Citrix Helps Customers Go From “Wow to How” with Desktop Virtualization

Berlin - Today at Citrix Synergy™, the conference where virtualization, networking and cloud computing meet, Citrix Systems announced a new Desktop Transformation Model designed to help businesses quickly realize the many business benefits of desktop virtualization. Working closely with customers and partners, Citrix has developed the first industry-endorsed, repeatable method for transforming desktop computing from today’s device-centric, distributed management paradigm – to a more user-centric, virtualized model. The new model combines the collective experience of thousands of customers and partners across every industry segment who have successfully rolled out millions of virtual desktops and applications to their end users. In addition, the Desktop Transformation Model will be supported by a large ecosystem of partners through their own set of tools and service offerings, helping customers accelerate their success with desktop virtualization.  

The desktop virtualization revolution is in full swing, and CIOs are leading the charge. According to many industry analysts, nearly 50 million new virtual desktops will enter the corporate workplace over the next three years. With today’s announcement of Citrix XenDesktop® 5, a breakthrough new release that makes virtual desktops even simpler to implement and manage, this number is expected to accelerate rapidly.

Businesses everywhere increasingly understand the “wow” of desktop virtualization. They recognize that going virtual can have a profound impact on their top business objectives, whether that means enabling more flexible workstyles, supporting new devices like the iPad, creating BYOC programs, enabling hot-desking, improving data security or a host of other strategic business priorities.

The key question many customers have at this point is how. “How do I get started?”, “How do I know it will work in my environment?” and “How do I demonstrate rapid success with results that are good for users and good for the business?”. The new Citrix Desktop Transformation Model is designed to help customers get from “wow to how” in a few easy steps with powerful new tools, programs and partners.

Key Facts & Highlights

The Citrix Desktop Transformation Model is based on extensive experience with customers across all industry segments who have successfully rolled out large-scale desktop virtualization projects. It consists of three powerful tools and best practices that dramatically simplify the process:

1. Business Priority Calculator – Customers begin with a comprehensive, but easy-to-answer, questionnaire designed to capture their unique business priorities and user dynamics, and translate them into specific next-step recommendations.
2. Desktop Transformation Roadmap Planner – Next, customers are offered an industry-endorsed architectural roadmap with best practices showing them exactly where they are along the path to desktop transformation, how to get to their desired state, and which paths they need to take in what order, to achieve their unique business and user goals.
3. Success Accelerator Program – Finally, customers are offered free enrollment in a highly innovative new program designed to help them through each step of their desktop transformation roadmap. This program offers a rich array of recommended design configurations, guided how-to videos, best practice tips and tricks, reference architectures and self-help support resources via a dynamic web experience. Each tool is provided at exactly the right time in the process to match the phase each customer is going through, based on the experience of Citrix and other implementation partners who have helped thousands of other customers through similar transitions. The Success Accelerator Program will be available in Q1 2011.
   

The Citrix Desktop Transformation Model is supported by Citrix Consulting Services and an extensive array of partners and third-party products that provide valuable tools for customers to successfully undergo assessments, planning and implementation of desktop virtualization for enterprise-wide adoption:

• Broad industry partnerships - To streamline the transformation process, organizations can engage a wide range of global and regional system integrators who are supporting the Citrix Desktop Transformation Model, including Capgemini, Dell, Fujitsu, HP and IBM (see supporting partner quotes). Numerous Citrix Ready® technology partners are also supporting this model, and are offering specific products and tools designed to help customers at each step of the way. These partners include App-DNA, AppSense, Apptio, Lanamark, Liquidware Labs, Matrix42 and RES Software. Working with these partners gives customers access to knowledgeable desktop virtualization professionals, proven services expertise, real-world best practices and tools that set a desktop virtualization initiative down the right path.
• More than 15,000 supported products - Citrix XenDesktop is the only open desktop virtualization platform on the market certified to work with more than 15,000 third-party products, including servers, storage, client devices, printers, webcams, USB peripherals, security products, systems management solutions, and much more. Through the Citrix Ready Open Desktop Virtualization program, customers have the confidence they need to make a smooth transition from physical to virtual that leverages their existing investments at each step of the way.
  

Supporting Quotes:

Al Monserrat, Senior Vice President, Sales and Services, Citrix
“Establishing desktop virtualization as the best strategy to manage desktops is quickly becoming a top priority for CIOs.  This is the result of the great strides that desktop virtualization has made as a way to simplify desktop computing over the last year. We have gained a significant amount of knowledge helping our customers adopt virtual desktops more broadly and have collected these best practices into a useful model that will help continue this desktop computing transformation. Coupled with the new release of XenDesktop, our broad ecosystem of partners, and new learning labs, we are setting our customers up to take desktop virtualization mainstream.”

Mark Bowker, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc.
“In a recent ESG survey, 36 percent of enterprise respondents indicated desktop virtualization was a top IT initiative over the next 12-24 months, positioning it at the very top of the priority list. The goals of any desktop virtualization strategy are to establish immediate wins, quickly gain experience with the technology, and understand how to advance its initial benefits to a wider population of users and endpoint devices. With that in mind, the Citrix Desktop Transformation Model creates a natural affinity between customer goals and technology adoption.”

To learn more about the Citrix Desktop Transformation Model and the industry-leading partners supporting this key initiative, and get access to new tools and resources, visit www.citrix.com/desktoptransformation.  

Related Links and Announcements:

• Announcement blog: ‘Wow’ to ‘How’ Helps You Build Your Own Roadmap for Desktop Virtualization"
• Expert blog: “It’s a Full Moon, Time to Harvest the Virtual Desktops”  
• Expert blog: “The Simplicity of Your Desktop Transformation Architecture”
• Expert Blog: “Transforming Desktop Delivery for Clinical Users”
• Video link: “Inside the Citrix Desktop Transformation Model”

Follow us online:

• Citrix Desktop Transformation page
• Citrix XenDesktop page
• Citrix Ready Open Desktop Virtualization program page
• Twitter: @Citrix, @xendesktop, #citrixsynergy
• Citrix on Facebook