Citrix CEO: Unidesk Acquisition Closes 'Gaping Hole' In Tech Portfolio

Citrix CEO Kirill Tatarinov told CRN the acquisition of Unidesk, which the virtualization vendor revealed at the start of its Summit partner conference on Monday, closed "a gaping hole" in the company's technology portfolio.

Marlborough, Mass.-based Unidesk's application layering technology will empower Citrix partners to facilitate customers better as they transition their virtualized computing environments from on-premises infrastructure to the cloud, Tatarinov said.

And since Unidesk was a prominent Citrix partner before the acquisition, its technology is already well-integrated with XenApp and XenDesktop, speeding the time before enhanced versions of those Citrix virtualization products can be delivered to customers.

"They've been a partner already, so it's already integrated. We're going to make it available to all of our customers on software maintenance. This is kind of a gift to them and it's going to be tremendously well received," Tatarinov told CRN.

[Related: New Citrix Channel Chief On How Partners Will Finally Walk In The Cloud]

Unidesk's software will still be sold independently to work with other virtual desktop vendors like VMware and Microsoft, according to Citrix, headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Unidesk "closes the final remaining capability gap that we had in our portfolio," Tatarinov told CRN. "That's what we fixed today. They are the leader in layering. We're training our channel and our sellers on this technology."

Application layering enables partners to modularly deploy the components of a Windows Workspace-as-a-Service, including the operating system, apps, and user settings.

Partners can maintain a standard, base image of a virtual desktop environment, and then add different apps to the mix as independent layers, making it easier to enable the granular capabilities desired by individual users, said Calvin Hsu, Citrix vice president of product marketing.

For that reason, app layering is a powerful technology for partners looking to spruce up virtual desktop environments and service the precise needs of their customers, Hsu told CRN.

"This helps customers with their transition to the cloud," Hsu said.