Citrix Systems yesterday announced it has teamed with Dell to deliver a new VDI appliance that radically simplifies and accelerates desktop virtualization deployments for the mass market. The Dell DVS Simplified solution with Citrix VDI-in-a-Box™ is an easy, repeatable solution that will be sold through Dell’s global sales team and channels, reaching millions of customers who want to take advantage of the significant business benefits that desktop virtualization offers, such as enhanced mobility and streamlined IT management.

Leveraging the all-in-one Citrix VDI-in-a-Box software, Dell and Citrix have created a simple integrated hardware VDI appliance that is pre-certified to support defined numbers of desktops. Based on the unique VDI-in-a-Box grid architecture running on Dell servers, the Dell DVS Simplified VDI appliance can be easily installed to create and rapidly scale a virtual desktop deployment in response to business needs, making VDI easily consumable by light IT  organizations that may have previously lacked the resources and datacenter infrastructure needed for desktop virtualization.

The VDI appliance is backed by a full Citrix Ready® verified ecosystem, providing customers with tested and validated workforce mobility solutions, supporting over one billion devices, including PCs, Macs, thin clients, tablets, smartphones, along with peripherals such as web cams, printers, mice and keyboards. Customers can have full confidence that the VDI appliance works “out-of-the-box” with existing end-user technology. With the strengths of partnerships like Dell, Citrix is making VDI more simple than it has ever been and more ideal to grow on-demand than ever before, allowing businesses of all sizes to enable mobile workstyles for their users.   

The industry is moving rapidly from the PC era to the cloud era, and small and medium businesses want to capitalize on the business benefits of desktop virtualization, including driving efficiencies, enabling mobility and improving business continuity, but typically have much tighter budgets and far fewer resources. Citrix VDI-in-a-Box addresses these needs head-on. The VDI-in-a-Box design eliminates multiple moving parts that can potentially result in higher costs and complexity of infrastructure. The unique all-in-one grid architecture enables a building-block approach by leveraging Dell’s off-the-shelf servers. Scaling a deployment involves simply adding additional servers, with nothing to re-architect or reconfigure. Citrix continues to help simplify the purchase and accelerate the adoption of desktop virtualization with these new additions:

• A Simple, Integrated VDI hardware appliance – Dell and Citrix have teamed together to create an integrated hardware VDI appliance that comes pre-certified to support defined numbers of desktops. There is no need to determine how much disk, CPU and RAM to use. Simply unpack the box, power it on and go. Built on the VDI-in-a-Box grid architecture, adding virtual desktops is as simple as adding appliances like building blocks, and high-availability is built-in. This solution simplifies and accelerates VDI deployment especially for non-enterprise customers who may lack the resources and datacenter infrastructure that desktop virtualization may require.
• Support for Mobile Workstyles from Over One Billion Devices – The popular Citrix Ready verification program, which helps customers identify third-party solutions that are recommended for Citrix technologies is now expanded to include testing and validation for VDI-in-a-Box. Using the freely available Citrix Receiver™, users can connect from over one billion devices, including tablets, smartphones, Macs, PCs and thin clients to access their VDI-in-a-Box virtual desktop.
• Certified and Trained Partner Ecosystem –  Citrix has launched a comprehensive, self-paced 4-hour technical training curriculum for VDI-in-a-Box available free of charge to qualified partners. Over 1,000 partners have already taken the sales training curriculum for VDI-in-a-Box in the first few weeks of availability. The comprehensive partner sales and technical training is designed to enable the Citrix partner ecosystem to sell to and support the rapidly growing customer base for easy, affordable desktop virtualization with Citrix VDI-in-a-Box.

The Dell DVS Simplified appliance will be available from Dell this spring 2012. Learn more by visiting www.dell.com/dvssimplified.