Citrix announces XenDesktop 7

During its annual Synergy event Citrix announced version 7 of its Virtual Desktop Infrastructure product XenDesktop. Version 7 will be the first release of XenDesktop as an outcome of Project Excalibur (part of Avalon) providing one install, one architecture and one console for both Citrix’s Desktop and Application virtualization platform XenApp and XenDesktop.

XenDesktop provides the following new functionality (among others), detailed here:

  • HDX Mobile,
    • Translates multi-touch gestures, finger swipes, and inertia into smooth navigation and scrolling commands that are relayed to the hosted Windows apps in real-time
    • Offers native menu controls that translate pull-down lists and complex mouse navigation into the native controls built in to the mobile device for smoother app navigation.
  • HDX Windows App Mobilization SDK
  • HDX deep compression and redirection technologies
  • Redesigned Citrix StoreFront, the self-service portal
  • Clientless Receiver
  • Flexcast, providing both provisioning and personalization of desktops and applications supporting Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8
  • Physical to virtual (P2V) app migration analysis tools, powered by Citrix AppDNA

XenDesktop 7 will be available in June 2013. XenDesktop 7 is available in Platinum, Enterprise and VDI editions on a per-user, per-device or concurrent basis.

Citrix will be releasing a Feature Pack 2 at the same time as XenDesktop 7. This feature pack will bring improved user experience for application developers via an updated Mobility Pack, more scalability and cost-effective OpenGL support with GPU sharing on the XenApp 6.5 server, AppDNA to help accelerate application validation, Microsoft Lync 2013 optimization pack, support for Hyper-V 3 and Provisioning Services, along with enhancements to CDM (client drive mapping) delivering up to 4x faster download & upload speed.