Citrix Systems
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) is a multinational corporation founded in 1989, that provides server and desktop virtualization, networking, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and cloud computing technologies, including Xen open source products.
Citrix currently services around 230,000 organizations worldwide[3] and is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the South Florida metropolitan area, with subsidiary operations in California and Massachusetts, and additional development centers in Australia, India, and the United Kingdom.
Following the acquisition of XenSource, Inc. in October 2007, Citrix spearheads the Xen open source hypervisor project.[4]
History
Citrix was founded in Richardson, Texas in 1989 by former IBM developer Ed Iacobucci, with $3 million in funding.[5] Iacobucci quickly moved the company to Coral Springs, Florida since he lived there when he had worked at IBM.[5]
Citrix was originally named Citrus but changed its name after an existing company claimed trademark rights. The Citrix name is a portmanteau of Citrus and UNIX.
Many of the original founding members had participated in the IBM OS/2 project. Iacobucci's vision was to build OS/2 with multi-user support. IBM was not interested in this idea, so Iacobucci left. Iacobucci was offered a job at Microsoft as chief technical officer of its networking group but turned it down to start his own company.[5]
The company's first product was Citrix MULTIUSER, which was based on OS/2. Citrix licensed the OS/2 source code from Microsoft, bypassing IBM. Citrix hoped to capture part of the UNIX market by making it easy to deploy text-based OS/2 applications. The product failed to find a market. This was due in part to Microsoft declaring in 1991 that it was no longer going to support OS/2.[5]
Roger Roberts was appointed the CEO of Citrix in 1990. Roberts, a Texan, came from Texas Instruments.
From 1989 to 1995, the company did not turn a profit. In 1989 and 1990 there was no income at all. Between 1991 and 1993, Citrix received funding from both Intel and Microsoft as well as venture capitalists. Without the help of this funding, Citrix would not have survived.[5]
In 1993, Citrix purchased the product "Netware Access Server" from Novell. It was a remote access application built on DOS and Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager. It provided desktop and applications from the server to multiple users in a similar way Terminal Servers still do. Citrix developed the product further and released it as WinView. It became Citrix's first successful product.
The company went public in December 1995.[5]
Technology
Citrix' key product families are Citrix Delivery Center, Citrix Cloud Center (C3) and Citrix Online Services product families.
Microsoft relationship
The Citrix and Microsoft relationship is based upon a 20-year alliance, which began in 1989 when Citrix licensed the OS/2 source code.
Citrix obtained a source code license to Microsoft's Windows NT 3.51. In 1995, Citrix shipped a multiuser version of Windows NT with remote access, known as WinFrame. This product was a unique offering, targeting the needs of large enterprises.
During the development of WinFrame for Windows NT 4, Microsoft decided that it did not want to license Windows NT 4 source code to Citrix. Not only that, Microsoft threatened to build its own version of WinFrame. Citrix and Microsoft entered negotiations about how best to resolve this dilemma.[5][6] After negotiations, Microsoft agreed to license Citrix technology for Windows NT Server 4.0, resulting in Windows Terminal Server Edition.[7][8] Citrix agreed not to ship a competing product but retained the right to sell an extension to Microsoft's products, initially under the name MetaFrame. This relationship continued into the Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 eras, with Citrix offering Metaframe XP and Presentation Server. On February 11, 2008, Citrix changed the name of its Presentation Server product line to XenApp.
The core technology that Microsoft did not buy was the ICA protocol. Microsoft derived the work for RDP (T.share) protocol from NetMeeting, which originally derived from a deal with PictureTel (now known as Polycom).[9]
In January 2008, Citrix announced an expanded alliance with Microsoft to deliver a set of virtualization solutions to address the desktop and server virtualization markets to ensure broad interoperability between their technologies.[10]
In February 2009, Citrix extended its collaboration with Microsoft in the server virtualization market with “Project Encore”. This was heralded by a new product, Citrix Essentials, that offers advanced management for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. Joint marketing, training and channel activities were conducted with Microsoft.[11]
In July 2009, Citrix and Microsoft announced joint plans to simplify desktop computing by extending their desktop virtualization partnership.[12]
These plans included:
Corporate philanthropy
Citrix invests in an ongoing Corporate Giving Program focusing on education, economic development and technology advancement.[13]
In association with US city Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Sister Cities International, Citrix launched the prototype Cyber Sister Cities (CSC) program, with Agogo in Ghana.[14]
Acquisitions
- In September 1997, Citrix acquired DataPac for $5 million[15]
- In January 1998, Citrix purchased the NTrigue product from Insignia[16]
- In June 1998, Citrix acquired APM[17]
- In July 1998, Citrix acquired VDOnet for $8 million[17]
- In July 1999, Citrix acquired ViewSoft for $32 million[17][18]
- In February 2000, Citrix acquired Innovex Group for $48.7 million[19]
- In March 2001, Citrix acquired Sequoia Software Corporation,[20] a Columbia, MD, maker of XML-based portal software.
- In December 2003, Citrix bought Expertcity of Santa Barbara, CA, developer of the Web-hosted portable desktop product GoToMyPC and online meeting platform GoToMeeting.[21] Expertcity became Citrix's Citrix Online division.
- In November 2004, Citrix bought a San Jose, CA, company, Net6.[22]
- In June 2005, Citrix acquired Netscaler,[23] a Santa Clara, CA, manufacturer of network appliances, for about $300 million in cash and stock.
- In November 2005 Citrix bought Teros,[24] a Sunnyvale, CA, producer of web application firewalls.
- In May 2006, Citrix acquired Reflectent,the product Spectacle was then relabeled as Citrix EdgeSight.
- On August 7, 2006 Citrix bought San Mateo, CA, based Orbital Data.
- In December 2006, Citrix announced an agreement to buy Ardence Inc., resulting in the product Citrix Provisioning Services.
- In February 2007, Citrix acquired Aurema, developer of a CPU and memory management product [25], resulting in the addition of a CPU management feature to Citrix's main product XenApp.
- In September, 2007, Citrix acquired QuickTree, a privately-held XML and Web Services Firewall company.
- In October 2007, Citrix acquired XenSource, developer of the virtualization product XenServer that is based on the open source Xen Hypervisor.[26]
- In May 2008, Citrix acquired the sepagoProfile product from sepago.[27]
- In November 2008, Citrix acquired Vapps.[28]
- In August 2010, Citrix acquired VMLogix Inc., a virtualization automation and management company.[29]
- In February 2011, Citrix closes acquisition of Netviewer [30]
- In 2011, Citrix acquired Ems-Cortex
- In June 2011, Citrix acquired Kaviza, now resulting in a product called VDI-in-a-box
- In July 2011, Citrix acquired Cloud.com
- In August 2011, Citrix acquired RingCube
- In October 2011, Citrix acquired ShareFile
- In October 2011, Citrix acquired App-DNA
Products
Current products
- Citrix XenApp (formerly Citrix Presentation Server) provides application virtualization and application delivery.
- Citrix XenDesktop[31] (Desktop Virtualization, VDI)
- Citrix XenServer provides server platform virtualization.
- XenApp Fundamentals
- NetScaler (Application Optimization, Application Delivery Networking, Load Balancing, Web Application Acceleration, Application Firewall)
- Workflow Studio (Orchestrates communications between products, IT process automation)
- Citrix Access Gateway provides secure remote access to virtual desktops and applications.
- Advanced Access Control is an add-on for Citrix Access Gateway that provides additional control of permissions for users.
- Password Manager (Application Security, Single Sign-on)
- EdgeSight (End User Experience Monitoring)
- Branch Repeater (formerly WANScaler) optimizes application delivery to branch office users (see WAN optimization).
- Provisioning Server delivers Desktop workloads to physical and virtual computers.
- EasyCall integrates voice and click-to-call into any application.
- GoToMeeting
- 'GoToWebinar'
- GoToAssist
- GoToMyPC
Discontinued products
- WinFrame
- MultiWin
- Citrix MULTIUSER (Based on OS/2 1.x)
- Citrix WinView (Based on OS/2 2.x)
- Citrix VideoFrame
- Citrix NFuse Elite 1.0
- Citrix Extranet
- Citrix XPS Portal 3.5.1
- Citrix MetaFrame Secure Access Manager
- Citrix MetaFrame XP
- Application Firewall (Web Application Security, merged into NetScaler)
References
- ^ "Citrix Reports 2010 Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year Financial Results". http://www.citrix.com/site/resources/dynamic/news/Q42010Earnings.pdf. Retrieved 2011-03-21.
- ^ a b c "CTXS - Citrix Systems, Inc. - Google Finance". http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:CTXS&fstype=ii. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
- ^ [1] "Citrix company profile" Reuters
- ^ [2] "Citrix Unveils End-to-End Virtualization Strategy" citrix.co.uk
- ^ a b c d e f g NetIndustries (2002). "Citrix Systems, Inc. - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Citrix Systems, Inc.". NetIndustries. http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/98/Citrix-Systems-Inc.html.
- ^ Maney, Kevin (June 11, 1997). "Tiny tech firm does the unthinkable". USA Today (USA Today).
- ^ Microsoft (1997). "Microsoft and Citrix Sign Technology Cross-Licensing and Development Agreement". Microsoft PressPass - Information for Journalists. Microsoft. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1997/may97/hydrapr.mspx. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
- ^ Jim Freer (1997-06-23). "Citrix rebounds -- after a close call with Bill Gates". South Florida Business Journal (American City Business Journals). http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/1997/06/23/focus6.html. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
- ^ Nefsis.com (2005). "Video Conferencing History". Video Conferencing History. Nefsis.com. http://www.nefsis.com/Best-Video-Conferencing-Software/video-conferencing-history.html. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
- ^ Microsoft (21 January 2008). "Microsoft Announces Vision and Strategy to Accelerate Virtualization Adoption". http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/jan08/01-21VirtualizationAdoptionPR.mspx. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
- ^ Kusnetzky, Dan (23 February 2009). "Citrix launches a free version of XenServer and Citrix Essentials". ZDNet. http://blogs.zdnet.com/virtualization/?p=723.
- ^ Prickett Morgan, Timothy (13 July 2009). "Microsoft and Citrix mix 'n' match fake desktops". The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/13/citrix_microsoft_virtual_pcs/.
- ^ "Citrix.com - reaching out to the community". http://www.citrix.com/English/aboutCitrix/outreach/index.asp.
- ^ "Citrix, Ghana and Honey Project". YouTube. 14 December 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF8b2hFSxiI.
- ^ "Citrix to Acquire DataPac Australasia; Acquisition toAccelerate Citrix Presence in High-Growth Asia-PacificMarket.". Business Wire. 1997. http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/software-services-applications-internet/7048546-1.html. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
- ^ Clifford Colby (1998). "Insignia sells off NTrigue". MacWeek (MacWeek). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MWK/is_n4_v12/ai_20191088/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1. Retrieved 2008-11-05.
- ^ a b c SEC (1999). "Citrix Systems Inc 10-Q for 9/30/99". SEC. http://www.secinfo.com/dS997.63Ky.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
- ^ Tony Smith (July 13, 1999). "Citrix buys ViewSoft". The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/07/13/citrix_buys_viewsoft/.
- ^ Laura Rohde (February 17, 2000). "Citrix acquires Innovex for $47.8 million". InfoWorld. http://www.infoworld.com/articles/pi/xml/00/02/17/000217picitrix.html.
- ^ Darryl K. Taft (Mar 21, 2001). "Citrix Agrees To Buy Sequoia For $185 Million". United Business Media LLC, ChannelWeb (CRN). http://www.crn.com/it-channel/18821735.
- ^ Stacy Cowley (December 18, 2003). "Citrix buys GoToMyPC maker for $225 million". NetworkWorld, IDG News Service. http://www.networkworld.com/net.worker/news/2003/1218citgo.html.
- ^ Paul Roberts (Nov 23, 2004). "Citrix buying VPN company Net6 for $50 million". NetworkWorld, IDG News Service. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2004/1123updat-cit.html.
- ^ Stacy Cowley (Jun 6, 2005). "Gaining speed, Citrix buys NetScaler". NetworkWorld, IDG News Service. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/060605-citrix-netscaler.html.
- ^ Paula Rooney (Nov 18, 2005). "Teros Buy Gives Citrix VARs More Firepower". CRN. http://www.crn.com/security/174400073.
- ^ "Welcome to the Aurema Resource Site". http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/product.asp?contentID=594719.
- ^ Citrix (Aug 15, 2007). "Citrix To Acquire Virtualization Leader XenSource". http://www.citrix.com/lang/English/lp/lp_680809.asp?ntref=hp_promo1_US.
- ^ Sepago (2008). "sepago sells user profile management to Citrix". Sepago. http://www.sepago.de/citrix/news.html. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
- ^ "Citrix Systems buys Vapps Inc. for $2.26 million". http://topnews.us/content/281-citrix-systems-buys-vapps-inc-226-million.
- ^ "Citrix acquires VMLogix, expands OpenCloud platform". http://www.itwire.com/it-industry-news/market/41522-citrix-acquires-vmlogix-expands-opencloud-platform.
- ^ "Citrix Closes Acquisition of Netviewer". http://www.citrix.com/English/NE/news/news.asp?newsID=2308294.
- ^ [3] "Products and solutions"
External links