Citrix Updates Products, Announces Channel Program

By Art Wittmann

**Editor’s Note: Click here for a list of recent channel-program changes you should know or here for our recently compiled list of new products and services that partners can sell.**

In an age when many are talking about holistic solutions, Citrix wants its partners to specialize. The new program is available to any of the existing Citrix Solution Advisors, and rewards those who specialize in one or more of Citrix’s product lines. Along with this new channel program, Citrix also announced updates to XenMobile, XenServer, XenApp and XenDesktop.

First the new channel program. Citrix Specializations gives partners special designation and differentiated compensation for demonstrating competency and success with various Citrix product lines. Partners can select from specializations in virtualization, data center networking, mobility management and networking apps and mobile security. 

Gold and platinum partner standing with Citrix will now depend on these specializations along with achieving certain revenue goals. Citrix is giving existing gold and platinum partners two years to move to the new program. Along with the increased competency that comes with the specializations, Citrix is upping the partner take on products associated with each specialty.

On the product releases. Citrix is releasing XenMobile 10, the latest version of its enterprise mobility management product. The mobile productivity suite gets enhancements, and IT teams get streamlined management.

XenServer is now at version 6.5.  The latest release of the product based on the open source Xen hypervisor now offers a full 64-bit kernel, bringing it up to speed with current hardware. This version of XenServer also improves upon existing support for NVIDIA GRID vGPU technology, permitting more desktops using XenServer per server.

Finally XenApp and XenDesktop are also getting updates including enhancements to security, collaboration and performance. Along with these core enhancements, Citrix laid out new features for the products including an optimization pack for Lync, session recording capabilities for auditing and troubleshooting, an upcoming agent for Linux virtual desktops, performance accelerators for slow networks and a way to support devices not owned by the company without attaching the devices to the company network.