With an increasing number of applications being run from browsers, Google created Chromebooks as another way to wean users off the Windows platform.
Sales of the small laptops made by Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Dell, Toshiba and Samsung Electronics have picked up, with some enterprises giving them to employees for certain workloads.
Now Citrix Inc. has come up with a promotion to take advantage of the trend with special pricing for its XenApp virtual application delivery solution along with Citrix Receiver, allowing business Chromebook users to run Windows applications.
From now until Sept. 30, the company is offering 25 per cent off on XenApp Premium licences on new Chromebooks purchased during the almost six-month period.
XenApp Platinum is a virtual desktop suite that allows Windows apps to be pushed to up to 100,000 users. The promotion is deliberately held as support for Microsoft Windows XP ends, and is partly being pitched as a way to help migrate staff from XP to newer versions of the operating system.
Chromebooks are aimed at running Google apps through its Chrome browser, so no installed apps are needed.
“With the growing acceptance of new computing platforms in the enterprise, like Chrome, we are helping Chromebook users get access to these business-critical apps anywhere and at any time,” said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, Citrix’s senior vice-president and general manager of its enterprise and service provider division, in a statement.
He noted that in Australia, supermarket chain Woolworths Group has committed to equipping most of its staff with Chromebooks. A number of staff are already on Google Apps for Business on their desktops.
“We see a very bright future for Google and Citrix in the enterprise,” Ramakrishna said.
Jeff Jedras of Computer Dealer News, our sister publication, did a quick review of the Google Chrome operating system. Head on over here to read it.
