IGEL has been in North America for a while, but the company is now investing considerably more in its key partners and its channel program, to develop a core of elite partners to drive market share growth. They are at Citrix Synergy this week discussing future plans with their partners, who also typically sell Citrix.
Citrix CEO Kiril Tatarinov, at his first Citrix Synergy since taking over the company helm earlier this year, outlined to the company’s customers where he plans to take the company.
Nutanix’s president acknowledged that the industry’s previous announced attempts at a low-cost VDI solution have been basically junk, which have left customers suspicious of such claims. Nutanix InstantON VDI for Citrix, on the other hand, is an enterprise-capable turnkey solution, which really will come in in the $500 price range, including the endpoint.
Citrix is adding a new, incremental front-end discount for new opportunities among both new and existing customers. They are also reworking their MDF program, and redoing their CAR program to simplify it and increase partner opportunities.
The new functionality enhances a platform for MSPs based on extreme simplicity and a lower price point. Atera is making a push into North America this year, in particular among solution providers who have been turned off by the complexity of getting an MSP business up and running.
Citrix rebrands the Workspace Cloud Browser Apps Service introduced last summer as Citrix Workspace Cloud Secure Browser, and complements this hosted service with two other offerings, the Citrix XenApp Secure Browser and the Secure Browser Deployment Kit.
The new NetScaler T1000 incorporates the ByteMobile optimization software within the NetScaler appliance for improved mobile traffic handling.
The Windows-focused virtualization management optimization vendor provides a detailed update, including their relationship with Citrix and other co-opetitors, their channel policies, and where they see their market going.
While some of the channel changes announced at Citrix Summit have less relevance to Canada than in other geos, the core themes Citrix emphasized of increased focus and channel co-operation found a welcome reception.
An appliance originally designed to bring Citrix into the low end of the market has had its scalability increased more than tenfold, now supporting up to 5000 users. Dell also announced its new ThinOS software, which now supports Skype for Business, and is backwards compatible into the existing install base.
Citrix channel chief Kimberly Martin was brought into the company last fall to restructure and improve the company’s channel operations. She discusses her mission, the changes that she announced at her first Citrix Summit, and what remains on the drawing board.
Citrix said at its partner event that its new focus on its core business – the secure delivery of apps and data – turned around 2015, and led to a very strong close to the year. They then laid out how they intend to continue that in 2016.
Citrix certifies the complete Nutanix Acropolis solution as Citrix Ready, in what they intimate is only an opening round in future joint technical advances.
Citrix denies that last week’s Co-operation Agreement will have negative implications for partners, and says that strong showings by newly-specialized partners has the company on track to achieve this year’s channel goals.
New solutions for Microsoft SQL Server and Citrix XenDesktop, and a new FlashStack CI support program for resellers who don’t provide Level 1 and 2 support, will expand FlashStack’s partner reach. Pure is also looking to reach deeper into Canada, with two western road shows following up today’s announcement.
The virtualized performance management solutions startup has made unsuccessful channel initiatives before, but now armed with personnel and resources to execute, they are looking to enlist Citrix and VMware partners with professional services practices – and for the first time, MSPs.
RES has been making digital workspace technology solutions for years, but now, armed with new leadership, a new platform and a market that now finds what it does to be in high demand, the company expects to significantly raise its profile, and its sales.
Michael Murphy, vice-president and country manager of Citrix Canada, reviewed announcements from this year’s Citrix Synergy likely to be of particular interest to Canadian partners and customers.
Citrix provides more assurances about the future of XenApp, and also announces some lower key, but very significant enhancements to both XenApp and XenDesktop.
Citrix’s major announcement at Synergy this year provides huge new opportunities for both CSP and CSA partners, and the channel strategy being finalized is designed to ensure partners who move to the cloud with WorkSpace Cloud will be treated the same way as on-prem partners.
