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Citrix touts digital workspace app in services play

Software supplier Citrix’s cloud-based workspace app is part of its efforts to deliver integrated services that support the modern workplace

Beverley Head
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Published: 10 May 2018 18:17

Citrix has unveiled a cloud-based digital workspace app designed to deliver secure, single sign-on access to multiple applications, including third-party cloud software to facilitate workplace flexibility.

The Citrix Workspace app provides a single location for workers to access their software-as-a-service (SaaS), Windows and Linux applications, along with all their files and shared resources. It is also integrated with ServiceNow, so users can request a service ticket from within the Workspace app.

“Work is no longer a place. Work happens everywhere, but we are making it too hard and we fracture the user experience across too many places,” said Citrix CEO David Henshall at Citrix Synergy in Anaheim, California.

While Citrix has not released pricing for the Workspace app, Henshall said deploying and managing traditional point offerings to allow flexible access to corporate information systems could cost organisations $800 to $1,000 per user each year.

Citrix will be looking to significantly reduce that burden with the pricing of the new Workspace app, which Henshall claimed is the first unified digital workspace.

Integration with cloud services – such as Microsoft Office 365, Salesforce, Oracle, ServiceNow, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Atlassian and DocuSign – is available out of the box. Users also have the flexibility to move an e-mail thread in the workspace automatically to Slack for group communications.

Separately, Citrix has also announced an automated security analytics offering that guards against phishing by monitoring connected devices and user activity before grouping users into different risk profiles.

Using machine learning to identify risky or suspicious activity, and inputs from security monitoring services, the software can automate some security actions, such as preventing employees from clicking on suspicious email links.

Transition in progress

Citrix has been transitioning from a pure infrastructure on-premise play to a supplier of integrated services supporting the modern workplace.

In Australia, the company passed a milestone in the first quarter when its cloud revenues exceeded on-premise revenues for the first time.

It has around 50 cloud services clients in Australia, with three of its largest cloud customers globally based in Australia.

Citrix has been undergoing a significant transformation internally, led by Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) vice-president Les Williamson, who leads a team of 60 ANZ employees.

Stanimira Koleva, Citrix’s regional vice-president and managing director for Asia-Pacific, acknowledged that the company was transitioning to a service-based business across the region.

She said while some markets were progressing quickly, it was slower in others, and not at all in some – Citrix does not offer cloud services in China, for example.

Globally, around 30% of Citrix’s revenues come from cloud sales today. Henshall said the target was for 70% of revenues to be subscription-based by 2022.

While net revenues rose 5% globally during the first quarter of 2018, they declined by 1% in Asia-Pacific and Japan, a region that represents around 12% of Citrix’s global business.

Koleva attributed the revenue drop to some “lumpy” large contracts during the previous quarter, and that the region was on track for “double-digit” growth this quarter.

The author attended Citrix Synergy as a guest of the company.

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