Citrix today announced the next generation of the Citrix XenApp product, the market-leading app virtualization solution. As the workforce becomes increasingly mobile, businesses are struggling with how to deliver core Windows apps to an ever wider variety of devices. While re-architecting and re-writing these apps for mobile platforms may take months or years, customers can use XenApp to mobilize Windows apps today and deliver a native, high-performance, multi-touch-enabled experience as a result of the latest enhancements to Citrix HDX technologies.

In addition, enterprise IT can now burst and grow their virtual applications to the cloud in real-time with hybrid cloud provisioning, built into the new simplified and streamlined XenApp management console. With out-of-the-box support for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and CloudPlatform powered by Apache CloudStack clouds, and Microsoft Azure cloud support under development, XenApp is the only solution that can be easily deployed both in the cloud and on-premises with the same management interfaces and skillsets. This offers IT an unprecedented ability to reduce capital expenditures by leveraging the elasticity of the world’s largest public clouds. All these capabilities enable the new XenApp 7.5 to dramatically reduce the costs and complexity of virtualizing Windows apps and helping to drive the Citrix vision of the mobile workspace to securely deliver apps, desktops, files and services seamlessly to any user, on any device, over any network.

Driving Down Cost and Complexity

The new XenApp 7.5 is built on the FlexCast Management Architecture used in the Citrix XenDesktop solution, which provides a single console from which customers can deliver both virtual apps and desktops. Competitors that can only deliver entire virtual desktops often force users to open multiple desktops just to access apps that conflict with each other or run on different versions of Windows. With 25 years of delivering virtual apps to 330,000 customers, XenApp allows users to simply see a selection of available apps at their disposal. These apps might originate from any of five generations of Windows, all hosted and managed from the same infrastructure.

XenApp Platinum edition now includes the full power of Citrix AppDNA application migration technology, which can reduce time and overhead of application virtualization and platform migrations by as much as 90 percent. The inclusion of all the AppDNA capabilities helps IT address a variety of migration issues, including how to virtualize applications ahead of Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 end-of-life milestones.

Leveraging the Elasticity of Public Clouds

XenApp 7.5 provides the ability for hybrid cloud provisioning directly to AWS or CloudPlatform-powered clouds without having to learn new management consoles and skillsets. This allows customers to instantly add new capacity to handle seasonal requirements, address incremental growth, and add on-demand capacity for disaster recovery or business continuity. Unlike competitors, XenApp supports an “any cloud” strategy and does not lock customers into a proprietary cloud, but instead allows them to leverage any of the large public clouds on the market. Initially, hybrid cloud provisioning will be supported for AWS or any CloudPlatform-powered public or private cloud. Over time, new support will be added including the previously announced support for Windows Azure cloud platform.

Delivering a True Mobile Experience

To ensure a true mobile experience of Windows apps, enabling them to function intuitively and transparently on mobile devices, XenApp includes Citrix HDX Mobile. HDX Mobile optimizes Windows apps for mobile devices including touch-enabled smartphones and tablets. It enhances performance by intelligently coping with the variability and packet loss of mobile networks and improving graphics and multimedia with hardware acceleration on tablets and smartphones. With the HDX Mobile SDK, developers can completely transform Windows apps into mobile-native experiences by re-factoring the look and feel and enabling multi-touch gestures, native menu controls, camera and GPS support from within the virtual app.

Extending Security to Mobile Devices

For a limited time, XenApp and XenDesktop Platinum edition customers can add mobile device management (MDM) or enterprise mobile management (EMM) capabilities at a discount. The Platinum Mobility Promotion enables these customers to get Citrix XenMobile® MDM edition for the price of Software Maintenance, or XenMobile Enterprise edition at a 20 percent discount off the product price. This offer expires September 30, 2014; restrictions apply.

Quotes

Brett Waldman, Research Manager, Client Virtualization Software at IDC

“When end users first started to bring their mobile devices into work, the simple ability to access corporate Windows applications and desktops gave them the flexibility and agility they wanted. However, as these mobile devices start to become their primary device, they are demanding these virtual apps to have a consistent user experience with the device they using at the time. The vendors that can provide the best mobile experiences in a scalable and cost effective manner are positioning themselves to succeed in this dynamic market.”

Rakesh Narasimhan, Group VP and GM, Desktops and Apps at Citrix

“Increasingly, the mobile workforces of today demand a great experience with Windows applications. The new release of XenApp not only delivers on the Citrix vision of mobile workspaces for customers, with a powerful user experience, but allows companies to take full advantage of the flexibility of hybrid public and private clouds to optimize their IT infrastructures for the rapidly changing business environment.”

Mark Ciprietti, Vice President of Sales, Gibraltar Solutions

“Our clients want to deploy a truly mobile workforce. XenApp enables clients to deliver any Windows application to any device securely and a key part of our Citrix based mobility strategy. We are thrilled with Citrix’s announcement and the decision to strengthen their industry leading position.”

Availability

XenApp 7.5 will be available in March 2014