Earlier this month Ronnie and Gary were fortunate enough to attend the Citrix Summit in Las Vegas, and it was an empowering way to start the year.
The atmosphere was set from the get go, with legendary dance group Jabbawockeez opening the starting Keynote presentation. The vibe at the Summit this year was really different from previous years, with the focus shifting from advertising new products and upgrades, to the relationship between Citrix and its partners. With more than 4000 partners in attendance, there was an abundance of passion and innovation.
The Summit outlined three key pillars that Citrix will concentrate on;
- Landing new customers
- Expanding the Citrix footprint in existing Customers
- Partner for Success
Essentially, they are motivated to find new customers, farm existing customers, and place more focus on partnership and the partner community.
Citrix’s focus on partnerships was largely evident by the highlighted strengths of their relationship with Microsoft, and how they have been growing even stronger and ‘better together’. For example, the new version of Citrix will be launched into production the same day as Microsoft 2016, which shows how important this relationship is. In addition, the move to Windows 10 and the uplifting of Skype for Business will be a huge growth part for Citrix’s customers going forwards. It was also evident in the growth of Azure, and how we can use that with Citrix implementations or solutions going forward. This partnership between Citrix and Microsoft is clearly important for the future for both Vendors.
Other highlights of the Summit included the big focus on Workspace Cloud, Netscaler, and Mobility. Netscaler has become an integral part of the business in the last ten years, and Citrix technologies like XenMobile and Sharefile were highly spoken of. There was also an announcement around browser application services by Citrix, which is the easiest and most secure way to deliver Web and SaaS applications – giving control of Web Applications back to the customer.
In the previous years, Summit used to be mostly about these products and upgrades, but it was quite clear that this year was about realigning, refocusing, and hitting the market hard. It was about Citrix’s commitment to partnering success around growth, profitability, and predictable engagements; focusing on mid-market service offerings and simplifying processes.
Being at Citrix Summit made us quite proud to be part of the Citrix community. Reconnecting with familiar and meeting new partner faces is always a great part of any conference – particularly the “networking” done in the evening while the Goo Goo Dolls bashed out some tunes in the background. Lots of innovation due from Citrix this year so it should be exciting times ahead.
