How many of you know that Sprint was the first mobile device partner to join the Citrix Ready Program? Sprint is leveraging the mobility strategy to extend traditional desktops to a whole new universe of road warriors that need access to their Citrix applications anytime, anywhere.  Together, Sprint and Citrix extend the reach of Citrix applications using the Citrix Receiver application on many of Sprint's latest mobile devices.  With the Citrix Ready program, Sprint has done a great job in taking their message out to the marketplace and showcasing their Citrix compatibility. 

"We are ready to turn the corner after coming back from Synergy in Las Vegas energized with our nomination as a Citrix Ready Solution of the Year Finalist where we were able to demonstrate our commitment to extending desktop applications with mobility using Citrix Receiver on Sprint devices. The growth of Sprint's 3G and now 4G networks combined with Citrix stepping up and announcing their support for the BlackBerry and Android mobile operating systems along with the current Windows Mobile platform will help ensure that Citrix Partners and customers will have access to the tools that they need to conduct business 'anytime' or 'anywhere' with Sprint-approved mobile devices. The mobile worker now has a strategic role in most organizations and by combining the strengths of Citrix and Sprint we can help make that a seamless and productive experience for those critical users."  Glen Benjamin, Sprint National Account Manager

To find out more, visit Sprint in the Citrix Ready Catalog. 
 

Have you heard... The Citrix Ready team recently announced a new Open Storage Category in the Citrix Ready Program.  This new category makes it easy for third-party storage vendors to certify interoperability of their products with Citrix XenServer. 

Click here to find out more.  What do you think about this new category?

Please join me in congratulating HP as the 2009 Citrix Ready Solution of the Year Winner. The annual Citrix Ready Solution of the Year Award recognizes the Citrix Ready member that best excels in delivering solutions complementary to Citrix and in driving adoption of Citrix access infrastructure solutions. I had the pleasure of delivering HP their Solution of the Year trophy and I can definitely say that I felt their excitement on winning this award.  CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Over the past couple of weeks, you may have seen my blogs on our six finalists and I want to take this opportunity to recognize and congratulate the other finalists IGEL, Marathon Technologies, Sprint, visionapp, and XTS for all of your hard work.  Thank you to all who submitted your nominations forms.

With only a few more days until we announce the winner, the tension is building! Today I want to highlight our final Citrix Ready Solution of the Year Finalist - HP.  HP and Citrix provide the ultimate solutions for virtualizing and optimizing the delivery of applications, streamlining IT, and enabling businesses to grow and prosper.  HP has been a strategic partner of ours for more than 13 years - that is news to me!  Here is what Robin Hensley, Director, Infrastructure Solutions Segment, Solution Alliances, HP had to say about their nomination:

"HP is honored to have been selected as a finalist for the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year Award. We value this recognition as a clear indication of the strength of our more than 13 year partnership with Citrix. The HP and Citrix alliance has evolved and expanded over the years to best serve the changing needs of our customers worldwide. HP's strategy enables our customers to create an Adaptive Infrastructure that is an ideal complement to  the Citrix Delivery Center." 

The HP and Citrix strategic alliance spans an incredibly broad range of solutions, technologies, and HP products including industry leading HP ProLiant servers, StorageWorks, PC and Thin Clients, HP Software, HP Printing and Imaging, HP Solutions Infrastructure Services, and EDS - an HP company.  

 The winner of the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year will be announced on Sunday May 3rd.  Stay tuned...

As you know, I have been highlighting the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year Finalists all week.  Today, I want to introduce Marathon Technologies as one of six finalists for the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year award. Here is what they had to say about their nomination:

"We are honored to be named a finalist for the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year and to be showcased within the Citrix alliance and channel ecosystem." said Gary Phillips, president and CEO of Marathon Technologies.

Marathon Technologies has worked closely with Citrix to help remove complexity for today's IT professionals by offering automated availability software that seamlessly scales from advanced HA to full system fault tolerance, reduces application availability management and delivers the best value. 

Tell us, how do you integrate Marathon Technologies with Citrix?

Only a few more days before the winner is announced at Citrix Summt and Synergy May 3-7.  

When I told Sprint they were a Citrix Ready Solution of the Year finalist, I immediately received a call from Glen Benjamin, National Account Manager for Sprint.  He was thrilled with excitement and here is what he had to say about their nomination: 

"The Citrix and Sprint teams have been working diligently for well over a year to jointly develop solutions  to extend the reach of traditional desktop applications to the new mobile workforce with the security and data compliancy of XenApp today along with Sprint compatible mobile devices. We are very proud and excited to be at the forefront of this new chapter in the evolution of mobile applications and how that will impact the next generation of road warriors no matter where they need to conduct their business."

Sprint Nextel has a long history of utilizing Citrix for application delivery using a combination of Citrix technologies including Citrix XenApp Platinum to optimize application delivery to the end user while reducing data center and Helpdesk costs. If you want to learn more click here.

Only a few more days left before the winner is announced.....

Here is part three of the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year Finalists.

Congratulations IGEL on being named one of six Citrix Ready Solution of the Year finalist.  Here is what they had to say when they were told they were a finalist:

"We're extremely honored to be named a finalist for this year's Citrix Ready Solution of the Year Award. With our unique Universal Desktop thin client design, we aim to provide Citrix users with a fantastic user experience, including fast roll outs, easy remote management, bullet proof security and the ability to deliver applications to any location." -- Florian Spatz, Product Marketing Manager, IGEL Technology

IGEL has a number of innovative solutions ranging from the Citrix Password Manager(tm) Hot Desktop feature to our new XenDesktop Appliance Mode, which transforms an IGEL Universal Desktop into a Citrix XenDesktop appliance with the simple click of a mouse. Click here to learn more.

Do you use IGEL with Citrix?  Let us know...

The winner will be announced at our Citrix Summit and Synergy event May 3-7 at the MGM Grand. 

This is the second of my six part series on the Solution of the Year finalists. 

Congratulations to visionapp for being named one of six Citrix Ready Solution of the Year finalists. Here is what Chuck Fritz and Paul Ardoin had to say about their nomination:

"The entire visionapp team is proud of their accomplishments working with Citrix, Citrix partners, and Citrix customers -- and we're glad that our hard work has paid off with the recognition as a Citrix Ready Solution of the Year finalist."  --Chuck Fritz, President and CEO, visionapp North America

"I was thrilled to hear that we were a Citrix Ready Solution of the Year finalist. I'm excited about the work our engineers have done with compatibility with the new Citrix XenApp 5.0 and Provisioning Server, and I'm really happy with some of our customer wins where we've been able to keep Citrix customers happy with their entire infrastructure. I'm excited to come to Synergy and continue the success our products have had together!"  --Paul Ardoin, Director of Marketing, visionapp North America 

visionapp specializes in the design, implementation and operation of application delivery infrastructure and portal solutions based on virtualization and streaming technologies from Microsoft and Citrix.  Click here to learn more. 

How do you use visionapp with Citrix?  Send us your comments...

p.s. Don't forget, the winner will be announced at our Citrix Summit and Synergy event May 3-7 at the MGM Grand. 

This is the first of my 6 part blog series highlighting the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year finalists. The winner will be announced at our Citrix Summt and Synergy event May 3-7 at the MGM Grand.

Please join me in congratulating XTS for being named one of six finalists for the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year Award. When we told Eric Speigel, CEO of XTS they were a finalist he was thrilled.  Here is what he had to say about their nomination:

"We are more than excited to be selected as a finalist for the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year Award. This selection highlights the value of our Citrix Ready partnership and demonstrates the value we bring to our shared customers."   

XTS is the leading provider of enterprise-class analytics software for advanced planning and management of Citrix and other virtualization environments. They have a unique, non-intrusive data warehouse architecture provides visibility into usage history, configuration properties and Citrix policies for Citrix XenApp farms. Click here to learn more.

Do you use XTS with Citrix?  Let us know....

Congratulations to the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year finalists!  The Citrix Ready team is pleased to announce this year finalists:

The finalists were chosen based on the following criteria:

• Impact on Citrix's Business 
• Commitment to the Citrix Relationship
• Customer Satisfaction
• Channel and Field Commitment
• Marketing Commitment

The winner will be announced at:

Citrix Synergy

May 4-7, 2009

MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada

Over the next few days we will blog about each of the Citrix Ready Solution of the Year finalists.  Make sure you come back to learn more on why these partners were chosen as the finalists.