New XenDesktop Feature Pack Sets New Scalability Records, Simplifies Management and Lets Users Access Virtual Desktops up to 5x Faster

SANTA CLARA, CA » 3/18/2010 » Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS) today announced a new release of Citrix XenDesktop™ 4 that enhances end user experience, improves scalability, simplifies management. With the new Feature Pack 1 release, XenDesktop 4 offers significant new improvements in user experience, enhancing the company’s high-definition HDX technology and allowing users to access their virtual desktops up to 5x faster. The new release also builds on recently announced XenDesktop scalability enhancements, enabling customers to host an unprecedented 100,000(1) shared virtual desktops concurrently from a single location, dramatically improving the ROI of desktop virtualization in large scale enterprise deployments. Finally, the new release simplifies application management by incorporating all the capabilities of the recently announced XenApp 6 as an integrated feature, including seamless new integration with Microsoft App-V and support for Windows Server 2008 R2.

Today’s XenDesktop news is part of a broad set of announcements from Citrix that expand the company’s longtime partnership with Microsoft in desktop virtualization (see related news blog: Desktop Virtualization in 2010 Update – Citrix and Microsoft Join Forces To Simplify Virtual Desktops). By joining forces in desktop virtualization, Citrix and Microsoft can offer customers integrated virtual desktop solutions that deliver far better flexibility, ROI and user experience than any other solution on the market today.

Key Facts and Highlights:

Access Virtual Desktops up to 5x Faster – New streamed user profiles in XenDesktop can shorten virtual desktop and application log-on times up to 5x, dramatically enhancing user experience. The new release also includes a variety of enhancements to the company’s HDX technology, designed to ensure a high definition experience for all users, regardless of where they are or what type of device they are using.

Unparalleled Scalability – XenDesktop 4, Feature Pack 1 has been verified deliver an unprecedented 100,000 shared virtual desktop sessions concurrently from a single location. The shared hosted model is one of several virtual desktop options included in XenDesktop’s groundbreaking FlexCast™ delivery technology that supports every major desktop virtualization model in a single, integrated solution – a breakthrough that improves ROI, simplifies management and extends the benefits of virtualization to every employee in the enterprise.

Simplified App Management – The new XenDesktop version incorporates all the capabilities of the company’s recent XenApp 6 release, including tight integration with Microsoft App-V. With more than half the ROI of desktop virtualization coming from centralized app management, these improvements offer significant new simplification and cost savings for IT.
WAN Optimization and Secure Remote Access – As part of XenDesktop, HDX WAN Optimization optimizes performance and network utilization across a WAN by compressing, accelerating and prioritizing traffic, and HDX SmartAccess delivers simple and seamless secure access to users anywhere based on their identity, location and device. Software-based virtual appliances are now available for both Citrix Branch Repeater™ and Citrix Access Gateway™.

Availability: XenDesktop 4 Feature Pack 1 will be available for download on March 24, 2010 and will be offered as a free upgrade to all XenDesktop customers with current Subscription Advantage agreements. More information on the new capabilities in XenDesktop 4 Feature Pack 1 can be found at www.citrix.com/xendesktop4.

About Citrix
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is a leading provider of virtual computing solutions that help companies deliver IT as an on-demand service. Founded in 1989, Citrix combines virtualization, networking, and cloud computing technologies into a full portfolio of products that enable virtual workstyles for users and virtual datacenters for IT.  More than 230,000 organizations worldwide rely on Citrix to help them build simpler and more cost-effective IT environments. Citrix partners with over 10,000 companies in more than 100 countries. Annual revenue in 2009 was $1.61 billion.