citrix Receiver and will make Enterprise stored data and files accessible on any device, anywhere. The Safe Zone plug-in “Follow-Me Data” solution provides access to Enterprise- and cloud-based file and data storage with all the management, authentication, control and security features expected by IT administrators fully integrated into Citrix award-winning, cross-platform Receiver solution.

What Does This Mean?

In an era of cloud-based services and web-based access to virtually everything, end users are building a tremendous amount of documents, files and web-based applications and personal identities in a “Personal Cloud.” A critical piece of this Personal Cloud is secure integration of an end users business life. “Follow-Me Data” is about providing seamless work access to data and files through the development and extension of secure, IT controlled cloud accessible storage. “Follow-Me Data” provides an easy, yet secure and completely manageable, single view of all Enterprise storage options – including network and locally stored data, Sharepoint collaboration documentation and even cloud storage – via Citrix Receiver. The solution will provide all data and files – password protected – to end users from any device, anywhere. In addition the solution will leverage IT data security best practices for white listing, encryption and device wipe.

“Follow-Me” Data provides a solution that enables end users to get access to their work data and files – from any device, anywhere -regardless of where it is stored in the Enterprise intranet. IT maintains control over the data – how it is used, secured, managed and ultimately destroyed.

• Enterprise data securely managed and securely delivered to any platform anywhere: Coupled tightly to Citrix Receiver, “Follow-Me Data” Safe Zone technology provides unique enterprise class data management with ease and simplicity of consumer’s Personal Cloud access from any device anywhere.

• By leveraging Citrix Receiver, enterprise customers immediately gain cross-platform, secure authentication values at the heart of Receiver. In addition Enterprise customers also gain the centralized management functionality long missing from distributed and cloud storage solutions on the market today. Enterprise class management includes file-based control, secure and remote wipe, and tight integration with active directory authentication.

• The Citrix “Follow-Me Data” solution will be an open, SAML-based architecture that provides the necessary framework for Cloud storage providers to plug-in secure and seamless access to Cloud data stores. Coupled with Cloud Gateway SaaS management solutions from Citrix, the “Follow-Me Data” solution will be able to provide enterprise security to, for example, corporate DropBox, Box.Net or SugarSynch implementations. By leveraging open standards for identify federation, “Follow-Me Data” will provide the mechanism for any third party provider to immediately gain the benefits of a fully-integrated, cross-platform, device independent enterprise data solution.

Citrix Announces New Receivers for Windows and Linux Now Available as Tech Previews

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on May 25, 2011:

At Synergy in San Francisco today, Citrix announced new Technology Previews for Receiver for Windows and Receiver for Linux.

The new Receiver for Windows will offer enhanced audio and video while the update to Citrix Receiver for Linux offers new HDX enhancements such as flash redirection, multi-monitor support, video conferencing and windows media redirection. By further advancing the end user experience for virtual computing the delta between native desktop and app experience versus the virtual is as small as it’s ever been.

The new Citrix Receiver for Windows and Linux are now available as a Tech Previews (www.citrix.com/techpreview) and will launch concurrent with the release of XenDesktop in August. Both Receiver for Windows and Receiver for Linux will offer full integration with XenDesktop and XenApp to provide for single client delivery of desktops, Windows, web and SaaS applications. Receiver for Windows will also offer simplified IT administration for easier configuration and updating with new single sign-on capabilities to improve the user experience.

Additionally, a new Citrix Receiver for Mac will offer a fully integrated HDX experience and offer day one support for the upcoming Lion OS release.

With the exciting new Receiver product announcements for Windows, Mac and Linux based clients; Citrix continues its momentum in enriching both mobile and desktop platforms with an optimal Windows experience. In fact, there are now over 1 billion PCs, laptops, netbooks, thin clients, tablets and smartphones sold over the past 24 months that can now run on Citrix Receiver technology! It truly is an exciting time for both the industry and Citrix as we continue to make the virtual work style possible by providing for the secure delivery of data, corporate apps and business desktops across any device and platform.

Citrix Receiver Supporting 1,000,000,000+ Devices and Counting

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on May 25, 2011:

Citrix is announcing the immediate availability and the forthcoming release of a complete refresh of Citrix Receiver distributions covering desktop, tablets and smartphones. The refresh includes updates to Citrix Receiver for Windows, Linux, Macintosh, iOS tablets and smartphones, Android tablets and smartphones, and RIM BlackBerry. In addition Citrix Receiver will be available for RIM PlayBook, HP webOS and ChromeOS notebooks shortly.

We are proud to be one of the only enterprise software solutions available natively for the vast majority of end user devices and platforms. The other day we counted the platforms supported and our estimate is that Citrix Receiver is now available for download to over 1,080,000,000 devices (PCs+Macs+Thin Clients+Tablets+Smartphones). If we only count tablets and smartphones, that’s 325,000,000 devices from over 50 manufacturers and represents over 190 different devices. Of course this number is increasing every day!

Of course there are many reasons that Enterprise IT customers love Citrix Receiver:

• Simple, self-service access to virtual desktops, applications and IT services

• Optimized web-based or native access providing an optimized hi-def user experience on any network or device

• Instant updates to users with complete IT control and visibility

• Easier management of Enterprise data, apps, desktops and SaaS apps through secure centralized deployment to any end user device

We can’t forget that end users too love Citrix Receiver because it provides device independent freedom and flexibility to get their work done anywhere, anytime.

We’re so excited about advancing the capabilities of the leading Citrix Receiver distributions: those for the desktop platforms, Windows and Linux. So excited that I will be blogging about those distributions separately. The Windows and the Linux versions will be available immediately as a Tech Preview (http://www.citrix.com/techpreview).

The third desktop platform version, for the Mac, has also been revamped from the ground-up to leverage the latest Macintosh operating system, Lion OS 10.7. The new version of Receiver for the Mac is reflective of the end user demand to support Macs with the latest secure access features to connect with enterprise data, apps and desktops in a seamless and consistent manner. This version will be available later this summer concurrent with the release of Apple’s new operating system.

The aggressive refresh of Citrix Receiver is another example of Citrix commitment to providing the ultimate in end user experience for virtually every platform and device including the latest in tablet and smartphones. By providing a consistent user experience and app store UI across all platforms Citrix further strengthens its commitment to providing device independent access to Enterprise data, apps and Windows desktops to any user, anywhere.

And, by the way, our partners love our device independence as well. By remaining device agnostic we not only foster a larger community of users but partners as well. Take a look at what they’re saying:

• Dell: Mobility Means Getting Things Done from Virtually Anywhere

• HP: Enterprise, Start Your Engines

• Google: Another Step in the Browser-based Desktop Revolution

• Samsung Enterprise Solution Group: Virtualized Mobile Office for Enterprises on the new Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 and Galaxy S II with Citrix Receiver

Appliance vs. General Purpose - Here We Go Again!

This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on May 9, 2011:

Since the introduction about five years ago of smartphones and their dramatic pace of commoditization, the trend of end users bringing their own devices into the workplace and asking or demanding that IT support them has been picking up pace. This consumerization trend has been accelerating following last year’s introduction of the iPad. As a completely new form factor, the iPad is driving completely new usage habits and end user expectations for tablet devices.

The iPad and its Android-based competitors are general-purpose one-size-fits-all computing devices – granted they are built around and optimized for a touch screen in a revolutionary manner. However, for many , it’s been fair game to compare these tablet computing devices in the same breath to single-purpose tablet appliances such as the e-readers Kindle from Amazon and Nook from Barnes & Noble. These devices, while similar in appearance, are vastly different in purpose and design. Built on the Android operating environment these devices are appliances: purpose-built and optimized for a single purpose; In this case, reading books.

In the consumer technology space the question is “when is an appliance a better general-purpose device?” I would strongly suggest the answer is “never.” (Unless, of course, it’s a virtual appliance! ; )

Having lived through the debacle that was computing appliances at Sun Microsystem (Sun acquired Cobalt Systems for $2B but shut down the computing appliance vendor after just one failed year), it’s very difficult to take a purpose-built engine and make it fit a commoditized, general-purpose market. Yet despite history we are seeing headlines like this:

Barnes & Noble Plans New E-Book Reader

Wall Street Journal (May 4, 2011)

Summary: In a SEC filing, Barnes & Noble revealed their intentions to release a new e-book reader on May 24. There is speculation this device would be a combination of a tablet and e-reader.

In addition there has been industry speculation following Amazon’s foray into the Android application marketplace that the Kindle is too being repurposed into a general-purpose tablet.

Don’t get me wrong: if Amazon and Barnes & Noble are interested in pursuing their niche in the tablet business there would be no one more interested than me (and Citrix) in supporting their devices with Citrix Receiver for secure enterprise access to data, apps and desktops! However if they believe that they can simply add access to general-purpose Android applications to their existing platforms they haven’t learned from history. End users will take them up on their offer and install applications that benefit from touch screens, built-in GPS or other capabilities left unfulfilled by their appliances and will soon realize that they can much more easily install the B&N or Kindle app on a Motorola Xoom or Apple iPad than get a rich, multimedia experience from a Kindle. Maybe that’s ok for Amazon. After all, they are first and foremost a media sales company. From whichever platform you purchase a book or a music album, Amazon always takes a cut. At the end of the day, Amazon is also happy to sell you an iPad from their store, as well.

If, however, either company believes the transition from retail to hardware vendor is a small leap, they will be quickly surprised to find out how many vendors have tried and failed to make the leap.

Now I’m not the only one looking at the tablet appliance market and wondering how long vendors like the booksellers will continue to support single-purpose platforms. The money in applications and general ubiquity is too large to ignore. After all, if you’re making the investment in the hardware and software integration you might as well go all the way and make the investment address the largest market possible.

Citrix Receiver and the RIM PlayBook

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on April 19, 2011:

Earlier today, Research in Motion (RIM) announced general availability of its new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Citrix first announced support for the (QNX-based) BlackBerry PlayBook at Fall Synergy 2010 and consistent with our Receiver Everywhere vision we are planning to release a Receiver for PlayBook by the end of Q3.

Citrix Receiver will greatly extend the PlayBook’s enterprise capabilities, by giving owners easy and secure access to their corporate data and business desktops while bringing hundreds of thousands of existing business applications to PlayBook users. PlayBook will be the first RIM device to feature the QNX operating system, which, one could certainly speculate will become the standard OS for BlackBerry devices going forward. PlayBook requires close development between Citrix and RIM engineering teams to develop a new Citrix Receiver product specifically to support the QNX operating system and to leverage the unique enterprise capabilities and features of the PlayBook. Citrix already enables the latest BlackBerry devices on the market as Citrix Receiver for BlackBerry has been offered as a free download on both BlackBerry App World and www.citrix.com client center since May 2010.

RIM’s strong enterprise market position fits well with the Citrix vision to enable virtual computing across the enterprise and to enable users to enjoy the virtualization lifestyle, with the ability to work most productively from anywhere on any chosen device. Citrix and RIM are currently planning to demonstrate Receiver for PlayBook at two events next month, BlackBerry World and Citrix Synergy. In late February, Citrix was featured as the key enterprise partner at BlackBerry’s PlayBook pavilion at Mobile World Congress where an early version of Citrix Receiver was demonstrated on a pre-production PlayBook.

Citrix Receiver for PlayBook once again extends the Citrix commitment to Receiver and “Receiver Everywhere” by making it available for virtually every computing platform – Windows PCs/laptops, Macs, iPhones, iPads, Android smartphones and tablets, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and now QNX devices.

Update 6/28/11: We hear you… Citrix Receiver for Playbook is under development and targeted for end of 3Q11 release.

Citrix at CTIA - Breaking New Ground with Citrix Receiver

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on March 21, 2011:

Considering just three months ago at the Consumer Electronics Show, over 100 new Android-powered tablet devices were introduced; with many of those new devices now coming to market. Tablets and enhanced smartphones are changing the technology landscape. In less than a year many of us have gone from just laptops and smartphones to laptops, smartphones and tablets. And many of us are toying with the idea of leaving the laptop at work and traveling with just a tablet and smartphone.

Over the past year, we have focused our development and support to extend Citrix Receiver across all of the leading technology platforms in the market. Citrix Receiver is now supported natively on Apple iOS and Macintosh, Google Android and ChromeOS, RIM Blackberry, Microsoft Windows Mobile, and Linux with planned Day 1 support for webOS. That said, the real story is the growth of mobile devices – smartphones and tablets – and the rapid market adoption of Citrix Receiver as the preferred client for accessing corporate virtual desktops, applications and data.

With this explosion of alternative devices beyond the laptop or desktop as the standard device for corporate workers, Citrix is breaking into new territory, forging new partnerships and expanding its reach into the mobile device world. Coming on the heels of a strong showing at last month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in which we demonstrated the power of virtual computing with Citrix Receiver alongside partners Research in Motion and Samsung, Citrix will again be side-by-side with our mobility partners this week at the International Cellular Telephony International Association (CTIA) show in Orlando, Florida. Citrix is again featured as a premiere enterprise partner demonstrating the unique capabilities of Citrix Receiver with the three top Android device makers in the world: Motorola, Samsung and HTC.

• Motorola – Citrix will be showcasing Receiver for Android on both the ATRIX 4G WebTop and the Motorola XOOM tablet. The ATRIX is the first device pre-loaded with Citrix Receiver, while the XOOM is the first Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) device to be available for purchase.
• Samsung – Citrix will be showcasing Receiver for Android on the latest Galaxy Tab devices, included the soon to be launched 8.9″ Tab 2, Honeycomb-based tablet device.
• HTC – Citrix will be one of only two enterprise vendors featured by HTC in its Application Showcase

Showcasing Citrix Receiver with the leading device makers at North America’s premier wireless event represents only the latest success Citrix is having in supporting new platforms and leading the way with secure and ubiquitous client access to the Citrix XenDesktop virtual computing solution.

For more information please be sure to check out the Citrix Receiver homepage and the Citrix Virtual Computing demo center!

Today, More Than Ever, Citrix is the Right Choice for the iPad!

This blog originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on March 9, 2011:

Today VMware announced the availability of their very first View client for the industry leading Apple iPad™. That could be seen as a competitive shot at Citrix but I see it a different way entirely: VMware has just sent a strong message to their customers that Citrix and the XenDesktop solution is the best choice for virtual computing!

For over two years Citrix has been evangelizing and delivering on a vision that empowers IT to evolve into an applications and desktop service provider and frees end users from the shackles of a locked down corporate desktop in favor of choosing their own devices. An important component in the Citrix strategy is Citrix Receiver. Citrix Receiver is a freely downloadable software client that provides secure access to Citrix XenDesktop infrastructure from any device, anywhere. As part of this strategy, Citrix Receiver has natively supported the Apple iPhone for two years and the iPad since its introduction last year. In addition, Citrix customers have native Citrix Receiver support for Android devices – including support for the Android tablet distribution (Honeycomb) – RIM Blackberry smartphones, Windows mobile devices, and forthcoming webOS devices from HP and Chrome OS notebooks from Google. This is in addition to providing secure native support for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux support for desktops and thin clients.

Citrix Receiver provides a unique and easy-to-use interface for subscribing to desktops along with Windows applications and cloud-based SaaS apps all with an end users corporate credentials. In addition Citrix Receiver, already in use by millions of end users on today’s most popular devices, provides native touchscreen controls optimized for the capabilities of the particular platform including multitasking and touch screen enabling Windows apps on the iPad. The experience – simple, intuitive and consistent across the multiple devices – is one of the most important differentiators of the mature Citrix Receiver solution.

It’s important to remember that providing desktop access is only part of the end user challenge; secure access to Windows applications, data and cloud apps along with desktops provides the most powerful and comprehensive end user solution. The Citrix Receiver user interface includes an app store for subscribing to and accessing enterprise applications and desktops. By building an application store user experience, Citrix Receiver builds on a user interface that is already well known to consumers. This is particularly true for Apple’s end users who have downloaded over three billion apps from the iTunes app store.

Receiver is only part of the Citrix story. In addition to providing industry leading Virtual Desktop infrastructure – supporting all of the broadly adopted hypervisor technologies, including VMware’s ESX and Citrix XenServer – Citrix also provides the broadest range of virtual computing options for customers looking for more than just a server-hosted desktop. Citrix is the only one-stop solutions vendor for all models of application and desktop virtualization including application virtualization, streamed apps and desktops, and client side virtualization solutions.

Another critical part of the Citrix virtual computing solution is the Go-To suite of products including GoToMeeting, which has been available for nearly a year on the iPad, and the recently introduced GoToMyPC. As a matter of fact GoToMeeting is fully integrated in the Citrix Receiver for iPad distribution for the most optimal end user experience.

As IT and end users alike consider the impact of tablet computing devices on their application portability and mobility strategy there is only one vendor that seamlessly supports all mobile devices – smartphones, tablets and desktops – across all operating environments, with an optimized end user experience. Millions of end users have already downloaded Citrix Receiver!

At the end of the day, don’t take our word for it. Read about some of our happy customers for yourself:

Kaweah Delta Healthcare District (California) and Derby Schools (Kansas) both profiled on Citrix iPad At Work

Or hear from Chicago’s SNR Denton/Sonnenschein Law Firm directly on YouTube!

Significant Citrix Receiver for iOS milestones:

• Citrix Receiver for iPad was available on the iTunes App Store on Day One of the initial release of the iPad on April 3, 2010;
• Citrix Receiver for iPad has had nearly 500,000 downloads since April 2010, placing it in the top five free business apps available on the iPad.
• Citrix Receiver for iPhone was released in October 2008 and has generated more than 700,000 downloads since it was made available from Citrix in late 2008. As with the iPad Citrix Receiver is one of the top free business apps available in the iTunes App Store

Citrix Receiver will make webOS devices enterprise ready at launch!

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on February 9, 2011:

Citrix will immediately enable webOS consumers with access to Windows apps

Today, Hewlett-Packard announced the first webOS powered tablet devices that are expected to launch later this spring. Citrix Receiver once again is planning to be there on Day 1 with a version of Citrix Receiver to support HP’s webOS powered tablet devices, just as we have been with all important mobile device (iPad, Galaxy Tab, Google Chrome laptops, etc.) and new distribution channels (Mac Store), over the past 18 months. Citrix Receiver is a lightweight software client that will turn any webOS device into a powerful business tool by providing secure Enterprise access business desktops and any Windows, Web or SaaS application. The immediate benefit for webOS consumers is that Citrix will make webOS devices enterprise-ready by securely delivering access to the existing ecosystem of Windows based apps: Citrix Receiver will instantly enable new webOS devices for the enterprise!

The latest proof point in our commitment to make every device enterprise ready

Citrix Receiver support for HP’s webOS represents another milestone in delivering on our vision to provide easy-to-use secure access to business desktops, apps and docs from any device. With the addition of Receiver on webOS powered devices, Citrix will add yet another mobile platform to the impressive list of platforms and devices already supported – including Citrix Receiver versions for Windows, Mac, Linux, Java, Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile. Whether your preferred computing device is a PC, Mac, laptop, netbook, tablet or smartphone, Citrix makes you productive from anywhere on any device.

Citrix continues to deliver on its commitment to give consumers choice by embracing the consumerization of devices trend and making it easier than ever to empower the IT enterprise to say “YES” in letting employees access their enterprise apps using any device, anywhere to be more productive. Citrix and Citrix Receiver are enabling the “Bring Your Own Device” revolution. Simply stated, Citrix Receiver is a win-win for both consumers and IT!

Don’t forget about the Developer benefits!

With the introduction of webOS into the tablet fray the battle for developer mindshare will only get that much more difficult. As an ISV which mobile platforms will you prioritize? iOS, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, webOS; so many to choose from? The benefit of the Citrix Receiver architecture is that Enterprise IT doesn’t need to make that decision. Deploy your Windows applications and let Citrix worry about the client!

Try it for yourself: two million downloads and counting…

Users have already shown their enthusiastic support for Citrix Receiver with over two million downloads, making it one of the world’s most popular free business apps. As I noted in a blog posting a couple of weeks ago, as the number one free business app since Day 1 on the recently launched Mac App Store is just the latest example of the overwhelming market acceptance of Citrix Receiver over the past 18 months. If you haven’t experienced Citrix Receiver, we would invite you to take a test drive on your favorite device via a Citrix hosted cloud demo and you will be up and running in minutes. As always, we would love to know about your experiences and to share how Citrix Receiver fits with your virtual workstyle.

Citrix Receiver Delivers as Advertised!

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on February 7, 2011:

I think everyone in some way, shape or form, has, at one time or another, been accused of “drinking the kool-aide.” Certainly that’s true for marketing people. After all in order to be the best marketing person you should believe what you’re selling. On the other hand I know that there is a very fine line between believing what you’re selling and believing your own spin.

It’s for this reason that I thought it worthy to point out that Citrix Receiver isn’t a solution spun up in the last few months as a fancy user interface on top of an old ICA client. It is so much more than that (and, certainly, it’s a solution that has evolved over years of development)! So, with that said, it’s nice to see product coverage from someone who isn’t drinking the kool-aide highlight all the great benefits of the solution.

You can read the review here:

A Week of Productivity With the Galaxy Tab

In his review, Matt Coddington describes the Galaxy Tab / Citrix Receiver experience in exactly the way we see it (and built it). It’s certainly heartening to know that while I may have more enthusiasm for Receiver than many people, it delivers again and again the end user experience as advertised!

Citrix Receiver is Number One!

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on January 21, 2011:

I am honored, with my first blog post at Citrix, to be able to write about some very good news: The newest version of Citrix Receiver for Macintosh, released on January 7th to correspond with the launch of the new Macintosh App Store, is the number one free business application download! Released just a couple of weeks ago, Citrix Receiver for the Macintosh has been downloaded over 20,000 times and has been profiled by Apple in the App Store as the premiere software solution for accessing Windows-based enterprise business applications securely on a Macintosh.

This is very exciting news for Citrix, the Citrix customer community and Macintosh users worldwide. With Citrix Receiver we have designed and delivered the most robust cross-platform tools for easy and secure access to enterprise infrastructure. For an end user the value is obvious: you can access your workplace applications, files and data from anywhere! (And by anywhere we truly mean from anywhere: your Mac, your PC, your iPhone or iPad, or Droid or Blackberry. Citrix provides the broadest device support in the industry and our commitment to you is to continue to broaden support to include virtually any end user computing device!)

For IT the Value is Even Greater!

Citrix Receiver provides a single software download that supports their existing enterprise infrastructure without any of the challenges of writing or supporting device specific code. Heck, for that matter, Citrix Receiver frees IT admins from having to uniquely support any end user device including PCs, tablets, mobile phones or anything else device manufacturers think up in the future.

Another interesting tidbit from the download data from the Mac App Store is that over 50% of the Citrix Receiver for Mac downloads has come from outside the United States. Citrix Receiver and XenDesktop infrastructure have gone global. The success of mainstream virtualization will hinge on worldwide deployments and adoption. Based on the initial Receiver download data, Citrix is having tremendous success in globally rolling out a new way of thinking about where and how people gain access to work resources and how they work. Clearly the desktop revolution has begun…

Oh, and you can download Citrix Receiver for the Mac from the App Store today!