Networking firm Cisco and Citrix have expanded their desktop virtualisation partnership into cloud networking, cloud orchestration and mobile workstyles.
The two companies will collaborate to help enterprise and service provider customers capture the market transition as it is tranforming into mobile-cloud era
The expanded partnership will include a investment in people and resources to drive new technology innovation, application integration and validation, customer support and joint go-to-market investment on a global basis.
The companies also intend to integrate Cisco Nexus 1000V with Citrix XenServer to enable enterprise and service provider customers to build clouds based in part on key open source technology.
Cisco will continue to support existing customers of its Application Control Engine (ACE) product line and will recommend Citrix NetScaler as an alternative to customers who want to deploy a next-generation ADC.
As part of the strategy, Cisco and Citrix intend to jointly integrate the Citrix NetScaler application delivery controller (ADC) to coexist with other Cisco network and security services, such as Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) and Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA).
In addition, the companies will also develop an integrated cloud application for enterprise and service provider deployments that will include the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS), Cisco Nexus Series switching and Cisco Open Network Environment (ONE) components.
It will also include Citrix’s cloud orchestration application, Citrix CloudPlatform, which is powered by Apache CloudStack.
The integrated application will help enterprise and service provider customers to deliver efficient public, private and hybrid clouds.
On the mobile front, the companies intend to develop new joint mobile workstyle and BYOD applications that will give mobile users a unified way to securely access business apps, data, voice and collaboration services from any device, anywhere.
The joint application will link Cisco collaboration technology, including tighter integration of the Cisco Jabber client, with the Citrix Receiver self-service mobile access client and Citrix CloudGateway for enterprise mobility management.
It will also include Citrix ShareFile for secure, cloud-based ‘follow-me data’ services across any mix of user devices.
Citrix will incorporate Cisco MediaNet into Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp to enable an optimised, monitored and managed rich-media experience for accessing virtual Windows apps and desktops from mobile devices.
To secure mobile workers, Cisco and Citrix will link Citrix Receiver, Citrix Access Gateway, and CloudGateway with the Cisco secure access portfolio including Cisco AnyConnect, Cisco ASA, and the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE).