Citrix Extends Desktop Virtualisation Portfolio with Acquisition of Kaviza

            SMB organisations are adopting desktop virtualisation at an accelerating rate in order to reduce desktop management costs, improve security and increase business agility. In fact, Gartner research shows that hosted virtual desktops have become the number two driver of new server purchases in SMBs across both North America and EMEA, and number four in Asia Pacific.[1] However, many small to medium businesses who are constantly under pressure to do more with less have been hesitant to adopt VDI in the past given the relative cost and complexity of deploying enterprise-class products in an SMB environment. Unlike other VDI products targeted at SMBs, Kaviza VDI-in-a-Box is not just a scaled-down enterprise product with limited functionality, performance and manageability. Instead, Kaviza offers a highly innovative solution designed from the ground up to give SMB customers brilliantly simple, low-cost, “all-in-one” VDI solution purpose-built for their needs.

Kaviza VDI-in-a-Box

           Kaviza VDI-in-a-Box gives SMB customers everything they need to “go virtual” with VDI in a single, easy-to-deploy software virtual appliance. This “all-in-one” solution simplifies VDI adoption for SMB customers with an innovative design that requires:

·         No separate connection brokers

·         No load balancers

·         No provisioning servers

·         No expensive shared network storage

Kaviza VDI-in-Box:

·         Installs quickly and is easy to manage – A single all-in-one virtual appliance enables the full production deployment of virtual desktops in two hours or less. Additional servers can be deployed and connected to the grid in minutes. A simple administrator interface makes moves, adds and changes simple.

·         Delivers a high-definition user experience with HDX™ – Citrix HDX technology delivers high performance and complete virtual desktop capabilities to any device, or any network, while minimising bandwidth requirements.

·         Utilises simple, cost-effective infrastructure to provide a high return on investment – The grid architecture delivers a highly available solution with fewer servers than traditional VDI solutions and no shared storage or management servers.

·         Provides flexibility and choice -- The open architecture provides multi-hypervisor support for Citrix XenServer® and VMware ESX, with Microsoft Hyper-V support coming soon.

Citrix Synergy

Citrix Synergy™ attendees will have the opportunity to experience the Kaviza VDI-in-a-Box offering at Citrix Synergy 2011 in San Francisco, May 25-27. 

Supporting Quotes
“Kaviza understands the needs of small and medium businesses and has made great strides in giving these types of organisations a simple, low-cost solution for virtual desktops. The Kaviza team and the innovative technology they have built will add significant value to our desktop virtualisation product line as more and more SMBs adopt virtual desktops, and it will help us drive continued growth and market leadership in desktop virtualisation,” said Gordon Payne, senior vice president and general manager, Desktop Division at Citrix.

“The union of Kaviza and Citrix is a natural fit that will benefit our customers and channel partners. We founded Kaviza and created “VDI-in-a-Box” specifically for small and medium customers whose needs have been underserved by existing solutions. By joining Citrix, we will be able to leverage the benefits of increased investment, global presence and a large channel footprint. This represents a win for small and medium-sized businesses that want to adopt desktop virtualisation across their organisations,” said Kumar K. Goswami, co-founder and CEO, Kaviza.

“For several years, clients have requested all-in-one server appliances to meet the desktop virtualisation needs of their small offices and branch offices. In 2009, I called on the vendor community to meet this requirement and several responded. Here we are, two years later, and there is a bigger need due to the growth in desktop virtualisation. Without question, low-cost desktop virtualisation in-a-box solutions extend the operational, security and TCO benefits common in large-scale virtual desktop deployments to the small or branch office,” said Chris Wolf, research VP, Gartner.

"We partner with Citrix, Microsoft and Kaviza, and we are very excited by the new opportunities this creates both for customers and for our company.  VDI-in-a-box is game-changing with its simplicity and affordability, and now with the support of Citrix, it becomes a no-brainer," said Brian Bradley, VP business development, Blue-Chip Consulting, LLC.

Availability

Customers can continue to purchase VDI-in-a-box from Kaviza resellers. Starting July 1, 2011 customers will also be able to buy from Citrix Solution Advisors.

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About Citrix

Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is a leading provider of virtual computing solutions that help people work and play from anywhere on any device.  More than 230,000 enterprises rely on Citrix to create better ways for people, IT and business to work through virtual meetings, desktops and datacentres.  Citrix virtualisation, networking and cloud solutions deliver over 100 million corporate desktops and touch 75 per cent of Internet users each day.  Citrix partners with over 10,000 companies in 100 countries. Annual revenue in 2010 was US$1.87 billion.

For Citrix Investors

This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbour provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.  The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance.  Those statements involve a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including risks associated with the impact of the global economy and uncertainty in the IT spending environment, revenue growth and recognition of revenue, products and services, their development and distribution, product demand and pipeline, economic and competitive factors, the Company’s key strategic relationships, acquisition and related integration risks as well as other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Citrix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.

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[1] Gartner: Table 2: Ranking of Server Project Priority Rating Through 2010, User Survey Analysis: Hosted Virtual Desktops Set to Grow Server Demand for SMBs, 16 March 2011