Microsoft and Citrix Systems have joined forces with a multi-year agreement, the companies announced on Wednesday.
“To drive business continuity and growth, organizations will need to embrace more flexible work models that accommodate these new priorities. Citrix Systems, Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are joining forces to reimagine this new, flexible workplace,” the companies said in an official release.
The partnership comes in light of the Covid-19 pandemic when businesses are resorting to tech solutions for ensuring business continuity.
“As organizations everywhere adapt to new ways of work, they will need to reimagine how and where work gets done,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft.
David Henshall, President and CEO, Citrix said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has forced businesses around the world to change the way that employees work, while still meeting the speed and security requirements that today’s uncertain business environment demands. Looking forward, hybrid-work models will become the standard for many customers, requiring a flexible infrastructure to support, secure and empower their teams.”
The partnership is meant to help organizations with the shift to cloud while minimizing the risk, cost, and complexity for companies and to enable speedier adoption of digital workspaces and virtual desktops.
As part of the agreement, Citrix Workspace will be the preferred digital workspace solution for Microsoft while Citrix will select Microsoft Azure as a preferred cloud platform. The company will shift its existing on-premises customers for its platform to Microsoft Azure.
“The companies will also devise a connected roadmap to enable a consistent and optimal flexible work experience that will include joint offerings comprised of Citrix Workspace, Citrix SD-WAN, Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 sold through their direct sales forces via the Azure Marketplace and a robust community of channel partners. Microsoft will lead sales with Citrix Cloud to move existing on-premises Citrix customers to Azure,” the companies said.
Citrix will also build a Microsoft-centric Citrix Workspace while integrating the platform with micro-apps for Windows Virtual Desktop and Microsoft 365, including Microsoft Teams.