Last week I had the privilege to attend Citrix Synergy 2015 down in Orlando, FL. In this blog I wanted to review some the key announcements Citrix made during the keynote.
XenApp 6.5 Lifecycle
Citrix loves XenApp, so much so that they extended the lifecycle for XenApp 6.5 to December 31, 2017. However, there is a catch; the extended date is only for customers that remain current in the Software Maintenance or Subscription Advantage and Technical Support programs. Otherwise the end of maintenance (EOM) date is February 26, 2016.
XenApp 6.5 FP3
This was a surprise, as was extending the lifecycle for XenApp 6.5. The feature pack will provide the following features, announced in the keynote:
- Storage performance
- Enhanced profile management
- Director “Help Desk” & troubleshooting
- Enhanced Lync support
- Receiver.next
- StoreFront 3 – will support XenApp 5, 6, 6.5 and 7.6
Out of these new features, the enhanced Lync support is something customers continue to ask for. A release date was not mentioned, but if it follows the other release dates it will more than likely be in June 2015.
XenApp/XenDesktop 7.6 FP2
The feature pack will provide the following, again as per the keynote:
- New Receiver for a unified workspace experience
- Lync 2013 on Mac optimization
- Touch ID support
- HDX with Framehawk
- Linux apps and desktops
The two major items here are the HDX with Framehawk and Linux apps/desktops. Citrix acquired Framehawk many months ago. This is the integration of Framehawk technology with HDX. The Framehawk technology improves performance for Citrix sessions that experience high latency. Linux apps and desktops are welcome additions to the standard Windows based OS’s that Citrix has supported for many years now. The tech preview of the Linux VDA only supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 Workstation and Server edition and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and Server 11 Service Pack 3. This could change once the feature pack is officially released.
There were other product announcements as well, but these stood out to me as many of Gotham’s customers have been asking about them. For any questions on these announcements please contact your Gotham Account Manager.