Wow! What an incredible week we had at Citrix Summit.
Microsoft, HPE, Cisco, Dell, Nutanix, Google, IBM, Fujitsu, Dimension Data, and Capgemini were just some of the key strategic alliances we were privileged to highlight as critical elements of the Citrix strategy: to be the best in the world in delivering integrated technology services for secure delivery of apps and data. On any device, any network, any time from the Citrix Cloud.
Be the best in the world in delivering integrated technology services for secure delivery of apps and data. On any device, any network, any time from the Citrix Cloud.
From Kirill’s keynote — featuring Scott Guthrie from Microsoft — to our announcement of the Citrix Ready HCI Workspace Appliance Program with HPE as the first partner, to our global SI awards, Summit showcased the very best of Citrix. We shined a light on the innovation and strength of our strategic alliances and the collective value that Citrix and our alliance partners can bring to customers.
Summit was jam-packed with highlights and I’d like to share a few with you here:
- We followed up on our announcements with Microsoft last May by delivering the XenDesktop and XenApp Express products to the Azure Marketplace. We also conducted two sold-out labs — the first of their kind — training partners on XenApp and XenDesktop Essentials on Azure.
- We announced the Citrix Ready HCI Workspace Appliance program with HPE and Atlantis as the first partners to join the program.
- Avanade announced its expanded relationship with Citrix to deliver a cloud-first approach to desktop virtualization.
- Along with Google, we announced the availability of Receiver for Chrome 2.3, which now provides multi-monitor support. We also worked with Google to deliver three packed instructor-led labs to 120+ attendees, showcasing the stellar user experience that’s possible with Citrix on Chromebooks.
- We announced the inception of the Global Systems Integrator Awards, a new annual awards program recognizing exceptional work in the areas of innovation, engagement, and customer solutions.
As if that wasn’t enough, we also held a Global Systems Integrators (GSI) partner council to gather feedback from our partners to help us shape the next generation of our GSI programs. As we “walk” to the cloud, our strategic partners will walk with us and we’ll need to ensure we are aligned and building technology and solutions of value for our joint customers.
In addition to group sessions, we also held many executive one-on-one partner sessions where Citrix leadership, including Kirill Tartarinov, Carlos Sartorius, Tim Minahan, PJ Hough, Jeroen van Rotterdam, and others met, with leaders representing our key partners.
The sessions were designed to ensure we maintain our focus on 2017 execution and delivering to our customers today, while at the same time looking to the future to identify new innovations that can be born from our alliance in 2017 and beyond. We made some excellent progress, so as I often like to say, stay tuned.
As I mentioned in my blog post in December, one goal I set for our team each year is to continue to make Citrix the “best to partner with” in the industry. This is critical to the success of our strategic alliances and is founded on the Citrix values of respect, integrity, and curiosity. With that in mind, I also said I would measure our success against this goal through the feedback from the partners themselves, so I was pleased to get this piece of partner feedback after our executive meetings at Summit:
It’s refreshing to see a lack of vendor arrogance and a genuine desire to partner with [us]. It means a lot.
Getting feedback like this makes our dedication to our values well worth it. Let’s continue to demonstrate these values in 2017, as we take our partners with us on our journey the cloud and beyond!
Look for more exciting announcements and partnerships coming from Citrix in 2017. In the meantime, I’d like to pose a question to each of you: what do you think Citrix Alliances should be building with our strategic partners in 2017? Please send me your thoughts.
Thank you all for the effort you put forth every day to make Citrix shine in the eyes of our partners. Here’s to a successful and prosperous 2017 for us all!
Best,
Steve
