Since late November, my house has been filled with the sounds of Brenda Lee, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, and yes, even Mariah Carey. I’ll admit it: I’m an unabashed lover of Christmas music. From Christmas Wrapping to The Carol of the Bells to Silver Bells, I’m a total sap for everything holly and jolly and yule.

Against this backdrop of seasonal ear candy, I began thinking about how incredible 2017 has been for Citrix. And I giggled — out loud, not just to myself — as I thought, to the tune of a holiday classic, “What were the 12 Days of Citrix?” And yes, I recognize that this line of thinking isn’t altogether “normal,” but I wear my geek badge proudly and I decided to run with it.

And so, without further ado, I present to you my 2017 “carol” of Digital Transformation.

The 12 “Days” of Citrix

On the first day of Citrix, the technology gods gave to we (work with me here) … the acquisition of Unidesk and the wonder of App Layering! What a way to kick off the year! App layering — which has been gleefully received by Citrix customers (and our engineers) has emerged as the best way to separate apps from the underlying operating system, so they can be managed once and delivered from any end user computing solution to any device. In short, it’s super-cool. Our resident App Layering master, Ron Oglesby, has written extensively about it; read voraciously and learn about the ways App Layering’s elegance will simplify the lives of your IT admins.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPa621qB2U7

On the second day of Citrix our Partners gave to meeeeeee … a Summit not to be beat! That’s right: #CitrixPartnerLove was (and is!) alive and well in Anaheim in January 2017, where we saw the releases of groundbreaking new versions of Citrix core products, like XenServer and XenMobile, as well as the introduction of HDX Adaptive Transport, the announcement of XenApp and XenDesktop Essentials in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, and, of course, the announcement of our partnership with Red Bull Racing (it gave us wings, for sure!)

As an aside, aren’t you glad we’re not dealing with partridges, turtle doves, and colly (and no, it’s not “calling”) birds? Seriously. What’s up with all those birds?

On the third day of Citrix, twas a special day for we. Also in January, Citrix was given a 100 percent rating on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) and recognition as a Best Place to Work for LGBT Equality™. More than any technology or any feat of engineering derring-do, it’s these things that really define Citrix and that make it such a special place to work.

https://citrixblogs.wpengine.com/2017/01/11/a-corporate-culture-powered-by-diversity-and-inclusion/

On the fourth day of Citrix, we bade a fond farewell to our GoTo family of products. In February, Citrix completed the spinoff and merger of the GoTo offerings with LogMeIn.

On the fifth day of Citrix, Orlando gave to we (yes, I know) A GREAT SYN-ER-GYYYYYY! Synergy 2017 was one for the record books, with more announcements than you could shake a stick at. Synergy 2017 saw the announcement of the Citrix Secure Digital Workspace, Citrix Analytics, and so much more. We had brilliant Innovation Super Sessions with Malcolm Gladwell and the inimitable Gen. Colin Powell (one of the most moving and inspiring presentations I’ve ever seen). And, as they do every year, our Simply Serve volunteer campaign rose to the occasion, hosting our first “Rockin’ Robots” Battlebots competition and the presentation of a check for $51,452 to Heart Florida United Way.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUiEBN6l7NY

On the sixth day of Citrix … we got a new CEO! And we couldn’t be more delighted. David J. Henshall was installed as CEO in July of this year, and he’s the perfect fit for the job. David has been with Citrix since 2003 and knows this company better than anybody. Under his leadership, Citrix has focused its vision and we are bubbling over with excitement for what the future holds. Onward!

On the seventh day of Citrix, our developers gave to me (and, who am I kidding, to all of us!) … INNOVATION. Our pace of innovation in 2017 was mind-blowing. Our XenApp & XenDesktop team released multiple new releases to that product line (they are busy bees, to be sure!) big advancements to our NetScaler Family, great new strides for our Enterprise Mobility solution, XenMobile, and brilliant updates to Citrix ShareFile! And we’re not close to done yet (stay tuned…)

On the eighth day of Citrix, our company gave to ye … seriously awesome security! 2017 saw the announcement of our partnership with Bitdefender, which provides a method of enhancing security without sacrificing the end-user experience. With Hypervisor Introspection, Bitdefender and Citrix have developed an entirely new security layer which malware cannot compromise or evade – through raw memory introspection directly at the hypervisor level.

https://citrixblogs.wpengine.com/2017/12/11/how-kansas-development-finance-authority-prevented-wannacry-with-citrix-hypervisor-introspection/

On the ninth day of Citrix, IDC gave to we … recognition of Citrix XenMobile as a leader in its MarketScape Report for Enterprise Mobilty Management. This was not insignificant news and underscored the commitment Citrix has made to make the world’s apps, data, and devices secure and easy to access as our customers embrace the future of work. Go Team XenMobile!

On the tenth day of Citrix, our hard work gave to thee … recognition of Citrix ShareFile in not one, but TWO Forrester Waves. Not to be outdone by their teammates, Citrix ShareFile was named a leader in the Forrester Wave for Cloud Solutions and Hybrid Solutions. As Adrian Phillips says, “While XenApp, XenDesktop, and XenMobile make it easy to access any app from any device, ShareFile delivers the data which is at the core of business outcomes.”

On the eleventh day of Citrix, our smart teams gave to thee … THE CLOUD. Citrix believes that cloud is the future. Fast, simple, and flexible, cloud offers reduced infrastructure, centralized control and SaaS-style updates. In short, cloud makes things easier. Product updates are delivered quickly and easily, it makes things easy to deploy, and it helps even smaller businesses scale and grow in ways they wouldn’t in a traditional, on-prem setup.

https://citrixblogs.wpengine.com/2017/12/21/whats-your-clouds-superpower/

On the twelfth (yay! the twelfth!) day of Citrix, some big news came to we … the Human Rights Council recognized Citrix as a Best Place to Work for LGBT Equality for the second year in a row! For all we do to raise people’s technology games and for all the digital business transformation we help people achieve, it’s recognition like this that means the most. Recognition like this echoes our values and the way we all live the #CitrixLife, and recognition like this means a great deal to every Citrite.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc-OjZ1lrNK

It’s been a big year for Citrix (my feeble attempts at “lyrics” aside) and I can tell you that 2017 is just the start. It was the beginning of the “new Citrix” and we have lots in store in 2018 (2018? Really? So soon?) and beyond. So, let’s raise a glass to the year that’s been and look toward the promise of the one to come. Happy holidays, everyone!