Citrix helps partners learn to be good hosts

Software vendor lays out third party options to resellers eyeing hosted managed desktop move

Bland: Just five per cent of our resellers currently offer hosted managed desktop services

Citrix expects that half of its UK partners will be offering hosted managed desktop services by the end of 2010 and is playing matchmaker to help them make the leap.

The application delivery vendor recently launched XenDesktop 4, which is billed as the first virtual desktop solution to support every major desktop virtualisation model.

According to Citrix channel director Kevin Bland, just five per cent of the vendor’s 400 UK resellers currently offer hosted managed desktop services. That is projected to rise 10-fold over the next 14 months.

“The inflexion point has been the XenDesktop 4 launch,” Bland said.

Citrix had laid out a range of third-party options for resellers that do not have time to invest in architecting their own environment, Bland added.

This includes hosted desktop outfit Nasstar, which Citrix is encouraging its partners to white label.