Citrix Synergy 2013: There’s a Better Way to Work

If there’s one key takeaway that resonates from Citrix’s Synergy conference here in Anaheim, it’s that technology needs to be three things: Simple, mobile and fast.

This focus on simplicity and mobility is in large part thanks to the consumerization of IT, which has forced the enterprise to pay attention the user experience it delivers.

“Consumerization is affecting absolutely everything. The apps, the data, where people work and how they think about computing,” said Citrix President and CEO Mark Templeton during the conference’s keynote.

And while much of the focus around adopting mobile, consumer-friendly technology solutions has centered on the end-user, it’s also an important draw in recruiting young IT professionals who expect such flexibility in their IT.

“There’s a workforce that needs to be recruited, retained and engaged that was born digital. The web was born for this generation, but IT infrastructure has not been built for this generation,” Templeton added.

IT Working in Harmony

One of Citrix’s goals as an IT provider is to enable interoperability and compatibility across platforms. The days of Mac vs. Windows might carry on in their respective fan bases, but most companies would prefer an IT infrastructure that’s capable of serving both.

In fact, a recent Forrester Research study found that nearly half of enterprises were issuing Macs to their employees.

In an effort to serve the desires of Mac users and meet the needs of Windows-only IT shops, Citrix unveiled its XenDesktop Player for Mac, which is an add-on for its XenDesktop 7, which the company also unveiled at Synergy.

To illustrate this point even further, Brad Peterson, “chief demo officer” for Citrix, ran through several Windows apps on his iPad Mini, which he was able to run without a glitch.

And when NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang came out and demoed the automotive industry’s RTT Deltagen app running on a Macbook Pro with XenDesktop and powered by an NVIDIA virtual GPU, the deal was sealed: It just works.

This, Templeton says, is the power of “any.” And it’s the future way that every business should work.

“We think that the power of any is of great value to you. So you can make the bets you want and not make the bets you don't want to make,” he said.