Citrix and Amazon

Citrix and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have teamed up to offer a new solution called Citrix C3 Lab. Companies of all sizes can now use AWS as part of their standard technology infrastructure, enabling delivery of applications, desktops, and computing resources as an on-demand service through Amazon EC2 and Amazon VPC environments.

Citrix C3 Lab and Amazon EC2

The Citrix C3 Lab, which leverages Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and Citrix C3 (Citrix Cloud Center), is designed to provide an environment for IT professionals to start prototyping Citrix-based solutions. Citrix C3 Lab users have access to Citrix XenApp alongside key Citrix C3 technologies such as Citrix Access Gateway and Citrix Repeater, allowing them to securely test application compatibility, application staging, and gain overall experience in the AWS cloud environment.

Citrix C3 Lab and Amazon VPC

Citrix C3 Lab is now supported on Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), a secure and seamless bridge between a company’s existing IT infrastructure and the AWS cloud. Amazon VPC enables enterprises to connect their existing infrastructure to a set of isolated AWS compute resources via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection, and to extend their existing management capabilities such as security services, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems to include their AWS resources. Amazon VPC integrates today with Amazon EC2, and will integrate with other AWS services in the future. As with all Amazon Web Services, there are no long-term contracts, minimum spend, or up-front investments required. With Amazon VPC, you pay only for the resources you use.

With Amazon VPC and Citrix, customers can access Citrix products and add server and storage capacity on demand. For example, Citrix XenApp users seeking to increase server capacity can rapidly add servers via Amazon VPC to a new or existing XenApp environment. By adding Citrix Access Gateway to the environment through the Amazon VPC, XenApp users benefit from heightened security. By adding Citrix Repeater as well, customers benefit from increased data-transfer efficiency and even lower costs.

Technical Components

• Citrix C3 Lab Blueprints that walk users through the basic steps of using Amazon EC2 to run Citrix applications.
• Citrix C3 Lab Blueprints with architectural diagrams, deployment guides, and best practices for deploying Citrix C3 products in the Amazon VPC.
• The Development Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) Citrix provides:
    - Citrix XenApp AMI
    - Citrix Access Gateway AMI
    - Citrix XenApp + Citrix Access Gateway AMI
    - Citrix XenApp + Citrix Access Gateway + Citrix Repeater AMI
  

Licensing and Support

For existing Citrix customers, licenses are valid when deployed on Amazon EC2 and Amazon VPC, providing the flexibility to create more complex deployments with your custom-built and already-licensed applications. A Citrix support forum is also available.