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Citrix Advances Enterprise Mobility with XenClient 5

Citrix announced a new release of Citrix XenClient, further executing on the companys enterprise mobility strategy. By leveraging the powerful personalization and profile management technology in Citrix XenDesktop, XenClient 5 allows mobile workers to seamlessly work across laptops, tablets and smartphones using their virtual desktop hosted or local along with their files and documents. XenDesktop with XenClient and Citrix ShareFile give mobile workers the personalized virtual desktop experience and data synchronization they want, where they want it, all with the centralized control IT needs. The unique integration of XenClient 5, included as part of XenDesktop represents an industry first, providing personalization and profile management across local and hosted virtual desktops. Industry analysts expect this to drive broader adoption of desktop virtualization, a key enabler of the mobile enterprise.

According to IDC, by 2015 the worlds mobile worker population will reach 1.3 billion, representing approximately 37.2 percent of the total workforce. Mobile workers use multiple devices laptops, smartphones and tablets in the office and on the road. They expect their desktop and their data to be available wherever they need to work. VDI has helped drive mobile workstyles, but when users need the full power of their laptop, or need to work offline, a local virtual desktop is more appropriate. This has created a significant opportunity for local virtual desktops to enhance the hosted virtual desktop (VDI) experience. Up until now, options for delivering a consistent personalized local and hosted virtual desktop experience have required complex custom deployments, or compromises in user experience. XenClient, now included as part of XenDesktop, offers the first solution to unify the mobile worker experience across hosted and local virtual desktops.

Your Desktop and Your Data Where You Want Them

XenClient 5 integrates Personal vDisk technology already in XenDesktop to enable personalization, and integrates with ShareFile to sync data across local and hosted virtual desktop environments. Users will have a seamless and personalized user experience, and IT gains new levels of security, reliability and control with simplified desktop management. The integration of Personal vDisk technology is built into the two core components of XenClient: 

XenClient Engine XenClient is a true Type-1 client hypervisor that runs on bare metal and provides high performance and security, letting users run a centrally managed virtual desktop and lets power users run multiple local virtual desktops simultaneously, side-by-side and in complete isolation. Users of XenClient-powered devices can access their various virtual desktops anywhere, anytimeeven while disconnected from the network. 

XenClient Synchronizer Synchronizer for XenClient enables IT to centrally manage the virtual desktops running locally on PCs as well as manage the devices themselves. Using Synchronizer, IT can centrally back up user data through a secure connection whenever the user connects to the Internet, define security policies, disable lost or stolen PCs, and restore a users virtual desktop on any XenClient-based device.

It’s a multi-device world and managing this heterogeneous environment is driving the client virtualization market to grow to $4.1 billion in 2017. Between corporate-owned and personally-owned, many users today have 3 to 4 devices. With the unified profile management updates to XenClient 5, Citrix streamlines the integration with XenDesktop and simplifies the administrator’s processes while improving the user experience as he or she moves between devices.
- Brett Waldman, Reseach Manager, IDC

With this new level of integration with XenDesktop and seamless personalization and synchronization across devices, XenClient further enables enterprises to go mobile. Users have the ability to work from any device, even offline with their laptops, and IT achieves greater security and manageability.
- Mitch Parker, Vice President and General Manager, Client Virtualization, Citrix

We’re very excited about XenClient 5 with enhanced integration of XenDesktop technologies. XenClient had already made a dramatic positive impact on the way we centrally manage and control PCs, and the new personal virtual disk and unified profile management capabilities will allow us to deliver greater levels of personalization while maintaining that centralized control. We see XenClient as a critical pillar within XenDesktop – for providing local virtual desktops that are always available regardless of the state of the network connection or even when there’s no network at all.
- Chuck Miller, IT Director, Town of Lincoln, Mass.

Historically, XenClient has enabled us to centrally control all of our PCs, resulting in a reliable, secure, and stable computing experience for our users. The new capabilities XenClient 5 offers with enhanced personalization and integration with XenDesktop will make the solution much more flexible for end users while retaining all of the benefits of centralized management and control.
- Ames Prentiss, CEO, IVG Hospitals

XenClient 5 will be available for download August 12 from the Citrix website. XenClient 5 is also included in XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum editions. Customers that are current on XenDesktop Subscription Advantage can download XenClient 5 for free as a benefit of their Subscription Advantage membership. 

Customers interested in a trial of XenClient for delivering local virtual desktops to mobile laptops and PCs can download XenClient Enterprise 5 and create a test environment for up to 10 user