Cisco and Citrix Simplify Go-to-Market with New Partner Accelerator Initiative

Companies collaborate to build channel partner competencies, elevate partner differentiation and drive partner profitability

SAN JOSE and SANTA CLARA, CA — June 25, 2012 — Cisco and Citrix today announced the launch of the Cisco and Citrix Partner Accelerator.  This new global initiative aligns the channel sales and delivery models across the two companies through a single framework to build partner competencies, elevate partner differentiation and drive partner profitability. Joint Cisco and Citrix channel partners can use the Partner Accelerator to capitalize on the fast-growing customer demand for enterprise mobility, desktop virtualization and device choice by delivering the Cisco Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI) with Citrix XenDesktop^® solution.

Highlights:

• The Cisco and Citrix Partner Accelerator tools help channel partners engage in consultative sales, expand their data center, desktop virtualization and collaboration practices, and develop repeatable solutions.
• It provides tools that better enable resellers who are partners of both companies to build a Cisco VXI with Citrix XenDesktop practice and deliver complete solutions that combine virtual desktops, voice and video for built on optimized data center, network and collaboration infrastructure.
• The Cisco and Citrix Partner Accelerator also makes available sales and marketing resources, which reduce the partners’ time-to-market and allow partners to compress customer sales and implementation cycles. Additional benefits that enhance partner profitability include proof-of-concept and assessment funding. The Cisco and Citrix Partner Accelerator also provides differentiation in the form of unique branding for those partners that complete the required investments.
• Additional details on the initiative including eligibility requirements and instructions on how to sign up are available on the Cisco and Citrix Partner Accelerator website.

Supporting Quotes:

Brian Allison, director, data center go-to-market solutions, for Cisco

Customer trends like bring your own device, work-shifting, mobility, video, collaboration, desktop and application virtualization, and cloud are changing the workplace as customers look for solutions that enable them to access all applications, communications services and data securely, with a superior user experience, from any device, anywhere, anytime. The Cisco and Citrix Partner Accelerator draws from the two companies’ best practices to give channel partners the resources they need to deliver complete, multi-vendor solutions that meet the needs of the changing workplace, and build more strategic relationships with their customers.

Cynthia Gallant, vice president, worldwide channel strategy and market development, for Citrix

Citrix and Cisco have been working together for over two years to bring a complete solution to the market based on the Cisco VXI platform that addresses the critical customer requirements to enable secure access to desktops, applications and data from anywhere and any device, while reducing operational complexity and cost. The Partner Accelerator, the next step in the evolution of our partnership with Cisco, arms our joint partners with the tools and training they need to build more strategic relationships with customers and grow their business by increasing revenue and shortening the sales and implementation cycle.

Richard Bernard, national practice lead, advanced systems, for ePlus

We have aligned our lines of business to sell VXI and desktop virtualization solutions. Taking a more prescriptive approach with customers packaging VXI and XenDesktop, we’ve found that this strategy resonates really well with customers. As a result we have been able to very quickly develop a set of solutions that meet varying customer needs and create new pipeline in a very short period of time. When Cisco and Citrix asked for input on the Partner Accelerator we were able to provide feedback that I am happy to say has been included in the development of this initiative. I expect that it will help us win business in the months ahead.

Pierre Hall, workplace business line director, for Computacenter

Desktop virtualization is a key pillar of the contemporary workplace enabling greater flexibility and productivity. Computacenter has been helping its customers realize the full potential of virtualization for more than 10 years using both Citrix and latterly Cisco technologies as transformation drivers. By combining our industrialized processes with the Cisco VXI strategy and Citrix XenDesktop, we will be able to help customers remove cost and complexity from the workplace. We joined the Cisco and Citrix Partner Accelerator in March 2012; it’s a compelling initiative that will support our go-to-market propositions and enable Computacenter to better meet the needs of its customers.

Stan Sotiropoulos, data center practice leader, for Logicalis Australia

There’s a clear trend of employees bringing consumer devices into the workplace, and expecting the same IT experience at work as they are used to at home. Our customers are telling us that creating a more flexible IT environment with desktop virtualization and enabling BYOD is one of their top priorities. We’ve responded by developing the Logicalis Virtual Workspace, which integrates VXI and desktop virtualization and can be delivered as an on-site, managed or hosted solution. To successfully architect and bring this solution to market in a short timeframe, we’ve worked closely with Cisco and Citrix. Being part of the Partner Accelerator pilot extends this partnership and will enable our sales and technical people to better sell, position and implement the Logicalis Virtual Workspace solution. We’re very excited to take on this market opportunity, and expect great things from this partnership.

Related Links

• Blog: Can an Alliance make Desktop Virtualization Easier? Gary says yes!by Pamela Ferrill, Cisco
• Blog: Cisco and Citrix: A New Alliance for the Cloud Eraby Simon Hayes, Citrix
• Video: Cisco VXI with Citrix XenDesktop
• Announcement: Oct. 12, 2011 – Cisco Desktop Virtualization Solution Brings Unified Voice and Video to Virtual Environments
• Announcement: Sept. 8, 2010 – Cisco and Citrix Deliver Comprehensive Desktop Virtualization Solution

Follow Us Online

• Cisco and Citrix Partner Accelerator page
• Citrix and Cisco Strategic Alliance page
• Cisco Virtual Desktop with Citrix XenDesktoppage
• Citrix XenDesktoppage
• Twitter: @Citrix, @xendesktop, @Cisco Systems

About Cisco

Cisco, (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

About Citrix

Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) transforms how businesses and IT work and people collaborate in the cloud era. With market-leading cloud, collaboration, networking and virtualization technologies, Citrix powers mobile workstyles and cloud services, making complex enterprise IT simpler and more accessible for 260,000 organizations. Citrix products touch 75 percent of Internet users each day and it partners with more than 10,000 companies in 100 countries. Annual revenue in 2011 was $2.21 billion. Learn more at www.citrix.com.

For Citrix Investors

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