Citrix has been moving into the mobile space, making mobility a critical part of its strategy. Indeed, Citrix sees itself as a cloud computing company that enables the mobile work style. “Citrix has been looking at mobile as the key to enable end-user productivity and make organizations more productive. Mobile is driving much of what corporations are doing,” said Jamie Barnett, Citrix senior director for product marketing, in an interview with RCR Wireless News.
In line with this—and following the acquisition of Zenprise—Citrix announced an enterprise mobile device management (MDM) solution named XenMobile MDM. This is the first announcement of a combined solution. “Zenprise focused on device management and security policies. Prior to the acquisition, Zenprise was working on some of these pieces [included in the recently released solution], so when we got together, we saw what each of us was doing and combined efforts,” Barnett explained.
Citrix’s announcement makes sense in light of the company’s mobile strategy. The enterprise MDM solution promises to give users device choice while also enabling IT departments to meet their management and compliance requirements. Aimed at the bring your own device (BYOD) trend, XenMobile MDM joins other Citrix solutions, including CloudGateway, NetScale, XenDesktop, GoToMeeting, GoToAssist®, Citrix ShareFile and Citrix Podio.
As Barnett explained, the solution has five key features:
- Enterprise MDM which delivers role-based management, configuration and security for both corporate and employee-owned devices
- Secure e-mail, browser and data sharing apps which provide a rich user experience with the management and control that IT requires
- Mobile app containers that centralize IT management, security and control for any mobile app, whether created by a third party or enterprise IT
- Unified app store providing a single place for users to access all of their apps—mobile, web, SaaS, and Windows—on any device
- Identity management, single sign-on and scenario-based access control that make it easy for IT to manage user access and radically simplify the user experience
By moving into the enterprise MDM field, Citrix is entering fertile ground. Gartner estimates that over the next five years, 65% of enterprises will adopt an MDM solution for their corporate liable users. Gartner’s forecast shows how increased smartphone functionality and rising tablet popularity will drive IT leaders’ efforts toward adopting management tools that can help them deal with a vast number of devices.
The competition, however, is fierce. In addition to traditional players, such as AirWatch, several software companies are embracing MDM solutions, looking to address corporate needs and meet BYOD demands. The German enterprise software giant SAP has already announced that as mobility becomes a key driver for its future growth, it will focus on improving its MDM solution, SAP Afaria.
As for Citrix, the company said that “it is the first company to offer a complete portfolio of mobile solutions, ranging from device management to native mobile apps for email, Web access, collaboration and data sharing, as well as desktop virtualization for seamless access to Windows apps and desktops.”
