Citrix Foresees the Future

Citrix has looked into its crystal ball and come up with some predictions for the coming year, starting with software networking and how it's outpacing physical networking. After establishing that virtualization has had a big impact on datacenter infrastructures, and how this development has been "magnified" by cloud computing, the company gets down with some virtual networking comments i.e. dynamic networks are the way to go as we constantly redefine traffic flow for individual users and VMs. As Citrix puts it, "The stage will be set in 2013 for SDN to become the dominant form of networking."

Next up: the megacloud, which will be borne of the large and growing number of cloud players in the market -- which Citrix says was 32 at last count. Look for enterprise apps and workloads to move to public clouds, and watch these apps be addressed by a "handful" of large cloud providers who will become front and center during 2013. Citrix also sees lots of room for improvement in cloud management, an area that is currently not served well by the big or midsized management vendors. "Keep your eye on this space -- in 2013 we'll see continued consolidation, players will disappear and new products will emerge," Citrix predicts.

Of course, the company could not predict a future without heavy-duty mobility implications, and in the vein, it says mobility goes well beyond devices or apps, and first-generation mobile device management (MDM) solutions are not the answer. MDM is just a feature of app delivery, management infrastructure and data protection. "With the uptick in BYO, draconian MDM measures are not being adopted because users don't want a blanket kill pill," Citrix declares, adding "In the next 12 months, mobile device management will adapt to the changing devices that are coming into the entgerprise. It will become an enhancement to a much broader enterprise mobility strategy."

Will it all happen the way Citrix predicts? The company is well-placed to prosper from its prognostications, and it will surely be in the middle of the changes it foresees.

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 11/29/2012 at 12:48 PM