Wipro Technologies, the global Consulting, System Integration and Outsourcing business of Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT), and Citrix Systems announced today an initiative with Microsoft to deliver an integrated Wipro Desktop as a Service (Wipro DaaS) solution that uses the market-leading desktop virtualization technologies of Citrix and Microsoft.
The announcement was made at Citrix Synergy, the conference where virtualization, networking and cloud computing meet. This service is designed to meet the needs of specific industries including education, manufacturing, banking and healthcare. It is currently available for beta customers, and will be generally available in the first quarter of 2011. Pricing and licensing will be disclosed at the time of availability.
The Wipro DaaS solution is based on Citrix XenDesktop and leverages Citrix FlexCast delivery technology to provide multiple types of virtual desktops – hosted or local, physical or virtual – each specifically tailored to meet the performance, security and flexibility requirements of each individual user. By leveraging Citrix HDX technology, each user is assured a rich, high definition experience on any device, including PCs, Macs, thin clients, tablets and smartphones. The solution incorporates the Microsoft VDI Premium Suite, which includes Microsoft VDI infrastructure and management software so customers can virtualize, manage, stream and remotely display applications and deliver desktops remotely.
Wipro DaaS offers organizations virtual desktops and applications as a service. The solution will be hosted at Wipro’s datacenters or at a customer’s location. It replaces complex, custom implementation projects with a plug-and-play, preconfigured delivery model that is based on the most common user requirements in order to improve time to market, performance and scalability of virtual desktops. Customers will realize these benefits as a hosted service with minimal upfront capital costs and no deployment delays.
“Wipro is excited to work with Citrix and Microsoft in developing a Desktop as a Service solution to simplify the implementation and management of virtual desktops for various industry verticals,” said Deepak Jain, Senior Vice President, Global Head Technology Infrastructure Services (TIS). “Customers are looking for virtual desktop and virtualized application solutions that allow for a modular approach at a low operating expense (OPEX). We see a need to simplify the deployment and management of desktop virtualization. Our solution can be hosted at Wipro’s state-of-the-art datacenters and at a customer’s location, allowing our clients to have the benefits of the private cloud computing model while achieving the optimized distribution of the hosting infrastructure.”
“Customers are rapidly adopting desktop virtualization to enable users to get access to their desktop, apps and documents anywhere, using any device,” said Sumit Dhawan, Vice President, XenDesktop Product Marketing. “The Wipro DaaS service with Citrix XenDesktop and Microsoft offers a low cost, modular and scalable service model, which can be easily adopted by organizations. This new service broadly addresses the needs of different users via multiple types of virtual desktops, such as session-based shared desktops for task workers, VDI desktops for power users, or streamed desktops for lab environments.”
“Citrix and Microsoft software provides customers of all sizes with groundbreaking solutions that are simpler, richer and more cost-effective,” said David McCann, general manager, of Server and Cloud Platform marketing at Microsoft Corp. “Employees want options in where and how they work, while IT still needs to enforce compliance and cost containment. Our work with Wipro can help customers build on existing investments with comprehensive management to mitigate risks and control costs, while still equipping employees to be more productive from anywhere.”
Wipro and Citrix are working closely together in delivering desktop virtualization implementations to enterprises worldwide. Wipro is also a global systems integrator and strategic partner to Microsoft, delivering industry-specific business solutions on Microsoft technologies.