by Theresa Miller

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This year the keynotes at Citrix Synergy have been packed full of product updates and new innovations.  The Citrix commitment to XenApp was articulated very clearly this year, likely due to the fact that the name had changed a couple times in the past couple of years.  XenApp is here to stay!   The other visionary insight was that Citrix considers a workspace to be more than a desktop which comes together with their many product offerings.  The idea is that a workspace is whatever your users need to accomplish their task.  This design becomes independent of the kind of device, and allows your users to work from anywhere.

Citrix has really spent the last year innovating, developing and improving their products.  The list of updates, and new product offerings was energizing.  So many exciting things, such as Workspace Cloud, XenServer  6.5 with SP1, Netscaler SDX, XenMobile10, lifecycle extension to 2017 for XenApp 6.5, ShareFile Platinum, Netscaler Cloudbridge, StoreFront 3, a  new Citrix Receiver, Internet of Things for the business through Octoblu,  Concierge, and more.  Whew, that’s a lot!  That being said I will not dive deep into all of these, but I will recap on a few of my favorites.

Cloud-based Desktops

Workspace Cloud is coming later this year.  Allowing organizations to run virtual desktops within this platform, businesses of all sizes will have the option to move desktop workloads to the cloud.  The overall introduction of cloud-based product has created a new mindset and disruption of the traditional IS department mindset where all data stays onsite.  The trend is that many businesses are adapting a cloud-first mindset when making technology decisions.  Gartner says that “Cloud computing is a disruptive phenomenon, with the potential to make IT organizations more responsive than ever. Cloud computing promises economic advantages, speed, agility, flexibility, infinite elasticity and innovation” http://www.gartner.com/technology/topics/cloud-computing.jsp  Workspace Cloud will be a really great option for those businesses that have adopted a cloud-based strategic direction.

Hypervisor

XenServer 6.5 with SP1 is now available with options that forge into some of the latest virtualization technologies.  Citrix has added open source capabilities, support for Windows Core OS, Docker container enablement and memory read-cache usage visibility.  These new options offer more flexibility for organizational virtualization needs.

ShareFile Platinum

Document sharing in a safe and secure fashion has been an ongoing struggle for businesses.  The challenge becomes how to allow used of mobile devices, but at the same time protect corporate data, and allow document sharing in a simple fashion.  I really like ShareFile for this purpose, and with the upcoming version corporate users can have unlimited storage.  This new version also includes restricted storage zones for enhanced security.  The enhanced security around data protection includes encryption keys, metadata, and file encryption.  Watch for more to come on this.

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Internet of Things

Citrix is moving full steam ahead looking to innovate with technologies that allow connection of any IP device to the internet.  This is often referred to as the Internet of Things, and the demos seen in the keynote have the potential to allow for business automation in a whole new way.   This article covers some of my early thoughts on the topic.  http://24x7itconnection.com/2015/02/26/internet-of-things-its-only-the-beginning/

Conclusion

There were so many cool things talked about in the keynotes, I am looking forward to what will come in this upcoming year.