One of the biggest obstacles for the hybrid cloud has been marrying the private and public sectors for enterprise use, particularly around end-user devices, access and IT manageability.  In the past couple of years we’ve seen virtual desktops emerge as larger solutions for entire workplaces, SaaS and PaaS implementations all but take over the enterprise, and unified communications dashboards evolve for every IT environment.  But execution comes only after extensive planning and experimentation, with the demand for a hybrid cloud solution always on the rise.  Citrix is looking to really make a stamp on the cloud computing environment with its latest approach, which brings a level of pragmatism to the social enterprise as well as open cloud development, all working towards making the private and public clouds essentially interchangeable.

It seems that transitory existence is what Citrix is after, unveiling a suite of public, private and personal cloud solutions, all designed to work together for today’s changing workplace.  Launching at the Citrix Synergy event today, the going theme is all about transitioning into the new cloud era, leaving stationary work stations and PCs behind.  Wes Wasson, Senior VP at Citrix, calls it the third phase of computing, driven by the forces of virtualization and mobility in our ever-evolving space.

Personal Cloud

What’s great about today’s emerging cloud era is its affect on the end user.  We pretty much all have laptops, tablets and smartphones, each of which can be utilized for mobile working.  That’s effectively changed how offices are structured, but also renders a new relationship between the worker, management and IT departments.  With our varied devices comes the apps necessary to do our work, be it Google Docs or Citrix’s own GoToMeeting.  This extension of SaaS products has imprinted Citrix on over 1 billion devices worldwide, with a growing presence in mobile app marketplaces.

Specific to GoToMeeting, the collaboration tool is getting an upgrade, with HD video integrated into the existing service.  Bringing a seamless video experience, this visual enhancement adds a sometimes necessary form of communication to a widely used tool.  Video’s a conferencing feature that’s been tacked onto a number of similar services, from Skype to Oovoo.  With several months of private beta testing, Citrix is anxious to layer HD video into GoToMeeting, bringing a highly requested feature to fruition.

As far as IT is concerned, they’re gaining in mobility perks as well.  GoToManage is a new product that Citrix is hoping will be a popular app amongst enterprise clients, enabling IT managers to offer and control support for any virtual desktop within the network.  The remote management tool lets iT take control of a system, check on servers and troubleshoot as needed.  Rackspace has been an early entrant in this space as well, being among the first to extend its monitoring tools to the iPad tablet.

To stretch the personal cloud as far as it can go, Citrix is adding support for more devices, rolling out Citrix Receiver as the central hub to deliver across the myriad of personal devices.  A good example of how this will essentially become an enterprise interface for mobile devices, Google will demonstrate how it would work on the Chromebook, in this case running Chrome OS, and has nothing else installed on it except Citrix Receiver.  The idea is to combine all of Citrix’s SaaS apps through this interface, letting workers still access what they need within a secured environment.  To this end, Citrix is also launching XenClient XT, a specialized version of its virtual desktop solution aimed at defense organizations, government contractors and any other company in need of extra security.  Several improvements have also been made to Citrix Receiver and its virtual desktop lineup, bringing faster performance, real-time enhancements and overall looking to make the virtual experience as speedy and usable as having the software on the device itself.

Private Cloud

Citrix’s private cloud updates begin with the acquisition of Kaviza, looking to downmarket VDI-in-a-box to SMBs.  Along with an update to XenDesktop 5, Citrix’s aim is to cut costs across the board, on the server side and beyond.  Storage costs are substantially reduced with this update as well, marking improvements in usability, scalability and economics.

To help IT departments execute all the wonderful things Citrix is offering to private cloud clients, they’ve also created  a network of sorts, full of resources and step-by-step guides.  It’s a cloud-based app that clients can register a desktop virtualization project they’re working on, and receive training, videos and other resources, all timed to move along with their stages of installment.  It’s a self-serve offering, but one that lends to customer service and the growing need to manage these virtualization journeys.  We’re seeing several cloud companies build out their support staff, consulting and advisory roles for this very purpose, as the road to the cloud is paved with both promise and precociousness.

Public Cloud

As far as the public cloud is concerned, the enterprise has been eyeing it with envy and disdain.  It’s an environment that has yet to find its way comfortably into the enterprise, but Citrix is hoping to change all that.  In doing so, the company is designing around today’s needs, leaving “enterprise 1.0” to eventually die out, instead of trying to put cloud management on top of it and calling it a private cloud.  “We beleive that approach leads to questionable economics, and misses the opportunity to be truly transformative,” Wasson says.  Highlighting Amazon, Rackspace and Google, their non-proprietary methods commoditize equipment and focus on the software, enabling them to scale out their cloud services and apps.

Rackspace seems to have made quite an impression on Citrix, as the company will also be commercializing Rackspace’s OpenStack platform.  It’s actually an important strategy for Citrix, deploying OpenStack specifically for its ongoing public and private cloud initiatives.  The move isn’t a surprising one, as Citrix has been an early and dedicated partner for OpenStack.  The commercialization puts Citrix squarely in Rackspace’s corner, as several cloud companies look to commercialize open cloud platforms for their own similar goals.  In recent weeks we saw EMC joining the Hadoop camp, gearing the company for the seriousness of developing a new hybrid cloud solution.

For this public cloud movement, Citrix is calling it Project Olympus, “as in the mountain,” Wasson is quick to note.  Early access opens today, with general availability expected in the second half of this year.  It covers a good portion of the current open cloud movement, and lets enterprises deploy a public cloud for themselves, diminishing the architecture and design a company would need in order to do this from scratch.  It’s a product aimed to let companies focus on innovation, instead of wasting time building its private cloud.

Cloud Networking Portfolio

Citrix’s public, private and personal cloud updates sound great, but they offer little cohesiveness independently.  Citrix is also launching a cloud gateway to parse out these wonderful offerings to end users, also helping companies grow it to scale.  Extending transitory products that interface between the varying aspects of the cloud, it orchestrates the delivery of apps from anywhere, connecting SaaS, the web and applications to any user on any device.

Unlike Zenprise, the solution is largely browser-based, though seemingly on a larger scale than VMware’s recently launched Horizon App Manager. And the back door of the data center gets in on the fun, too, with the Netscaler Cloud Bridge.  Making good on its acquisition of Netscaler several months back, the Cloud Bridge offers full network transparency, connecting your data center to any cloud.  It comes complete with security and performance, optimizing data flow and limiting lag time.