Citrix Systems brings desktop virtualization to laptops

With the release of its XenDesktop solution next month, Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS) will extend desktop virtualization and security capabilities to laptops.

Sumit Dhawan, vice-president of product marketing at Citrix, said the next version of XenDesktop will automatically encrypt corporate data on both corporate and user-owned laptop devices. XenClient, a bare metal hypervisor, and XenVault will both be available in the new release of XenDesktop, Dhawan said.

“The solution aims to address both corporate-owned laptops and personal laptops,” he said. “The solution will let you run the desktop directly on the laptop and will enable IT to manage the virtual machine and desktop centrally as a single image.”

The new solution allows Citrix channel partners to serve all of their customers’ desktop virtualization PC needs, said Dhawan.

“What we’ve seen from partners is they’ve gradually extended their value proposition from project-based XenApp to now offering full desktop delivery,” Dhawan explained. “This technology enables partners to have strategic conversations with customers and allows them to address challenges for all laptop users.”

XenVault is designed to work on laptops that are used by contractors or employees that bring their own laptop into the workplace. The technology will automatically save any data that’s created by corporate applications into an encrypted directory. If something were to happen to the machine, Dhawan said IT can centrally wipe the data from the machine for protection purposes.

XenDesktop’s XenClient technology is designed to work with corporate owned laptops/ The bare metal hypervisor sits on the hardware instead of on the operating system, which enables users to run a business virtual machine and a personal virtual machine in a more secure and simplified fashion, Dhawan said. With separate personal and business virtual machines on the laptop, workers can use their personal workspace without impacting the business virtual machine. All corporate data will be automatically synchronized and backed up into the data centre for disaster recovery.

XenDesktop 4 Feature Pack 2 will begin shipping at the end of September and both features will also be included in the Enterprise and Platinum editions of XenDesktop. Those who wish to try XenClient, Dhawan said they can download XC Express, which is good for up to 10 users and is available free of charge.

Follow Maxine Cheung on Twitter: @MaxineCheungCDN.

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Maxine Cheung
Maxine Cheung
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