A Fresh Approach for Improved Application Delivery
Facing a costly, complex Citrix XenApp upgrade? You can reduce the costs and reduce the complexity by considering a new approach for desktop and application delivery. Switching to a new application delivery platform—VMware® Horizon®—offers the opportunity to not only simplify desktop and app delivery, but also reduce the number of vendors involved in the application delivery effort.
Read this white paper to find out how a move to VMware Horizon from Citrix XenApp provides a clean slate for application delivery that offers a pathway to:
- lower costs
- improved service delivery
- an easier upgrade path
- ROI in less than a year
Please fill out the form below to get now. (PDF | 5 Pages | 71 KB)
My client is seeking a candidate to be responsible for designing, delivering and maintaining a secure, fast, effective, reliable Citrix physical and virtual Server Architecture ensuring the delivery of core and client service business applications.
12 month fixed term contract
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s Degree or Advanced Diploma @ NQF Level 7 in Computer Science/ IT qualification.
Experience required:
- Relevant 5 – 7 years’ experience in Citrix administration environment of which 2 years must have been on supervisory level or an area of expertise.
- Experience in Citrix Certified Administration (CCA XenApp 5.0), Microsoft Certified System Administrator Server, Application Virtualization and Clustering Citrix Presentation Server 4.0, 4.5 and XenApp 5.0 and 6.5.
- Experience in Citrix Access Gateway, Citrix NetScaler VPX and Edge-Sight experience.
- Experience in windows Terminal Servers, IIS, DNS, DHCP, Active Directory etc.
- Experience in the Installation and configuration of windows and Citrix applications in a multi-user environment.
Technical Skills:
- Citrix XenServer and XenApp maintenance and support.
- Configure and install new implementations and developments within Citrix (Citrix XenServer 5.6 or higher, Citrix NetServer VPX or other and Citrix XenApp 6.0 or higher).
- Ensure anti-virus software and updated virus definitions.
Behavioural competencies:
- Strategic capability and leadership.
- Results orientation.
- Business and financial acumen.
- Brand and Stakeholder orientation
- Change management.
Key Performance Areas:
-
Server Management and Administration – Citrix Servers
-
Install, configure and maintain Citrix Virtual environment (Citrix XenServer multiple pools and XenApp server farms).
- Maintain Server security at physical and virtual server level.
- Provide technical support for all components of Citrix XenServer and XenApp, including Citrix Clients, Windows Terminal Server, Provisioning Server and Web Interface/ Secure Gateway.
- Perform all aspects of Citrix server provisioning, including Citrix Presentation Server installation, application installation and publishing, and printing configuration, group policy administration.
- Maintain technical documentation for Citrix architecture and operational procedures.
Desired Skills:
- Citrix engineer
- citrix system engineer
- XenServer
- citrix administration
About The Employer:
Public Sector
Citrix is a well-known American cloud software company. It was founded over three decades ago by the late Ed Iacobucci, a virtualization pioneer who began his career at IBM. The company, based in California, has over 400,000 enterprise clients worldwide, including most of the Fortune 100 and Fortune 500.
Citrix Hypervisor traces its roots to Xen, a virtualization software released in 2003 as a research project at the University of Cambridge. Citrix acquired XenSource, the company behind the Xen, in 2007 and, in 2018, renamed the enterprise version of Xen to Citrix Hypervisor.
The company currently employs nearly 10,000 people worldwide and has over $3 billion in annual sales.
Citrix Hypervisor: Plans and pricing
Citrix Hypervisor is a free add-on for all customers that pay for Citrix desktop-as-a-service (DaaS). There's no standard pricing for Citrix DaaS-- you'll have to contact the company directly for a quote.
Yet, demo price estimates on Microsoft Azure's cloud platform show $20 per user per month for a 500-person contact center team and $18 per user per month for 1,000 office employees. It seems the unit price drops the more the number of users and rises the fewer the number.
Citrix Hypervisor: Features
A hypervisor is a software that creates and runs virtual machines. It enables one host computer to support multiple guest virtual machines by sharing its hardware resources.
A virtual machine (VM) is a software that emulates the functionality of a separate physical computer. For instance, you can run the Windows operating system on a MacBook laptop. Here, the Windows VM acts like its separate computer, and you can switch between it and your macOS operating system anytime.
There are many use cases for virtual machines. For example, you can use it to try a new operating system you’re considering adopting. Also, let’s say you’re a developer using a MacBook Pro powered by macOS but want to build an app for the Windows OS. You can run a Windows virtual machine and program your application instead of buying a new Windows-powered computer.
Citrix Hypervisor lets you run multiple independent virtual machines on a single physical computer. Any software program executed on these virtual machines is separated from the underlying host hardware resources. It works for personal computers and servers.
Citrix Hypervisor is based on the Xen Project hypervisor, with extra features and technical support provided by Citrix. The Xen hypervisor is a type-1 or bare-metal hypervisor, meaning it runs directly on the host machine’s physical hardware. The other type is the type-2 hypervisor, which runs on top of an existing operating system.
Citrix Hypervisor delivers fast and efficient performance as a type-1 hypervisor with direct access to the host hardware. It's also very secure owing to the absence of flaws and vulnerabilities that accompany operating systems. With this software, every virtual machine is isolated from the other, and the isolation helps protect them from cyber threats.
Key features of the Citrix Hypervisor include;
Resource pools enable Citrix users to manage multiple servers/virtual machines and their connected storage as a single entity. Thanks to this feature, you can move and run virtual machines on different Citrix Hypervisor hosts-- create on one server and move to another without interference.
A single pool can contain up to 64 servers running the same version of Citrix Hypervisor software but with different hardware.
If one server suffers a hardware failure, you can restart the failed virtual machines on another server within the same resource pool and have it running exactly as before. You can also configure virtual machines to migrate to another host automatically when their host fails.
Citrix Hypervisor lets users create disk images of virtual machines. A disk image is a file containing all the contents of a specific virtual machine– you can upload that image to another host system to provide you an exact replica of that virtual machine.
Think of a disk image as a backup system for your virtual machine. Thanks to the Open Virtualization Format (OVF), an open-source standard, you can easily import or export virtual machines from one host machine to another– it doesn’t matter what virtualization software you created the VMs on.
This software supports two disk image formats; Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) and Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK).
Citrix Hypervisor lets you recover virtual machines from a hardware failure. It stores your virtual machine’s metadata (structural information about files and folders) in a backup environment. In case of failure, you can restore the metadata to recreate your virtual machine.
Citrix Hypervisor: Interface and use
By default, Citrix Hypervisor uses a command line interface, meaning you must know specific codes to input to get the software to perform its functions. Using a command line interface is pretty challenging for the average computer user due to the requirement to memorize commands. Fortunately, you can install a Graphical User Interface (GUI) console to operate Citrix Hypervisor with less difficulty.
Citrix Hypervisor: Support
You can contact Citrix through email, live chat, or telephone to resolve issues. There’s also extensive documentation about Citrix Hypervisor on the official website.
Citrix Hypervisor: The competition
The best alternative to Citrix Hypervisor that we’d recommend is VMware Workstation Pro (opens in new tab). It offers similar features to Citrix Hypervisor for a more affordable price. It’s also easier to use, but the drawback is that it isn’t compatible with the macOS operating system.
Citrix Hypervisor: Final verdict
Citrix Hypervisor is a tool we’d gladly recommend for enterprises that want to create and manage a cluster of virtual machines. The main drawback is its high price which makes it unsuitable for small businesses with few employees.
Shares of Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS – Get Rating) have received an average rating of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $89.80.
Separately, StockNews.com downgraded Citrix Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 30th.
Citrix Systems Stock Performance
NASDAQ CTXS opened at $103.90 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $103.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $101.00. Citrix Systems has a twelve month low of $78.07 and a twelve month high of $108.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.92. The company has a market capitalization of $13.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.12 and a beta of 0.08.
Citrix Systems (NASDAQ:CTXS – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 26th. The cloud computing company reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter. Citrix Systems had a return on equity of 68.95% and a net margin of 9.97%. The business had revenue of $859.52 million for the quarter.Institutional Inflows and Outflows
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CTXS. Coston McIsaac & Partners bought a new position in shares of Citrix Systems during the second quarter valued at about $29,000. Prospera Financial Services Inc bought a new stake in shares of Citrix Systems in the first quarter worth about $31,000. Private Trust Co. NA bought a new stake in shares of Citrix Systems in the second quarter worth about $32,000. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Citrix Systems in the second quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Richelieu Gestion PLC bought a new stake in shares of Citrix Systems in the first quarter worth about $40,000. 87.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Citrix Systems Company Profile
Citrix Systems, Inc, an enterprise software company, provides workspace, app delivery and security, and professional services worldwide. The company offers workspace services, including Citrix Workspace; Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops; Collaborative Work Management; Citrix Content Collaboration, a cloud-based file sharing, digital transaction, and storage solution, which provides enterprise-class data services on various corporate and personal mobile devices; Citrix Analytics for Security that assesses the behavior of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, and Citrix Workspace users and applies actions to protect sensitive corporate information; Citrix Analytics for Performance, which uses machine learning to quantify user experience; Citrix Secure Workspace Access that provides an end-to-end solution to implement Zero Trust principles; and Citrix Secure Internet Access, which provides a solution that protects direct internet access for branch and remote workers using unsanctioned apps.
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Cloud News
Wade Tyler Millward
The Citrix-Tibco deal passed a shareholder vote in April.
Virtualization and cloud products vendor Citrix and enterprise applications vendor Tibco Software have completed their merger, valued at $16.5 billion, with new leadership calling the combined company “a new global leader in enterprise software.”
The two companies announced the deal’s completion in a statement Friday. Investment firms Vista Equity Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital Corp. – an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management – took Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Citrix off the NASDAQ to complete the deal.
CRN has reached out to the companies for comment.
[RELATED: Citrix Partners: Go-Private Deal Hinges On Restoring ‘Heart Of True Innovation’]
Shareholders will receive $104 cash per share, according to the statement. The Citrix-Tibco deal passed a shareholder vote in April.
Tom Krause, who left Broadcom after the chip giant’s announced acquisition of VMware to become CEO of the combined Citrix and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tibco, called the combined company “a new global leader in enterprise software” in the statement.
“We are excited to create a new global leader in enterprise software, designed for scale and growth, through the combination of Citrix and TIBCO,” Krause said. “The platform we have built will expand and deepen our relationships with our valued customers and partners, drive the future of mission-critical cloud software solutions and create long-term value for all our stakeholders.”
With the completion of the Citrix-Tibco deal, Krause revealed on LinkedIn that he is now CEO of Cloud Software Group (CSG), the owner of Citrix and Tibco.
A website for CSG said that Citrix and Tibco will remain separate business units as well as their major solution lines, including Citrix’s NetScaler and ShareFile and Tibco’s ibi and Jaspersoft.
The companies will retain their own branding as well, according to CSG.
Hector Lima, Citrix’s executive vice president and chief customer officer, has the title of EVP of field and channel sales with CSG, according to the website. Lima “leads the global sales, channel ecosystem and customer experience organization,” according to CSG.
Among the executives at CSG include Tibco Chief Information Officer Rani Johnson as CIO, Tibco Chief Financial Officer Tom Berquist as CFO.
Citrix Chief Product Officer Sridhar Mullapudi has been named general manager of Citrix. Tibco Chief Operating Officer Matt Quinn has been named general manager of Tibco, according to CSG.
Abhilash Verma, vice president of product management for application delivery and security at Citrix, has been named general manager of NetScaler. And Ali Ahmed, Tibco’s senior vice president of engineering, has been named CSG’s general manager of enterprise applications, according to the company.
Wrike Separated
Meanwhile, while Citrix and Tibco have joined together, Citrix subsidiary Wrike has formally split from the virtualization and cloud technologies vendor.
In March 2021, Citrix closed on its purchase of Wrike, a collaborative work management platform and Vista portfolio company, for $2.25 billion.
On Friday, Wrike CEO Andrew Filev posted on the company’s website announcing that Wrike has completed its separation from Citrix and has “the financial backing” of Vista and Evergreen.
“We will leverage our newfound position as a private, autonomous company to continue pursuing innovation focused on solving dynamic workplace challenges and meeting the needs of the modern workforce,” Filev said in the post.
He continued: “As Wrike moves forward, our focus remains the same. We have the most intuitive, versatile, and scalable work management platform on the market and a collaborative, driven team dedicated to freeing our customers to focus on their most purposeful work. There’s never been greater demand for a solution like ours and a better time to deliver it.”
In September, the company hired Brian Clark as chief revenue officer, according to his LinkedIn. He came to Wrike after more than three years with customer experience technologies provider InMoment, leaving with the title of executive vice president and chief revenue officer.
Long Path To Private Ownership
Citrix had a long path to returning to life as a private company. Elliott Management previously bought a stake in the company in 2015 and Elliott partner Jesse Cohn joined the board. He left in 2020, according to a Citrix statement from the time.
Citrix reportedly explored sales and spin-off strategies in 2015 and 2017. Citrix partners at the time voiced displeasure to CRN about Elliott’s 2015 presence.
Rumors of Elliott Management seeking ownership of Citrix popped up in the fall of 2021 following a 16 percent drop in Citrix’s share price year and Elliott Management buying a 10 percent stake in Citrix. Rumors of Elliott and Vista working together to take Citrix private first surfaced in December.
At the start of 2022, Citrix partners who spoke to CRN were cautiously optimistic about the deal.
Partners wanted to see Citrix’s actions back up executives’ words that the company was investing in its channel partner program – not to mention, investing in its technology to break out from the crowded market of vendors offering services aimed at remote workforces.
In 2021, even Citrix’s leadership voiced displeasure in Citrix’s go-to-market strategy. CEO David Henshall stepped down in the fall and interim President and CEO Bob Calderoni promised “to shore up our channel programs and put in place the right incentives for our channel partners.”
“The channel is still there. The channel hasn’t gone away,” Calderoni said on an earnings call in November. “They’re not selling somebody else’s products. They’re just focusing on other parts of their business. And like any part of a sales organization, and the channel is part of our sales organization, we want to make it more profitable for them to do business with us.”
Citrix channel chief Bronwyn Hastins left Citrix in May 2021 for Google Cloud, with Mark Palomba – Citrix’s chief operating officer of sales and services – taking over the role.
In April, Hector Lima told CRN about efforts to “decentralize” its partner program, pushing more resources for partners “out to the edge” and making Citrix easier to do business with for partners.
In addition to the partner program changes, Lima said that Palomba would leave the role of channel chief, with Citrix possibly adopting multiple channel chief roles.
Sept 21 (Reuters) - Wall Street banks completed the sale of $8.55 billion in loans and bonds backing the leveraged buyout of business software company Citrix Systems Inc (CTXS.O) by accepting a $700 million loss, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
The process emerged as a key test of banks' ability to offload junk-rated debt from their books, a process that is necessary for them to recycle capital and comply with regulations governing their financial health.
While the syndication was completed successfully, it was done at a steep discount to the levels that the banks underwrote the debt. It was also buoyed by one of Citrix's acquirers, hedge fund Elliott Management, helping out by buying $1 billion in bonds, a second source said.
Private equity firms, which rely on junk-rated debt to juice returns in their acquisitions of companies, have witnessed banks retrench in the wake of Citrix and other deals weighing on their balance sheet. Bankers said this was unlikely to change soon, as rising interest rates and market volatility fueled by Russia's war in Ukraine raised the risk of deals they underwrite appearing mispriced just a few weeks later.
Banks led by Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.S) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc sold a Citrix loan to investors of about $4.55 billion with an annual interest rate of 450 basis points over their benchmark and at a discount of 91 cents on the dollar, people familiar the matter said.
They also sold a $4 billion three-year Citrix bond for 83.6 cents on the dollar, resulting in a higher than expected yield of 10%, the sources added. Reuters had reported last week the loans were meeting strong demand, while the bonds, which were subordinated in Citrix's capital structure, were less popular. read more
Bank of America and Credit Suisse declined to comment. Goldman Sachs and Elliott did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
More debt syndication pain for the banks is on the way. A roughly $2 billion loan backing private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc's (APO.N) purchase of telecommunication assets from Lumen Technologies is being marketed at a discount of 92 cents on the dollar, while a $1.87 billion bond for the same deal is being sold at a steep 10% yield.
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Reporting by Abigail Summerville in New York and Matt Tracy in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Josie Kao
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
JHVEPhoto
Elliott Investment Management is said to have purchased about $1 billion of the junk-bond deal supporting its planned buyout of software company Citrix Systems (NASDAQ:CTXS).
Apollo Global (APO) also purchasde about $500 million of the the $4 billion bond deal, according to traders, who cited a Bloomberg report.
The update comes as banks have struggled in accurate month to finance the $15 billion takeout of Citrix (CTXS) by Elliott and Vista Equity partners due to the nature of the financing markets. Several media outlets including Bloomberg earlier Wednesday reported that Wall Street banks are expected to lose about $600 million on debt backing the Citrix deal that they were forced to sell to investors at huge discounts.
The Elliott news also comes after an Apollo executive said a week ago that that he doesn't expect banks to to start financing debt for leveraged buyouts anytime soon. Banks aren't likely to fund large transactions until at least the fourth quarter due to the current economic uncertainty, David Sambur, co-head of private equity at Apollo told Bloomberg TV.
Earlier this month Citrix (CTXS) said that all regulatory approvals for its takeover have been received and that it expects the deal to close during the last week of the month.
Citrix (CTXS) agreed in January to a $16.5 billion sale to Vista Equity and Elliott Management.
