Sammarraie, Product Sales Specialist, speaks during the press conference. — SG photo by Doha Ghouth JEDDAH – Cisco and Citrix Strategic Alliance here say they can offer Saudi businesses a move to desktop virtualization which will cut their personal computer support costs and protect their intellectual property. The offer comes as there is an increasing trend by companies to run all their programs, applications, processes and data on centralized servers, which can then be accessed by employees or clients from remote desktops, laptops and smartphones. In a joint media statement recently, the two companies said the virtual desktop is expected to cover over 70 million units, or 15 percent of enterprise desktops and laptops, by 2014. To further accelerate this rapid market growth, customers need to ensure users receive a “rich high-definition experience for voice and video, and an integrated systems approach that reduces the costs and complexity of deployment”. The two companies quoted some analysts as saying that virtualization can reduce per user personal computer support costs by 51 percent which is about 67 percent of overall information technology expenses. In addition, virtual desktops provide a secure haven for a corporation's intellectual property because it is stored in a data center rather than on devices. The two companies said their alliance provides their clients with complete solutions to all their needs. Cisco is a leader in networking, datacenters, endpoint devices and collaboration and Citrix provides world class virtualization, delivery of desktops, applications and data, they said. This alliance can provide solutions that make it easier for organizations to deploy the infrastructure required to deliver information technology as a service across multiple networks and geographies. Mohammed Al-Sammarraie, Product Sales Specialist for the alliance in Saudi Arabia, said the industry is transitioning to cloud computing where mobile workforces can access media-rich applications from any device, anywhere and at any time. “Enterprises are turning to desktop virtualization to give them security, flexibility and cost-savings by delivering desktops and applications as a centralized service,” he added. __
