Citrix resellers have breathed a sigh of relief after the vendor backtracked on its decision to license XenDesktop 4 on a per-user basis only.

Sumit Dhawan, vice president for XenDesktop, used the Citrix blog yesterday to unveil several enhancements to the newly launched virtual desktop solution in response to customer feedback.

Most crucially, Citrix is introducing a new device-based licensing option, after recognising that customers in some industries have multiple users sharing the same devices.

Ewen Anderson, managing director at consultancy Centralis, argued this had been a big sticking point for the channel.

“It’s fair to say that this generates a huge sigh of relief from those of us who champion Citrix," he said. "Whether this was misdesigned or just miscommunicated, the result is that customers get access to highly beneficial new technology without having to swallow a new licensing module.”

Dhawan also revealed that Citrix is launching a "campus-wide" licensing option for education customers to placate cost-conscious universities.

Anderson said: “Throwing campus agreements into the mix also promises to solve an issue we have complained about to Citrix at every level for more than five years with no apparent progress, so at the second try, 10 out of 10, well done and keep it up.”

XenDesktop4 is designed to go beyond VDI-only products but the vendor has bowed to pressure by introducing a new ‘killer’ VDI-only solution for people getting started with virtual desktops.

Dhawan said the initial response to XenDesktop 4 has been “overwhelmingly positive”.

But he added: “Amid all the positive responses, however, it also became clear that we missed a few important things on the licensing and packaging front in our initial announcement. Feedback from numerous surveys and one-to-one conversations found that some customers needed additional flexibility to license virtual desktops based on devices, rather than users.”