This is an exciting time to be at Citrix, and at the intersection of the two hottest IT trends ? desktop virtualization and cloud computing. In fact, we've seen our Citrix Service Provider (CSP) Program grow exponentially over the last year, with more than 800 cloud providers certified to use Citrix technology to deliver apps and desktops from the cloud to tens of thousands of subscribers.

As a result of the great momentum we're seeing in the cloud apps and desktop space, Citrix created a new product team?the Cloud App Delivery Group?so we can put dedicated focus on developing products, programs and best practices for CSPs. This new group will be working closely with all the other product groups at Citrix to extend our range of solutions for hosted cloud services

As the first official act of this new group, I'm very pleased to announce the acquisition of an exciting New Zealand-based software company that specializes in cloud services provisioning and management - EMS-Cortex (www.ems-cortex.com).

While the company may have a complicated name, their flagship product is anything but. Since we first launched our CSP program about two years ago, our partners have been giving us rave reviews about how the Cortex Cloud Control Panel makes it easy for service providers and their customers to setup, provision and maintain a wide variety of hosted services from a single, easy-to-use, self-service interface.

When that many customers tell you a tool is a "must have" for running their cloud services, it's clearly something you have to check out for yourself. Once we started taking a closer look at the Cortex technology?and the amazing people behind it?we knew we wanted them to be a part of the Citrix family.

With its broad support for hosted app services, impressive extensibility and ability to integrate into existing systems, Cortex Cloud Control Panel truly enriches our Citrix OpenCloud vision. Welcoming the EMS-Cortex team to Citrix is a fantastic start to this year, and only the beginning of what we have planned. Stay tuned as there's plenty more to come from the new Cloud App Delivery Group!

Bill Burley
Vice President and General Manager, Citrix Cloud App Delivery Group

The ABC?s of Cortex Control Panel from Citrix

By now you?ve read about Citrix?s acquisition of EMS-Cortex and you might already have heard of a Cloud Control Panel. In fact, you might already be using one. With all the buzz around control panels, it?s a good idea to get everyone on the same page. In early April we?ll be diving deeper into this topic during the Controlling the Cloud?Introducing Cortex Cloud Control Panel from Citrix webinar on April 6^th. In the mean time, let?s get you up to speed. First off, what?s a control panel?

A Cloud Control Panel is software that allows hosting providers to easily provision and manage adds, moves and changes to applications and desktops to the endpoint device. User self-provisioning and delegated provisioning to business IT personnel is an important element of service providers hosting applications and desktops off-premise. Cloud Control Panel simplifies cloud service management by providing a single, all-in-one interface for delivering hosted apps, desktops and services. It enables service providers to set up new tenants in minutes, scale efficiently via automation and dramatically reduce provisioning times. It fills a fundamental need in the cloud hosting market for a simple, consolidated management view across all services.

Most any service provider out there will tell you a control panel is a ?must have? for their business and what they face is a ?build it? or ?buy it? decision. Citrix recognized that without a control panel, service providers will struggle to scale and will have difficulty seizing the market opportunity. Therefore, Cortex Cloud Control Panel enables our Citrix Service Providers to increase efficiencies and grow to meet their demand.

For those CSP partners who haven't yet had a chance to try Cortex, we think you'll like it as much as we did. Using the Cortex Cloud Control Panel, your customers can log in to a web site and with a few clicks, manage user accounts, assign desktops and add or change the applications or services they receive. Services are automatically provisioned and moments later the user can log in and begin working. They can even check usage reports to be sure they are on track. Every cloud service should be this easy.

On the service provider side, administrators can instantly create new tenant accounts and delegate management rights to specific users. It saves on help desk and operational costs, because tenants self-service their accounts. Leading app hosting providers around the world have already deployed Cortex Cloud Control Panel. These service providers experience increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, and an ability to scale the business while controlling operational costs.

In addition to providing integration with Citrix XenApp, the Cortex Cloud Control Panel is renowned for its extensive support of the full suite of Microsoft hosting solutions (Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, OCS, Web Hosting, SQL Server, DNS, RDS, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Virtual Server Hosting with Hyper-V). Combined with Citrix technology, now any subscriber can manage and use their applications from any device at any location. For the near term, the Cortex Cloud Control Panel will continue to be offered as a standalone product on a subscription basis, as it was prior to the acquisition.

Citrix Service Provider Newsletter

The March-April edition of the Citrix Service Provider Newsletter is available here.

The January-February edition of the Citrix Service Provider Newsletter is available here.

This September, Citrix published the first edition of the Citrix Service Provider Newsletter. You can read it online here.

Resources for Service Providers

Join the CSP LinkedIn group

Webinar ? Controlling the Cloud?Introducing the Cortex Cloud Control Panel from Citrix

In February, Citrix announced the acquisition of EMS-Cortex, a leader in cloud services management software used by over 120 Telcos and service providers around the world to deliver services to more than 140,000 subscribers. The Cortex team brings with them more than a decade of SaaS technology experience that enables service providers and their subscribers to set up, provision and maintain a wide variety of hosted services from a single, easy-to-use, automated interface called a ?control panel.?

In this month?s webinar, Citrix Service Provider partners will be introduced to the Cortex Cloud Control Panel from Citrix and learn its benefits and how it will fit into your hosting business.

?         Explore the business needs that control panels solve and the benefits it provides

?         Understand how Cortex Cloud Control Panel fits into the Citrix Service Provider Program

?         See a live demo of Cortex Cloud Control Panel from Citrix

?         Learn how it is sold, supported and how usage is reported

Mark your calendars for April 6^th and get in the know on cloud control! Mike McFarland, Director of Product Marketing and Daniel Thurston, Sales Manager, both from the Cloud App Delivery Group will be leading what is sure to be a lively business and technical webinar!

Register: Wednesday, April 6, 2011, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST

Webinar ? Branch Office and End-point Acceleration for Citrix Service Providers New HTML Portlet

Citrix Branch Repeater is a branch optimization solution that provides a high-definition desktop and application experience to branch and mobile users while dramatically reducing bandwidth costs and simplifying branch infrastructure. Branch Repeater accelerates desktop and application delivery, decreases bandwidth consumption and enables server consolidation.

As a Citrix Service Provider, all of your subscribers are by default in a branch or remote location, so delivering the best hosted app and desktop experience is paramount for success. Now that Citrix has made it easier than ever (free!) for Citrix Services Providers to deliver faster desktop and app performance, you won?t want to miss out on how to do it. As part of the ongoing CSP Reference Architecture series, this webinar will explain how to service providers can enable secure branch office and end-point acceleration over public network connections. 

?         Why do we need WAN optimization?

?         Where and how Repeater fits into the service provider architecture

?         Learn how it is sold, supported and reported

Join Steve Schall, Sr. Product Manager for Citrix Repeater and Kurt Moody, Solutions Architect for the Citrix Cloud App Delivery Group to learn how Citrix Repeater can be used in a multi-tenant solution for thousands of users across multiple subscribers.

Register: Wednesday, May 4, 2011, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST

Citrix Summit and Synergy San Francisco?Packed Full of Citrix Service Provider Content for You!

Citrix Summit and Synergy 2011 bring together companies from the global Citrix ecosystem for intensive education and networking that can make a real difference for your business. This year we have more than doubled the number of breakout sessions and exhibit hall booths dedicated to the Citrix Service Provider Program. At Summit, there are four must attend sessions for service providers and hosters:

?         Build a successful, profitable business as a Citrix Service Provider (SUM106)

?         Reference architecture and design principles for large-scale hosting and cloud infrastructures plus a peek at the future (SUM205)

?         Deliver managed hosted desktops as a service (SUM114)

?         Desktop virtualization in the cloud ? new opportunities and solutions for partners (SUM132)

Held May 23?24, 2011, this year?s Summit agenda includes in-depth technical sessions, hands-on training and market strategies on how to succeed in a competitive landscape. You?ll examine the most effective sales messages, hear about real-life customer success stories, get the tools you need to grow your business and learn practical tips and techniques for getting the most out of your Citrix partnership.

 Your Summit registration includes admittance to Citrix Synergy, where you can join your customers for an extended three-day conference on May 25-27, 2011. At Synergy, be sure to mark your agenda to attend two more key sessions:

?         Host apps and desktops in the cloud: considerations for enterprise IT leveraging service providers (SYN316)

?         Get your head in the cloud?How to manage the enterprise like a cloud service provider (SYN347)

 Learn more about Summit and Synergy 2011.

Helping You Succeed

Have technical question? Looking for best practice or troubleshoot guides? Check out the Citrix Knowledge Center.
This site is the official resource for technical information on Citrix products, hotfixes, security bulletins, and troubleshooting guides. Use our Google search engine to quickly locate the information you are looking for, or navigate to the version of the product you are interested in.

Product documentation are available on Citrix eDocs. This documentation library is where you can find frequently updated technical information about Citrix products, solutions, and technologies.

Videos on-demand: Watch and learn about Citrix products and features from the product experts on CitrixTV!

Read or subscribe to Citrix blogs and learn about the latest products, features from Citrix and industry trends!

Looking for partner products or solutions to enhance your Citrix Service Provider offering? Citrix Ready? is a product verification program that allows customers and users to quickly and easily find partner products and solutions that are trusted to enhance Citrix offerings.

Scaling BIG?1,000 Servers in a Single Farm

Hot off the press is the latest whitepaper for Citrix Service Providers titled: Scaling Big ? DaaS and SaaS Deployments for Citrix Service Providers. Wow, that?s a big title but an even bigger topic. Just how would you go about designing a large scale XenApp farm capable of supporting a massive 1,000 server farm? Well the Engineering guys over in the Cloud App Delivery Group have been hard at work answering this very question for you. This new whitepaper examines the architecture and design of fictitious service providers Citrix XenApp solution. The paper helps you understand how XenApp provides a scalable and high available infrastructure while delivering on-demand access to applications (SaaS) and desktops (DaaS) from the cloud. You will learn about design considerations for the entire XenApp architecture and look at real scalability and performance results. As always, you will find the whitepaper in the CSP Toolkit.

http://www.citrix.com/skb/articles/RDY3028

Citrix Service Providers Guide to Using Citrix EdgeSight

This document explains how Citrix Service Providers can use EdgeSight to monitor the elements of their XenApp environment. The paper provides an overview of the EdgeSight architecture, gives guidance on representing tenants within EdgeSight and introduces the reporting feature of EdgeSight.
http://www.citrix.com/skb/articles/RDY2947