News and PR

Citrix Virtualisation Index reveals 27 per cent of IT budget to be saved through virtualisation by 2014
Server and desktop virtualisation rollouts dominate CIO plans

FEBRUARY 8, 2010: Virtualisation investment plans and resulting savings will rise significantly between 2010 and 2014, according to a study of more than 700 CIOs worldwide. The Citrix Virtualisation Index, independently commissioned research, provides a snapshot of how large enterprises view virtualisation.

The report shows that CIOs estimate virtualisation is helping to achieve cost-savings of 16 per cent for the organisation. They expect this to increase to nearly a third (27 per cent) in 2014.

31 per cent of CIOs said between 0-5 per cent of their current IT budget is dedicated to virtualisation technologies. In 2014, the largest proportion of respondents (26 per cent) predicted these technologies would make up a quarter of investment.

The study reveals a CIO focus on creating and delivering an efficient and flexible IT infrastructure over the next four years, acknowledging the need for investment in new technology.

Over the next twelve months 41 per cent of UK companies intend to extend their current use of server virtualisation and almost a third of UK CIOs (27 per cent) will be rolling out desktop virtualisation. In comparison to other countries surveyed, the UK is leading the way in server virtualisation take up, with figures for the US, Germany and Japan at 17%, 13% and 19% respectively.

Significantly, a further 36 per cent of organisations are "evaluating" or "trialling" desktop virtualisation. For server virtualisation this figure sits at 28 per cent.

Only 12 per cent of companies do not yet have some level of virtualisation deployment underway. Nearly two thirds (62.5 per cent) of these companies intend to begin server virtualisation projects in the next 18 months, while a third (33.4 per cent) intend to explore desktop virtualisation in the same time scale.

Although desktop virtualisation is the newer technology, global CIOs recognise the benefits of using it within their organisation. The six most important benefits of desktop virtualisation identified by the Index are:

• Fast desktop deployment (65 per cent)
• Use in any location on any device (64 per cent)
• Data security and access control (62 per cent)
• Reduced total cost of ownership (55 per cent)
• Ease of migration (48 per cent)
• Power savings and/or green computing (35 per cent)

James Stevenson, area vice-president for UK and Ireland at Citrix commented: "Virtualisation is a major force for change, and our findings demonstrate the value the technology can deliver to tomorrow’s enterprise, both in terms of cost and efficiency."

"It’s positive to see the server virtualisation market, although not new, is still up for grabs, with over 60 per cent of businesses looking to implement solutions over the next 18 months.

"In the main however, 2010 is set to be the year of desktop virtualisation - the tipping point when CIOs move beyond trials to adopt the technology as part of their organisation wide IT strategy."

"It will be interesting to see how attitudes and outlooks have developed when the Index is re-run in six months time. I expect to see even further plans put in place around virtualisation solutions and, as time develops, the allying of any residual fears associated with the technology."

Pierre Hall, solutions director, at IT services and solutions provider, Computacenter said: "Cost savings will definitely be one of the main drivers for virtualisation deployments over the coming years, but organisations must ensure they deploy end-to-end virtualisation solutions that will not only update legacy systems, but also reduce TCO and enable rapid ROI.

"In terms of take up, in particular we are seeing many of the desktop virtualisation pilots that were implemented last year moving into full-scale production. Over the next six months we expect to see a substantial increase in the number of virtual desktops as customers realise there are tangible savings to be made from this technology platform, particularly around flexibility and data assurance," concluded Hall.

Martin Ingram, VP of strategy, at user environment management vendor AppSense, a Citrix Platinum partner, said; "The survey results confirm what we are seeing in the market. AppSense software has been used in many of the early desktop virtualisation trials and we now see substantial momentum building in both customer organisations and systems integrators. Many organisations are using their Windows 7 migration to rethink how they deliver desktops to users and hence embracing desktop virtualisation. By choosing to use desktop virtualisation in their migration strategies organisations can simplify both this and future migrations.

"The days when desktop virtualisation was a technical curiosity are now behind us, the technology is mature and organisations understand the benefits. We see significant momentum to broad deployments of fully personalised virtual desktops," concluded Ingram.

The Citrix Virtualisation Index is an independently conducted survey of 700 CIOs from organisations with more than 500 employees across Canada, Germany, Japan, UK and USA.

Permalink: Link to this item

Watch the Citrix and AppSense video podcast on DABCC where we discuss the requirements to create a complete enterprise desktop virtualization solution. Citrix recommends AppSense as one of the leading User Environment Manager solution and together we are promoting XenDesktop 4 and the AppSense solution for large enterprise environments. Click here.

Permalink: Link to this item

"Centralis was tasked with designing and building a proof of concept based on Citrix’s XenApp and AppSense for KMPT, which specializes in mental health services and employs 4,000 staff using a 3,000-strong computer network across 100 sites. The project is expected to save KMPT in the region of £250,000 a year." Click here.

Permalink: Link to this item

Leading provider of user environment management solutions utilises online meetings to collaborate, demonstrate and present

Chalfont, UK. – 2nd February, 2010: – AppSense, a leading provider of user environment management solutions (UEM), has boosted its sales efforts and market expansion plans by using Citrix® GoToMeeting® to engage online with enterprises and their IT departments worldwide. The easy-to-use online web conferencing tool has also delivered 40 per cent cost savings due to the all-you-can-meet, flat-fee pricing model.

AppSense is using GoToMeeting to present the AppSense product portfolio to prospects and hold briefings with existing customers and partners. The reliability and rich features of the online meeting tool are enabling AppSense to provide flawless demonstrations of its technologically advanced solutions and hold sessions with multiple participants no matter where they are located.

GoToMeeting features AppSense is using to maximise the effectiveness of its online collaboration approach include:

• Annotation tools – to draw, highlight and point to items of interest on the screen
• Sharing capabilities – to instantly change presenter or share keyboard and mouse controls
• One-click meetings - that can be set up on the fly or scheduled via easy integration with Outlook
• Total audio - so participants can join via VoIP, phone or a combination of the two

We spend a lot of time interacting with our prospects, customers and partners and being able to visually demonstrate new products and technologies is so much more effective than explaining it in words," said Angela Cunvin, Marketing Manager. "GoToMeeting allows us to quickly and easily jump onto impromptu web meetings to talk through more technical aspects of our products, which makes the job of our staff a lot easier and their time more productive."

With a focus on global expansion, AppSense has also rolled out GoToMeeting to its travelling employees, who need to collaborate with each other while they are on the road, as Angela Cunvin explains: "Real-time communication is key for our staff to work productively and effectively with an increasingly global customer base. GoToMeeting offers us the instant connectivity of email or a messaging service, but with the richness of collaboration achieved through face-to-face meetings."

"Many businesses now operate multiple sites in worldwide locations, making face-to-face meetings expensive, inconvenient and difficult to arrange. AppSense is demonstrating how GoToMeeting can break down borders and enable companies to learn, share and collaborate, no matter where they are," says Andrew Millard, Director of eCommerce, Citrix Online EMEA.

To learn more about GoToMeeting and to try the product free for 30 days, visit www.gotomeeting.com

Permalink: Link to this item

AppSense originated the profile management category over ten years ago and continues to lead the industry with innovations such as an ability to manage hybrid environments consisting of virtual, physical and RDS (Terminal Services) architectures. Click here.

Permalink: Link to this item

Permalink: Link to this item

AppSense Environment Manager 8.0 addresses some nagging pain points for users. One of the biggest complaints from users about virtual desktops is the lack of personalization. AppSense has found a unique answer to this criticism with Environment Manager. By decoupling the user profile from the desktop and putting it on a server, personalization persists even across a pooled desktop environment. No matter which client is used to connect to a desktop -- whether it's a desktop, laptop, thin client or smart phone -- the personalization carries over to the next login.

AppSense works not only with VDI Desktops but also with physical desktops -- allowing you to easily migrate "personalities" from physical desktops to virtual ones. An Environment Manager user recently estimates "a 70% decrease in cash expenditure with VDI and AppSense." With this kind of ROI and a low per-user cost, AppSense Environment Manager will quickly pay for itself.
Read More

Permalink: Link to this item

"AppSense is a company in the right place at the right time," Wolf says. "They offer a mature product suite focused around ensuring a user's personal settings remain consistent across a variety of delivery mechanisms, such as a physical desktop, virtual desktop and XenApp session. AppSense is closely aligned with Citrix, and I would not be surprised if Citrix eventually acquired them."
Read More

Permalink: Link to this item