Today at Citrix Synergy™, the event where virtualization, networking and cloud computing meet, Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) announced Citrix OpenCloud™ Access and Citrix OpenCloud™ Bridge. These new additions to the Citrix OpenCloud platform extend the trust, performance and security of the enterprise datacenter to any internal or external cloud environment, making it easy for enterprise customers to connect to any cloud service, regardless of hypervisor, network or application type. The new Citrix OpenCloud products give customers a pragmatic solution to the growing diversity of vendors offering competing proprietary cloud stacks. Instead of waiting to see who wins the “cloud wars,” customers using the new Citrix OpenCloud products can connect their users to the external cloud services that make sense to their business in a secure, transparent way, crossing the boundaries of hypervisors, security standards, SLAs, networks and locations. Today’s announcement further extends the company’s leadership position as the only provider of truly open virtualization and networking solutions for the cloud.

Meeting the Need for Freedom and Flexibility in the Cloud

With the advent of cloud computing, enterprise customers can now choose from a growing array of applications and datacenter resources offered as on-demand cloud services. Unfortunately, connecting to those services often involves a host of security and incompatibility challenges, often made worse by vendors attempting to lock customers into their own proprietary cloud stacks. To take full advantage of these services, enterprise IT needs to give users universal secure access from any location on any device, without worrying about what hypervisor the services are running in, what network topologies are supported, or which vendor’s platform the cloud provider is using. Whether these workloads are deployed internally, in a hosted partner or in an external public cloud, the user experience must be a seamless extension of their own datacenter.

The new Citrix OpenCloud Access and Bridge product offerings provide much-needed choice and flexibility for enterprise IT organizations, making it easy for them to evolve to next-generation cloud architectures without having to rewrite applications, forcibly integrate networks into complex architectures, or manage ongoing configuration changes. The same security, compliance and identity management that is applied to internal assets can be easily extended to external assets – giving IT administrators the freedom to choose the optimal deployment model for each application. Each enterprise user leverages a single identity, with just one set of credentials, to access any supported cloud-based or SaaS delivered application and receive the same SLAs and security as if the applications were running in the enterprise data center.

Facts and Highlights

The latest additions to the Citrix OpenCloud platform bring unprecedented benefits to the enterprise:

  • Single Identity for All Applications - Citrix OpenCloud Access leverages a network-based approach that coordinates credentials and makes a user’s identity borderless. It gives easy single sign-on access to all popular SaaS applications (such as GoToMeeting®, NetSuite, Salesforce, etc.), enterprise web applications on hosted IaaS or private cloud platforms, and internal web and Windows® applications – just as if they were any other enterprise application. Access and privilege management tasks for the IT administrator are greatly simplified by eliminating the need to individually manage multiple islands of identities spread across a growing number of external applications. The new OpenCloud Access solution is also integrated with Citrix Receiver™, giving Citrix desktop virtualization customers a single universal client to securely access any supported app or desktop resource, on any device.
  • Transparent Extension of the Network - Citrix OpenCloud Bridge makes it easy for enterprise customers to connect to networks in external clouds, and to access and manage cloud-based resources as a seamless extension of their own network at high speed. By securely and transparently extending the enterprise demilitarized zone (DMZ) into the premise of the cloud, OpenCloud Bridge makes the service provider environment appear as part of a single secure network, eliminating the need to modify network, security and access configurations when applications migrate from the enterprise datacenter to an external cloud environment – or vice versa. It creates a logical overlay network topology on the customer’s existing network, and provides a secure, performance-optimized tunnel to enable applications and workloads to be moved into the cloud and operate as if they are still a part of the enterprise datacenter network.

Pricing and Availability

Both products will be available as optional modules for Citrix® NetScaler® product line. Citrix OpenCloud Access will be available in Q4 of 2010 with suggested list pricing starting at $50,000 per NetScaler appliance. The product supports an unlimited number of SaaS apps. For custom-built enterprise applications, additional app connectors will also be available. Citrix OpenCloud Bridge will be demonstrated to customers at Synergy this week and available in early 2011.

Quotes

Klaus Oestermann, Group VP and GM, Networking and Cloud Product Group, Citrix

“The economics and elasticity of cloud infrastructures has sparked rapid innovation and promoted technology diversity, giving cloud service providers an opportunity to differentiate their offerings and enterprise customers a reason to avoid the pitfalls of a monopolized, monolithic cloud stack. With today’s announcement, customers no longer have to bet on who is going to win ‘the cloud race.’ All they need is a NetScaler appliance and the OpenCloud Access and Bridge modules, and they can connect to any external cloud service, whenever it makes sense for their business. Our new OpenCloud products provide enterprise customers and cloud providers alike with powerful virtualization and networking solutions that do not lock them into a single approach.”

Antonio Piraino, Vice President and Research Director, Tier1 Research

“Citrix is addressing an important issue in the emerging cloud space – how enterprise customers can leverage existing resources to take advantage of the immense benefits that innovative cloud solutions can bring. Many vendors are working on isolated software solutions, but those that are able to deliver an open approach bring reality to the hybrid cloud model, making it seamless across networks, applications, hypervisors and workloads. Having this flexibility will serve both cloud service providers and the enterprise, providing a pragmatic approach that enables service providers to keep up the pace of innovation while letting IT administrators make choices that are best for their business.”

Related Links and Announcements

  • Expert blog: “Self Service is the Future” (Oct. 6) by Harry Labana, CTO, Desktop Division, Citrix
  • Expert blog: “Meet vClone - The “Model T” of the Cloud” (Oct. 6) by Roger Klorese, Sr. Director, Product Marketing, Citrix
  • Expert blog: “Keep It Simple: Bringing the Cloud to the Desktop” (Oct. 6) by Steve Shah, Sr. Director, Product Management, Citrix
  • Expert blog: “Imagine a World Without Bridges… Cloud Computing is not Much Different!” (Oct. 6) by Pete Downing, Principal Product Manager, Citrix
  • Announcement: Citrix Expands Leadership in Open Cloud Computing (Aug. 30)
  • Expert blog: “The Cloud is Open - See How It Stacks Up” (Aug. 30) by Roger Klorese, Sr. Director, Product Marketing, Citrix
  • Expert blog: “Open Cloud – a Platform for Innovation” (Aug. 30) by Steve Shah, Sr. Director, Product Management, Citrix

Follow Us Online

  • Citrix Synergy 2010 and Citrix Synergy Press pages
  • Citrix OpenCloud page
  • Twitter: @Citrix, @Citrix_Cloud, @Citrix_Synergy, #CitrixSynergy
  • Citrix on Facebook

About Citrix Synergy

Born as a user conference more than 10 years ago, Citrix Synergy™ will present the best ideas from leaders in virtualization, cloud computing and networking to help you build a simpler and more cost-effective IT environment. Citrix Synergy Berlin takes place October 6 to 7, 2010, at the Estrel Hotel and Convention Center. Citrix Synergy San Francisco will be held May 25-27, 2011 at Moscone West Convention Center. More information is available on the Citrix Synergy web site at http://www.citrixsynergy.com.

About Citrix

Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is a leading provider of virtual computing solutions that help companies deliver IT as an on-demand service. Founded in 1989, Citrix combines virtualization, networking, and cloud computing technologies into a full portfolio of products that enable virtual workstyles for users and virtual datacenters for IT. More than 230,000 organizations worldwide rely on Citrix to help them build simpler and more cost-effective IT environments. Citrix partners with over 10,000 companies in more than 100 countries. Annual revenue in 2009 was $1.61 billion.

For Citrix Investors

This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Those statements involve a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including risks associated with revenue growth and recognition of revenue, products, their development and distribution, product demand and pipeline, economic and competitive factors, the Company’s key strategic relationships, acquisition and related integration risks as well as other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Citrix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.

The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion and is subject to change without notice or consultation. The information provided is for informational purposes only and is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions or incorporated into any contract.

Citrix®, Citrix OpenCloud™, Citrix Receiver™, Citrix Synergy™, GoToMeeting® and NetScaler® are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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