Google LLC today expanded its partnership with server, application and desktop virtualization firm Citrix Systems Inc.

The companies, which have had a long-running partnership that dates back to 2011, say they’re collaborating to make Citrix Workspace with Machine Creation Services available on Google Cloud. They made the announcement at Citrix’s Synergy conference this week in Atlanta.

Citrix’s Workspace Suite is a collection of Citrix products that information technology administrators can use to deliver secure access to desktops, data, applications and services to users on any device and on any network.

The suite includes XenApp, XenDesktop, XenMobile, ShareFile Enterprise and NetScaler Gateway. XenApp and XenDesktop allow admins to deliver virtual Linux or Windows desktops and apps to their users. XenMobile lets admins manage both user-owned and corporate-owned mobile devices. ShareFile is an enterprise file sync-and-share product that gives users a secure environment for accessing corporate content. And the NetScaler Gateway creates a secure network portal to access all the products in the Citrix Workspace Suite.

Announced at the Citrix Synergy event today, Citrix Workspace with MCS on Google Cloud is a cloud-hosted version of that suite designed to make it easier for admins to scale Citrix workspaces hosted on Google’s cloud infrastructure. Customers can manage their Citrix instance life cycles more easily, with options to manage virtual machine provisioning, standardize images and automate security patch management. They can also take advantage of the full range of virtual machine options on Google’s cloud, including custom machine types.

“Citrix has had tremendous success in simplifying IT’s everyday work and building solutions to empower people to be more productive and efficient in their jobs,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, Google’s corporate vice president of global ecosystem. “Partnering with Citrix means we can bring those capabilities to Google Cloud customers and embed Google’s scale, infrastructure and compute in Citrix’s services.”

In addition, Citrix users have the option to provision cloud-hosted virtual desktop infrastructure on Google Cloud that’s accessible from anywhere in the world.

“This brings you all the benefits of Google Cloud — reliability, security, performance and scalability — and lets your users access virtual apps and desktops as well as G Suite, Google Drive, and SaaS apps on all devices with single sign-on,” Ichhpurani said.

By integrating Citrix with Google’s Cloud Identity service, meanwhile, users can benefit from a “more unified, secure and seamless” authentication service between Workspace and Google’s G Suite, the companies said.

“As companies move more apps to the cloud, they need an easy, secure and reliable way for employees to access these apps anywhere, anytime from any device,” said Mark Ferrer, executive vice president and chief revenue officer at Citrix.

Citrix said Workspace with MCS on Google Cloud is available now to select customers, with full availability expected in the third quarter.

Photo: Citrix/Facebook