Citrix, Microsoft Extend Partnership to Grow Cloud Reach
Citrix has selected Microsoft Azure as its preferred and strategic cloud partner, according to an announcement Tuesday at Citrix Synergy. The extended partnership will help customers move to the cloud, and more specifically, migrate to Windows 10 and Office 365.
Citrix Synergy is taking place this week in Las Vegas where Citrix is making a number of announcements, including an expanded Citrix Cloud, which brings together every major Citrix product and can be accessed individually or together as a unified Workspace as a Service solution.
Citrix and Microsoft will work together on new integrations between Citrix XenMobile, NetScaler and the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) as well.
“Companies of all sizes across all industries around the world have an amazing opportunity to embrace digital transformation and empower their people to work productively from anywhere at any time,” Kirill Tatarinov, president and CEO of Citrix said in a statement. “Our customers are asking Citrix and Microsoft to work closer together to help them fully leverage innovations like Windows 10, Office 365 and Azure. This enhanced partnership ensures we can be more agile in responding to our customers’ needs and help them accelerate the move to digital business.”
Among the initiatives under the expanded partnership, Microsoft and Citrix plan to:
- Offer customers flexible options to deploy Windows 10 Enterprise within their organizations, including an option to manage Windows 10 images on Azure through its XenDesktop VDI solution
- Allow customers to take advantage of optimized Skype for Business delivered with Citrix XenApp and in XenDesktop virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments
- Integrate Citrix XenMobile and NetScaler with the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite to provide virtual private network capabilities for identity-based access to on-premises applications on Microsoft Intune-managed devices
- EMS support from Citrix Worx Mail and Forms applications, ShareFile enterprise file share and sync and Citrix Receiver
“Our relationship with Citrix has always been founded on the commitment to making our mutual customers successful by empowering their people to be more productive,” Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Cloud and Enterprise at Microsoft said. “By selecting Azure as its preferred and strategic cloud, Citrix is helping companies mobilize their workforces to succeed in today’s highly competitive, disruptive and global business environment.”
