At Citrix Summit, Citrix has announced a new set of products, solutions and programs designed to help small and medium businesses move from the PC Era to the Cloud Era by capitalizing on the benefits of desktop virtualization. Central to the company's new SMB initiative is the release of an all-new version of Citrix VDI-in-a-Box, all-in-one virtual desktop solution designed specifically for small and medium businesses. VDI-in-a-Box 5 is the first Citrix release of this market-leading desktop virtualization product following the acquisition of Kaviza in May 2011. In addition, Citrix announced a new solution combining Citrix VDI-in-a-Box and the Citrix GoToManage cloud-based support offering, making it easy for managed service providers and IT staff to remotely monitor and support virtual desktop deployments at multiple sites or customer locations.
Citrix also announced a new channel partner specialization for the Citrix Solution Advisor Program, called SMB Specialist. SMB Specialists, which Citrix will begin certifying in January, will have access to an extensive set of sales tools, free online training and pre-sales support focused specifically on helping them successfully engage and service SMB customers.
Krishna Subramanian, Vice President, Marketing & Business Development, SMB Solutions, Citrix said, "There is pent-up demand among small and medium organizations who want to realize the benefits of desktop virtualization but have been underserved by existing solutions. Together with our partners, Citrix is breaking down the barriers for smaller organizations wanting to realize the business agility and efficiency of virtual desktops but face tight budget and resource constraints."
