For any of you that have been to our events over the past year you will know there is a theme running through most of them – consumers and their IT experience at home compared to the office.
It seems that what users want from IT and what IT is able to provide them is getting farther and farther apart. Users want fast, easy access to their Windows desktop and business apps from any device. They don’t particularly care about security, networking or infrastructure costs. They just want to get their jobs done efficiently and conveniently from wherever they are. And , they want to be able to do all of this from whatever device they want, whether it is a PC, a Mac, a smartphone or even a tablet like the new Apple iPad.
Unfortunately, while the world at large is being bombarded by a never-ending array of new, cool consumer devices like the iPhone and iPad, most IT shops are being asked to lock down access to corporate data and to reduce costs. In a world of constant change, IT needs to be able to ensure the safety of corporate information, and minimize complexity. In short, IT needs a secure, reliable infrastructure for delivering Windows desktops and apps, not thousands of new devices to support, a bigger attack surface for hackers, and higher costs.
Over the years, IT has traditionally won out in this battle of corporate decision making. As a result, most of us lowly users have had to suffer with standard issue corporate PCs with limited access to IT services from anywhere outside of the corporate firewall. Simply put, we’ve been forced to sacrifice experience for the sake of security and cost. And for many organisations these are the two top requirements for delivering projects.
A new generation of workers is entering the workforce in droves and they are bringing with them a vast array of consumer devices from netbooks, Android phones and iPhones to iPads. These audacious folks want to do their jobs from anywhere at any time using any device, and they are willing to plead their case to a higher authority – the executives in the organization who want the exact same thing. In a world where choice reigns, work will not be a place you go – it will be a place you take with you. In other words, consumerisation and virtual work styles will shape the IT of the future.
Well, what if you could build one delivery infrastructure for Windows desktops and business apps that would empower people to use any device they want, keeping all of the information in the datacenter while still lowering costs. IT wouldn’t even have to modify the infrastructure or customise their business apps for each of these new devices. One infrastructure would service all of their requirements. That is exactly the kind of flexibility that Citrix Receiver delivers to both IT and users.
Citrix Receiver is a universal client for the delivery of IT services. It runs on every conceivable type of device: PC, Mac, Android, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry smartphone, the iPad and now the most highly-anticipated iPhone yet, the iPhone 4 . Citrix Receiver supports automatic updates so if a patch is applied, it is instantly available to every user whether they’re connecting.
With the introduction of Citrix Receiver for iPhone 4, Citrix is once again raising the bar – delivering amazing new features such as multitasking that provide users the ability to run their apps in the background while they take a call, surf the internet or look up a contact. In addition, Citrix Receiver allows users to connect a video-out cable and project presentations right from their iPhone, giving users highly sought after new business capabilities. Finally, we shouldn’t forget to highlight something that is good for our friends in IT. All of the business data displayed by Citrix Receiver for the iPhone remains in the datacentre providing the ultimate in protection for sensitive business data.