VDI-in-a-Box 5 is the first Citrix release of the desktop virtualization product following the acquisition of Kaviza.
Virtual computing solutions provider Citrix Systems announced a set
of products, solutions and programs designed to help small and midsize
businesses move from the PC era to the cloud era by capitalizing on the
benefits of desktop virtualization. Central to the company's SMB
initiative is the release of an all-new version of VDI-in-a-Box, the
virtual desktop solution designed specifically for midmarket companies.
VDI-in-a-Box 5 is the first Citrix release of this desktop
virtualization product following the acquisition of Kaviza in May 2011.
In addition, Citrix announced a solution combining VDI-in-a-Box and
the Citrix GoToManage cloud-based support offering, making it possible
for managed service providers and IT staff to remotely monitor and
support virtual desktop deployments at multiple sites or customer
locations. Citrix also announced a channel partner specialization for
the Citrix Solution Advisor Program, called SMB Specialist. SMB
Specialists, which Citrix will begin certifying in January, will have
access to a set of sales tools, free online training and pre-sales
support focused specifically on helping them engage and service SMB
customers.
VDI-in-a-Box 5 offers the company's HDX technology, supports more
than one billion business and consumer devices through the Citrix
Receiver software client, and improves high availability capability.
Its simplified design eliminates more than 60 percent of traditional
enterprise VDI infrastructure - including management servers and shared
storage (SANs) - by creating a grid of off-the-shelf servers with
direct-attached storage suited for SMB environments.
To help channel partners, managed service providers and IT
administrators support SMB customers, GoToManage has new dashboards and
alerts, and GoToManage continually tracks health and performance
metrics on the physical and virtual infrastructure. Alerts can be
configured to provide an "early-warning-system," and with the
GoToManage Remote Support module, it is possible to set up and securely
access (over the Internet) all VDI-in-a-Box servers from a PC, Mac or
iPad.
A key component to the Citrix strategy for SMBs is working with a
partner ecosystem to develop validated end-to-end solutions that can be
purchased and consumed by customers. The Dell and Citrix VDI-in-a-Box
solution, available from Dell, combines Dell-validated server
configurations and VDI-in-a-Box software into reference architectures.
In addition, cloud client computing specialist Wyse is offering a
zero-framework clients for VDI-in-a-Box with special partner promotions.
The SMB initiative also includes support for thousands of
Citrix-ready products from leading partners such as Dell and Wyse that
will offer validated hardware and software solutions consumed by SMBs.
The combination of Citrix VDI-in-a-Box 5, Citrix GoToManage, the
support of a Citrix Ready ecosystem, and a new SMB Specialists channel
program, are designed to help extend the benefits of "going virtual" at
the desktop to tens of thousands of businesses worldwide.
"Small and midsize organizations are increasingly acknowledging the
need to streamline their desktop management with VDI, but they are
often faced with significant deployment challenges," said Rafael
Colorado, director of desktop virtual solutions for Dell. "By combining
validated Dell PowerEdge server configurations with Citrix VDI-in-a-Box
software, Dell is offering a unique solution in the market for
addressing implementation complexity and eliminating capital cost
barriers. The combination of Citrix software with Dell hardware makes
IT more agile so SMBs can drive strategic initiatives for their
organizations."
Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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