Citrix Channel Swelling with IT Services Partners

Citrix’ service provider channel grew by two as OneNeck IT Services and Digicel this week were both announced as partners.

Both companies plan to use Citrix to support their new virtual desktop services that are hosted in the cloud.

While VMware still rules server virtualization, after decades in the desktop virtualization market, Citrix is still very much the one to beat. Add to that a deep relationship with Microsoft, and Citrix has a compelling story for delivering up Windows applications and full desktops over the Internet or private network connections.

Citrix snags these kinds of partners with the help of the Citrix Service Provider (CSP) channel, which now has over 2,600 members. Besides its core tools, Citrix also offers a service provider reference architecture.

Citrix and its partners believe cloud VDI is an answer to the complexities presented by an increasingly mobile workforce.

Gartner likes the term HDV, and the concept behind it. “HVD (Hosted Virtual Desktops) suit many SMBs as it requires fewer IT staff, servers, software administrators and dedicated network connections. The elimination of these factors significantly reduces business overhead and delivers dramatic elimination of many IT costs. As an additional bonus, new users can be enabled quickly — often within minutes,” a Gartner report said. The same report shows that over 40 percent of SMBs are already using HVDs in some fashion.

Telco Digicel launched its desktop as a service (DaaS) in September, an offering that includes Microsoft Office.

“Digicel’s new Desktop as a Service offering enables businesses to go mobile and develop “bring your own device” programs without the need for large capital investments. We are the first regional telecommunications company outside of the U.S. to offer these services as part of the Citrix Service Provider program. This levels the playing field for small and medium-sized businesses across the Caribbean by providing them market-leading technology on an affordable and scalable basis,” said Tom Carson, CEO of Digicel Business.

OneNeck (as in one neck to wring) is a managed hosting company. One customer is already up and running with the new service.

“OneNeck has been our technology provider for several years and we rely on their expertise to guide us through the right technology decisions. We chose a hosted desktop service from OneNeck in order to ease administration and deployment of desktops,” said Jesus V. Arriaga, vice president of IT, Regency Lighting.

Hot Market

The 451 Research Group sees a bright DaaS future, saying that interest is “at a fever pitch.”

Gartner, meanwhile, sees a nearly $3 billion market emerging as the chart below indicates.

Market Size Estimates of $2.9B for Providers

The VDI portion of the DaaS market is clearly on the move. TechNavio believes the worldwide market for cloud-based VDI will grow at a 30.6 % CAGR over the next three years, in large part because IT wants to lower the costs of desktop infrastructure, as well and the growth of handheld devices.