The evolution of XenDesktop^®

Knowing about the evolution of XenDesktop is not only about knowing when XenDesktop started, but about knowing everything that has come together to make this product. I've covered the technologies that have been bought over and built into the XenDesktop product. You'll also come across the feature packs of the XenDesktop versions that have uncovered major capabilities. As you read more, you will come across a summarized table, which shows the healthy and active development of the XenDesktop technology and provides a detailed timeline diagram as an easy reference to XenDesktop releases.

Citrix^® and its vision

XenDesktop is a desktop virtualization product from Citrix Systems, and it plays a vital role in its vision. Citrix Systems Inc. is publicly listed as CTXS and is an American multinational company founded on April 17, 1989, and it is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It has over 10,000 partners across 100 countries. All of the Global Fortune 100 companies use Citrix solutions.

Citrix's vision is to empower people to work better and live better by making IT simpler and enhancing the productivity of people. In its vision statement, Citrix aims at building mobile workspace solutions that give people new ways of working better, providing secure and seamless access to apps, desktops, files, and services that they need on any device at any time.

Citrix^®'s relationship with Microsoft

Citrix developed its first product and brought multi-user access to the IBM OS/2 platform. This product included the OS/2 source code, which was licensed by Microsoft alone, thereby bypassing IBM. However, this product failed to find a market when Microsoft removed their support to OS/2 in 1991.

Later, Citrix worked with Microsoft and obtained the license to Microsoft's Windows NT source code and then released its first product called Citrix Multiuser v 2.0 for the Windows platform in 1993. In 1997, under the Cross-Licensing and Development agreement, Microsoft and Citrix agreed to cooperate in the development of multi-user base capabilities for Windows, where each would develop, and then market, the additional components that would be built upon these base services.

This early and strong relationship with Microsoft shows a key capability of Citrix's ability to deliver a new class of multi-user and virtualization solutions for Windows technologies.

Citrix^® XenDesktop^® virtualization solutions

Citrix expanded its application delivery (XenApp) capabilities to include the virtualized Windows desktops, which were delivered securely from the data centre. Citrix started its initial desktop virtualization product called Citrix Desktop Server 1.0. Citrix later entered the data center and desktop virtualization markets with its acquisition of XenSource, a leader in the enterprise-grade virtual infrastructure solutions. Citrix announced the XenDesktop 2.0 for desktop virtualization in October 2007. Since its inception, Citrix has been actively enhancing the XenDesktop product. Citrix has made the XenDesktop solution robust and efficient by adding more capabilities to every major release. On average, a new version of XenDesktop has been released every 6 months. This indicates Citrix's dedication and active priorities, when it comes to developing the product.

The following is Citrix XenDesktop's major, sub-version, and feature packs release track:

Sr. No	Released Version	Release Date (mm-yyyy)	Difference (in Months)
1	Citrix Desktop Server 1.0	04-2007	0
2	XenDesktop 2.0	05-2008	13
3	XenDesktop 2.1	09-2008	4
4	XenDesktop 3.0	02-2009	5
5	XenDesktop 3.0 Feature Pack 1	05-2009	3
6	XenDesktop 4.0	11-2009	6
7	XenDesktop 4.0 Feature Pack 1	03-2010	4
8	XenDesktop 4.0 Feature Pack 2	09-2010	6
9	XenDesktop 5.0	12-2010	3
10	XenDesktop 5.5	08-2011	8
11	XenDesktop 5.6	03-2012	7
12	XenDesktop 5.6 Feature Pack 1	06-2012	3
13	XenDesktop 7.0 (Excalibur)	06-2013	12
14	XenDesktop 7.1	10-2013	4
15	XenDesktop 7.5	03-2014	5
16	XenDesktop 7.6	09-2014	6
17	XenDesktop 7.6 Feature Pack 1	03-2015	6
	Average (in Months)		6

The XenDesktop^® and Project Avalon roadmap

In May 2012, Citrix first announced Project Avalon during a Citrix Synergy conference. Project Avalon is a highly optimized and tuned integration of XenDesktop and CloudStack. CloudStack is an open-source Cloud computing software, which is used for implementing and managing the infrastructure of Cloud services. Project Avalon's objective is to empower businesses to rapidly deploy personalized Windows apps and desktops in a private Cloud across single or multiple sites, and to utilize the public Clouds in a "capacity on demand" fashion. It supports business initiatives, such as business continuity, integrating mergers and acquisitions, or offshoring projects.

At the October 2012 Synergy, Citrix laid out the path to the Project Avalon delivery in two major releases:

• The Excalibur release; key features included:
  • A simple and unified service delivery by using FlexCast 2.0, which will integrate XenApp and XenDesktop
  • Reinventing HDX (High-Definition Experience) for mobile and video
  • New HDX EdgeSight for real-time analytics and service visibility
  • Support for Windows 8 and Windows server 2012
• The Merlin; key features included:
  • Self-service provisioning, management, and service orchestration
  • An architecture that is open and scalable; it also supports any-site and any-Cloud architecture
  • Uninterrupted and easy service upgrades that support mix-and-match product releases

In June 2013, Citrix released the Project Avalon Excalibur with the XenDesktop 7 release. It was the first release of Project Avalon, and it integrated both XenApp and XenDesktop technologies into a unified FlexCast Management Architecture (FMA) for delivering Windows applications and desktops as Cloud services. Project Avalon makes and drives the XenDesktop roadmap along the way. The following screenshot taken from the Citrix website will give you an overview of Project Avalon: