Citrix Acquires Unidesk to Bolster XenApp, XenDesktop

Some of the biggest news so far out of the Citrix Summit this week is an announcement on Monday that Citrix has acquired Unidesk to bolster its XenApp and XenDesktop products. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Unidesk created the Windows application packaging and management technology known as layering, Cisco says, which has emerged as the “best way to separate apps from the underlying operating system.”

Citrix says that its customers will be able to leverage the app-layering solution “with the need to only manage a single app image across both on-premises and cloud-based deployments.”

Unidesk will continue to be sold as a standalone product for VMware Horizon and Microsoft Virtual desktop deployment customers, according to the announcement.

“Unidesk has been recognized by customers and industry analysts as the clear leader in application layering, offering multiple unique advantages that streamline secure app delivery and VDI deployments and make them easier to manage,” Jeroen van Rotterdam, senior vice president of Engineering at Citrix said. “By incorporating Unidesk technology into XenApp and XenDesktop, Citrix advances its industry leadership by offering the most powerful and easy to deploy application layering solution available for delivering and managing app and desktops in the cloud, on-premises and in hybrid deployment environments.”

In December, Unidesk was named Citrix Ready Partner of the Month; Unidesk has been Citrix Ready for Citrix XenDesktop since 2010 and Citrix Ready for Citrix XenApp since 2015.

“Citrix and Unidesk are a natural combination, and we see tremendous value for customers and partners, along with significant potential for growth for our solution,” Don Bulens, president and CEO of Unidesk said. “Citrix created the market for VDI and secure app and data delivery and is the clear industry leader, so it makes the most sense to integrate our offerings into a comprehensive solution that makes deployment and management easy, while delivering an unbeatable user experience.”