Citrix Systems
Encyclopedia
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...
founded in 1989, that provides server and desktop virtualization
Desktop virtualization
Desktop virtualization , as a concept, separates a personal computer desktop environment from a physical machine using the client–server model of computing....
, networking, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and cloud computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
technologies, including Xen
Xen
Xen is a virtual-machine monitor providing services that allow multiple computer operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently....
open source products.
Citrix currently services around 230,000 organizations worldwide and is based in Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, in the South Florida metropolitan area
South Florida metropolitan area
The South Florida metropolitan area, also known as the Miami metropolitan area, and designated the Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area by the U.S...
, with subsidiary
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
operations in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, and additional development centers in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Following the acquisition of XenSource, Inc. in October 2007, Citrix spearheads the Xen open source hypervisor
Hypervisor
In computing, a hypervisor, also called virtual machine manager , is one of many hardware virtualization techniques that allow multiple operating systems, termed guests, to run concurrently on a host computer. It is so named because it is conceptually one level higher than a supervisory program...
project.
History
Citrix was founded in Richardson, TexasRichardson, Texas
Richardson is a city in Dallas and Collin Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 99,223. In 2011 the population was estimated to be 107,684. Richardson is an affluent inner suburb of Dallas and home of the Telecom Corridor with a high...
in 1989 by former IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
developer Ed Iacobucci
Ed Iacobucci
Edward E. Iacobucci was the leader of the IBM OS/2 Design Team. In 1989, he founded the US software company Citrix Systems. He was also the former president and CEO of DayJet, an on-demand regional jet travel service, and was a member of the SCO Group's Board of Directors from 2000.Ed Iacobucci...
, with $3 million in funding. Iacobucci quickly moved the company to Coral Springs, Florida
Coral Springs, Florida
Coral Springs, officially chartered July 10, 1963, is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, approximately northwest of Fort Lauderdale. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 121,096...
since he lived there when he had worked at IBM.
Citrix was originally named Citrus but changed its name after an existing company claimed trademark rights. The Citrix name is a portmanteau of Citrus
Citrus Project
The CITRUS project aims to implement a complete multilingual programming environment for BSD-based operating systems...
and UNIX
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
.
Many of the original founding members had participated in the IBM OS/2
OS/2
OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
project. Iacobucci's vision was to build OS/2 with multi-user support. IBM was not interested in this idea, so Iacobucci left. Iacobucci was offered a job at Microsoft as chief technical officer of its networking group but turned it down to start his own company.
The company's first product was Citrix MULTIUSER, which was based on OS/2. Citrix licensed the OS/2 source code from Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, bypassing IBM. Citrix hoped to capture part of the UNIX market by making it easy to deploy text-based OS/2 applications. The product failed to find a market. This was due in part to Microsoft declaring in 1991 that it was no longer going to support OS/2.
Roger Roberts was appointed the CEO of Citrix in 1990. Roberts, a Texan, came from Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
.
From 1989 to 1995, the company did not turn a profit. In 1989 and 1990 there was no income at all. Between 1991 and 1993, Citrix received funding from both Intel and Microsoft as well as venture capitalists. Without the help of this funding, Citrix would not have survived.
In 1993, Citrix purchased the product "Netware Access Server" from Novell. It was a remote access application built on DOS and Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager
QEMM
Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager , was a memory manager produced by Quarterdeck Office Systems in the late 1980s through late 1990s. It was the most popular memory manager for the MS-DOS and other DOS operating systems.-QEMM product ranges:QRAM: A memory manager for 286 or higher CPU. It...
. It provided desktop and applications from the server to multiple users in a similar way Terminal Servers still do. Citrix developed the product further and released it as WinView. It became Citrix's first successful product.
The company went public in December 1995.
Technology
Citrix' key product families are Citrix Delivery Center, Citrix Cloud Center (C3) and Citrix Online Services product families.Citrix Delivery Center
Citrix Delivery Center, composed of XenDesktop, XenApp, XenServer and NetScaler, virtualizesHardware virtualization
Computer hardware virtualization is the virtualization of computers or operating systems. It hides the physical characteristics of a computing platform from users, instead showing another abstract computing platform...
servers, desktops and applications, centralizes them in the datacenter and delivers them as an on-demand service.
XenDesktop is a lightweight universal virtual desktop
Virtual desktop
In computing, a virtual desktop is a term used with respect to user interfaces, usually within the WIMP paradigm, to describe ways in which the size of a computer's desktop environment is expanded beyond the physical limits of the screen's real estate through the use of software, This saves space...
client that enables any PC, Mac, smartphone, tablet or thin client to access corporate applications and desktops remotely.
Citrix XenApp is an on-demand application delivery solution that enables any Windows® application to be virtualized, centralized, and managed in the datacenter and instantly delivered as a service to users anywhere on any device.
XenServer is a virtual-machine monitor for x86, x86-64, Itanium and PowerPC 970 architectures. It allows several guest operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware at once, meaning a single computer can run several virtual desktops concurrently. From April 2009, Citrix has been offering its XenServer virtualization platform for free to any user for unlimited production deployment.
Netscaler optimizes application availability through advanced L4-7 load balancing and traffic management in order to accelerate performance.
In January 2010 Citrix introduced Citrix Receiver, the first universal client for virtual IT service delivery [REF]. The receiver allows tablet and smartphone users to access their virtual desktop and applications from tablet and smartphone devices. Citrix Receiver is built upon the Independent Computing Architecture
Independent Computing Architecture
Independent Computing Architecture is a proprietary protocol for an application server system, designed by Citrix Systems. The protocol lays down a specification for passing data between server and clients, but is not bound to any one platform....
(ICA), a Citrix-designed proprietary protocol for an application server system. The protocol lays down a specification for passing data between server and clients, but is not bound to any one platform.
Citrix Cloud Centre
Citrix OpenCloud enables enterprises to build hybrid clouds and service providers to deliver cloud solutions for running enterprise workloads. A rich, open technology platform including virtualization, networking and application delivery capabilities, coupled with innovations in federating enterprise and provider networks and identity domains, make it possible for IT organizations and service providers to create and manage secure, multi-tenant cloud environments that are built to host enterprise workloads.Citrix Online Services
GoToMeetingGoToMeeting
GoToMeeting is a Web-hosted service created and marketed by Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems. It is a remote meeting and desktop sharing software that enables the user to meet with other computer users, customers, clients or colleagues via the Internet in real-time.- Technology...
is a web conferencing tool allowing up to 25 people to participate in web meetings and conferences.
GoToWebinar is a web conferencing tool allowing up to 1,000 people to participate in web meetings and conferences
GoToAssist allows users to view and control a computer remotely for technical support
GoView allows users to record and share their desktop online.
Microsoft relationship
The Citrix and Microsoft relationship is based upon a 20-year alliance, which began in 1989 when Citrix licensed the OS/2 source code.Citrix obtained a source code license to Microsoft's Windows NT
Windows NT
Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement...
3.51. In 1995, Citrix shipped a multiuser version of Windows NT with remote access, known as WinFrame
Citrix WinFrame
WinFrame was a multi-user version of Windows NT 3.51 which was fully repackaged by Citrix Systems. At this stage of the product development Citrix Systems licensed the Windows NT 3.51 base operating system from Microsoft. The core development that Citrix delivered was the MultiWin engine. This...
. This product was a unique offering, targeting the needs of large enterprises.
During the development of WinFrame for Windows NT 4, Microsoft decided that it did not want to license Windows NT 4 source code to Citrix. Not only that, Microsoft threatened to build its own version of WinFrame. Citrix and Microsoft entered negotiations about how best to resolve this dilemma. After negotiations, Microsoft agreed to license Citrix technology for Windows NT Server 4.0, resulting in Windows Terminal Server Edition
Terminal Services
Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2, formerly known as Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 and previous versions, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows that allows a user to access applications and data on a remote computer over a network, using the Remote Desktop...
. Citrix agreed not to ship a competing product but retained the right to sell an extension to Microsoft's products, initially under the name MetaFrame. This relationship continued into the Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 is a server operating system produced by Microsoft, introduced on 24 April 2003. An updated version, Windows Server 2003 R2, was released to manufacturing on 6 December 2005...
eras, with Citrix offering Metaframe XP and Presentation Server. On February 11, 2008, Citrix changed the name of its Presentation Server product line to XenApp.
The core technology that Microsoft did not buy was the ICA
Independent Computing Architecture
Independent Computing Architecture is a proprietary protocol for an application server system, designed by Citrix Systems. The protocol lays down a specification for passing data between server and clients, but is not bound to any one platform....
protocol. Microsoft derived the work for RDP
Remote Desktop Protocol
Remote Desktop Protocol is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft, which provides a user with a graphical interface to another computer. The protocol is an extension of the ITU-T T.128 application sharing protocol. Clients exist for most versions of Microsoft Windows , Linux, Unix, Mac OS...
(T.share) protocol from NetMeeting
Microsoft NetMeeting
Microsoft NetMeeting was a VoIP and multi-point videoconferencing client included in many versions of Microsoft Windows . It used the H.323 protocol for video and audio conferencing, and was interoperable with OpenH323-based clients such as Ekiga, and Internet Locator Service as reflector...
, which originally derived from a deal with PictureTel (now known as Polycom
Polycom
Polycom is a multinational corporation with approximately 3,200 employees worldwide and an annual revenue of approximately $1.2 billion in 2010. The company manufactures and sells telepresence and voice communications solutions.-Company History 1990:...
).
In January 2008, Citrix announced an expanded alliance with Microsoft to deliver a set of virtualization solutions to address the desktop and server virtualization markets to ensure broad interoperability between their technologies.
In February 2009, Citrix extended its collaboration with Microsoft in the server virtualization market with “Project Encore”. This was heralded by a new product, Citrix Essentials, that offers advanced management for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V
Hyper-V
Microsoft Hyper-V, codenamed Viridian and formerly known as Windows Server Virtualization, is a hypervisor-based virtualization system for x86-64 systems. A beta version of Hyper-V was shipped with certain x86-64 editions of Windows Server 2008, and the finalized version was released on June 26,...
. Joint marketing, training and channel activities were conducted with Microsoft.
In July 2009, Citrix and Microsoft announced joint plans to simplify desktop computing by extending their desktop virtualization partnership.
These plans included:
- Technology integration so enterprise IT organisations can manage both distributed and centrally hosted applications using Citrix XenApp and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager
- Extension of XenApp support for Microsoft Application VirtualizationMicrosoft Application VirtualizationMicrosoft Application Virtualization is an application virtualization and application streaming solution from Microsoft. It was acquired by Microsoft during the acquisition of Boston, Massachusetts-based Softricity on July 17, 2006...
(App-V) to enable self-service delivery of applications on any device using Citrix Receiver and Citrix Dazzle
Corporate philanthropy
Citrix invests in an ongoing Corporate Giving Program focusing on education, economic development and technology advancement.In association with US city Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
, Florida and Sister Cities International
Sister Cities International
Sister Cities International is a nonprofit citizen diplomacy network that creates and strengthens partnerships between United States and international communities. More than 2,000 cities, states and counties are partnered in 136 countries around the world...
, Citrix launched the prototype Cyber Sister Cities (CSC) program, with Agogo
Agogo, Ghana
Agogo is a city in Asante Akim North District of Ashanti Region of Ghana. Agogo is approximately 80 kilometers east of Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital.The 2000 Ghana census recorded a population of 28,271 in Agogo...
in Ghana.
Acquisitions
- In September 1997, Citrix acquired DataPac for $5 million
- In January 1998, Citrix purchased the NTrigue product from Insignia
- In June 1998, Citrix acquired APM
- In July 1998, Citrix acquired VDOnet for $8 million
- In July 1999, Citrix acquired ViewSoft for $32 million
- In February 2000, Citrix acquired Innovex Group for $48.7 million
- In March 2001, Citrix acquired Sequoia Software Corporation, a ColumbiaColumbia, MarylandColumbia is a planned community that consists of ten self-contained villages, located in Howard County, Maryland, United States. It began with the idea that a city could enhance its residents' quality of life. Creator and developer James W. Rouse saw the new community in terms of human values, not...
, MD, maker of XML-based portal software. - In December 2003, Citrix bought Expertcity of Santa Barbara, CASanta Barbara, CaliforniaSanta Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
, developer of the Web-hosted portable desktop product GoToMyPCGoToMyPCGoToMyPC is a remote control software service that enables the user to operate their computer from another computer, over the Internet. Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems, produces GoToMyPC.-Technology and business development:...
and online meeting platform GoToMeetingGoToMeetingGoToMeeting is a Web-hosted service created and marketed by Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems. It is a remote meeting and desktop sharing software that enables the user to meet with other computer users, customers, clients or colleagues via the Internet in real-time.- Technology...
. Expertcity became Citrix's Citrix OnlineCitrix OnlineCitrix Online is a division of Citrix Systems, Inc. that sells web-based remote access, support, and collaboration software and services. Its products are GoToAssist, GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, GoToManage, GoToTraining, GoToWebinar, and HiDef Corporate....
division. - In November 2004, Citrix bought a San JoseSan Jose, CaliforniaSan Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, CA, company, Net6Net6Net6 was a startup founded in 2000 that created products in Security, Voice over IP VoIP protocols and SSL VPN.- History :Net6 was originally called WebUnwired and was founded in the year 2000 by Murli Thirumale , Goutham Rao , Jon Thies and Russel Lentini...
. - In June 2005, Citrix acquired Netscaler, a Santa Clara, CA, manufacturer of network appliances, for about $300 million in cash and stock.
- In November 2005 Citrix bought Teros, a Sunnyvale, CA, producer of web application firewalls.
- In May 2006, Citrix acquired Reflectent,the product Spectacle was then relabeled as Citrix EdgeSight.
- On August 7, 2006 Citrix bought San MateoSan Mateo, CaliforniaSan Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of approximately 100,000 , it is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the east, Belmont to the south,...
, CA, based Orbital Data. - In December 2006, Citrix announced an agreement to buy ArdenceArdenceArdence, a Citrix Company, is a technology company headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts with representatives in Washington, D.C.; Virginia Beach, VA; Chicago, IL; Denton, TX; and Europe, Middle East, Africa and India....
Inc., resulting in the product Citrix Provisioning Services. - In February 2007, Citrix acquired Aurema, developer of a CPU and memory management product , resulting in the addition of a CPU management feature to Citrix's main product XenApp.
- In September, 2007, Citrix acquired QuickTree, a privately-held XML and Web Services Firewall company.
- In October 2007, Citrix acquired XenSource, developer of the virtualization product XenServer that is based on the open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
XenXenXen is a virtual-machine monitor providing services that allow multiple computer operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently....
HypervisorHypervisorIn computing, a hypervisor, also called virtual machine manager , is one of many hardware virtualization techniques that allow multiple operating systems, termed guests, to run concurrently on a host computer. It is so named because it is conceptually one level higher than a supervisory program...
. - In May 2008, Citrix acquired the sepagoProfile product from sepago.
- In November 2008, Citrix acquired Vapps.
- In August 2010, Citrix acquired VMLogix Inc., a virtualization automation and management company.
- In February 2011, Citrix closes acquisition of Netviewer
- In 2011, Citrix acquired Ems-Cortex
- In June 2011, Citrix acquired Kaviza, now resulting in a product called VDI-in-a-box
- In July 2011, Citrix acquired Cloud.com
- In August 2011, Citrix acquired RingCube
- In October 2011, Citrix acquired ShareFile
- In October 2011, Citrix acquired App-DNA
Current products
- Citrix XenApp (formerly Citrix Presentation Server) provides application virtualizationApplication VirtualizationApplication virtualization is an umbrella term that describes software technologies that improve portability, manageability and compatibility of applications by encapsulating them from the underlying operating system on which they are executed. A fully virtualized application is not installed in...
and application delivery. - Citrix XenDesktop (Desktop VirtualizationDesktop virtualizationDesktop virtualization , as a concept, separates a personal computer desktop environment from a physical machine using the client–server model of computing....
, VDI) - Citrix XenServerXenXen is a virtual-machine monitor providing services that allow multiple computer operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently....
provides server platform virtualization. - XenApp Fundamentals
- NetScaler (Application Optimization, Application Delivery Networking, Load Balancing, Web Application Acceleration, Application Firewall)
- Workflow Studio (Orchestrates communications between products, IT process automation)
- Citrix Access Gateway provides secure remote accessRemote accessIn telecommunication, the term remote access has the following meanings:#Pertaining to communication with a data processing facility from a remote location or facility through a data link...
to virtual desktopVirtual desktopIn computing, a virtual desktop is a term used with respect to user interfaces, usually within the WIMP paradigm, to describe ways in which the size of a computer's desktop environment is expanded beyond the physical limits of the screen's real estate through the use of software, This saves space...
s and applications. - Advanced Access Control is an add-on for Citrix Access Gateway that provides additional control of permissions for users.
- Password Manager (Application Security, Single Sign-on)
- EdgeSight (End User Experience Monitoring)
- Branch Repeater (formerly WANScaler) optimizes application delivery to branch office users (see WAN optimizationWAN OptimizationWAN optimization is a collection of techniques for increasing data-transfer efficiencies across wide-area networks. In 2008, the WAN optimization market was estimated to be $1 billion , and it will grow to $4.4 billion according to Gartner, a technology research firm.The most common measures of...
). - Provisioning Server delivers Desktop workloads to physical and virtual computers.
- EasyCall integrates voice and click-to-call into any application.
- GoToMeetingGoToMeetingGoToMeeting is a Web-hosted service created and marketed by Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems. It is a remote meeting and desktop sharing software that enables the user to meet with other computer users, customers, clients or colleagues via the Internet in real-time.- Technology...
- 'GoToWebinar'
- GoToAssist
- GoToMyPCGoToMyPCGoToMyPC is a remote control software service that enables the user to operate their computer from another computer, over the Internet. Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems, produces GoToMyPC.-Technology and business development:...
Discontinued products
- WinFrameCitrix WinFrameWinFrame was a multi-user version of Windows NT 3.51 which was fully repackaged by Citrix Systems. At this stage of the product development Citrix Systems licensed the Windows NT 3.51 base operating system from Microsoft. The core development that Citrix delivered was the MultiWin engine. This...
- MultiWin
- Citrix MULTIUSER (Based on OS/2 1.x)
- Citrix WinView (Based on OS/2 2.x)
- Citrix VideoFrame
- Citrix NFuse Elite 1.0
- Citrix Extranet
- Citrix XPS Portal 3.5.1
- Citrix MetaFrame Secure Access Manager
- Citrix MetaFrame XP
- Application Firewall (Web Application Security, merged into NetScaler)