Announcements from Citrix annual Synergy Conference

Last week, Citrix held its annual Synergy conference in Orlando. During the conference Citrix made several announcements which will be summarized in this blogpost.

Citrix Workspace Cloud, which is a Software as a Service offering is capable of managing what Citrix calls workspace services, both on-premises or in the cloud. The Workspace Services consists of:

  • Applications and Desktops, providing secure access to virtual Windows, Linux, web apps, and desktops using XenApp and XenDesktop
  • Mobility Management, providing mobile app delivery and device security based on XenMobile
  • Secure Documents, which provides share, sync and secure content from cloud and on-premises storage services based on ShareFile
  • Lifecycle Management, providing blueprinting, automation and management for the design and deployment of enterprise workloads such as XenDesktop, XenApp, XenMobile, NetScaler and Citrix WorkSpace Suite
  • Concierge, providing real-time support and service for workspace subscribers allowing for remote support of mobile and web applications.

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Tech Previews of the next version of Citrix Receiver and StoreFront 3.0. Receivers are the software you install on a device in order to access the Applications and Desktops provided by the Citrix infrastructure. These Receivers connect to StoreFront providing an consistent point of access for these receivers.

The following tech previews for the Citrix Receivers are provided:

  • Receiver for Windows 4.3
  • Receiver for Mac 12.0
  • Receiver for Linux 13.2
  • Receiver for HTML5 1.7
  • Receiver for Chrome 1.7

Citrix also announced that it will add support for running Linux applications on non-Linux devices, Session recording for XenAp and XenDesktop called SmartAuditor. Citrix also announced the public beta of its SaaS offering for upgrading older XenApp environments to the latest versions. The solution creates migration scripts based on input received. Citrix also announced that it will release a Feature Pack for XenApp 6.5 which will provide new features including StoreFront 3.0, Provisioning Server 7.6, AppDNA, new Receivers, new Microsoft Lync optimizations and more. It also announced that it will extend support for XenApp 6.5 till the end of 2017 giving customers more time to migrate.

Citrix also shared how it will deliver network functionality in the future in its Networking Vision of the Workspace Delivery Controller. The Workspace Delivery Controller is a unified system brining together the functions of application delivery controllers, remote access and WAN virtualization. Also a new version fo NetScaler (providing load balancing, firewall, proxy and VPN functions) and CloudBridge (providing WAN optimization) were announced.

For XenMobile new functionality was also announced, explained in more detail here.

ShareFile, Citrix’s Enterprise Filesharing and syncing solution will get updated as well. Through a single application, ShareFile, customers can create and outline a PowerPoint presentation or other Microsoft Office document on a phone, collaborate on content with colleagues and vendors from a laptop, dictate speaker notes on a tablet and present via an Apple Watch.