‘Citrix has always provided a platform for providing secure, zero-trust access for your Windows-, Linux- and Mac-based applications and desktops. We’re expanding that platform,’ Sridhar Mullapudi, Citrix executive vice president and general manager, tells CRN.

Citrix is boosting its security capabilities with the purchases of a conditional access tools company and a cloud development environment platform provider and is still looking for more acquisitions.

Sridhar Mullapudi, executive vice president and general manager of Citrix for the vendor’s Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Cloud Software Group parent, told CRN in an interview that Germany-based deviceTrust and Switzerland-based Strong Network’s capabilities will become part of Citrix licenses in a matter of weeks and give partners more services opportunities. Both acquisitions have closed. The vendor did not reveal financial details.

“Citrix has always provided a platform for providing secure, zero-trust access for your Windows-, Linux- and Mac-based applications and desktops,” he said. “We’re expanding that platform.”

[RELATED: Citrix Inks Deal With Arrow To Provide More Resources To Smaller Partners]

Citrix Makes Two Acquisitions

Mullapudi said the vendor is still interested in acquisitions but is also focused on organic development of its products and building technology partnerships. He said the vendor has seen opportunities for itself and partners with Windows 365 and Cloud Software Group’s NetScaler application delivery suite taking share.

“We basically took all the friction away,” Mullapudi said. “The customer wins because they save money in the medium to long run. And the partner wins because they drive services, dollars and transformation. And I think, hopefully, Citrix wins in the long term as well because the customer has realized the value, the partner has realized the value, which means we’ll realize the value.”

Mike Strohl, CEO of Concord, Calif.-based e360, No. 128 on CRN’s 2024 Solution Provider 500, told CRN in an interview that Citrix’s outsourcing deal with Arrow has been a benefit to his solution provider, bringing him new customers.

Strohl has found success pitching Citrix as a platform offering for customers, showing that they get more value using Citrix’s enterprise browser, digital employee experience tool and other offerings as part of the platform as opposed to adding vendors that just provide one of those services.

“The messaging is starting to resonate,” he said.

DeviceTrust And Strong Network

Citrix’s two newly announced purchases follow the acquisition of Germany-based Vast Limits, the company behind the uberAgent end-user computing observability tool. That purchase was revealed in March and has helped Citrix users with monitoring Windows Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 Cloud PCs.

DeviceTrust adds a new layer of contextual access to Citrix virtual desktop infrastructure and Desktop-as-a-Service environments so that organizations can monitor and respond to device posture and user location changes, according to Citrix.

Strong Network, meanwhile, provides cloud development environments for building, launching and accessing mission-critical applications while providing data loss prevention and data infiltration detection for improved security, according to Citrix.

By purchasing deviceTrust, which was founded in 2016, Citrix will allow users to continuously assess device attestation, granting and revoking access based on real-time security conditions.

DeviceTrust also has a partner program for resellers and other business models, with partners including 2024 CRN Solution Provider 500 members XenTegra and Right Systems.

With Strong Network, which was founded in 2020, Citrix users will have further protection against phishing, malware and credential theft, according to the vendor. Strong Network complies with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and other common security standards.

Along with the acquisitions, Citrix said that users will have additional support for Secure Private Access in hybrid environments. This means users will have cloud management capabilities with on-premises data plane level resiliency, according to the vendor.

Citrix Channel Updates

Meanwhile, Citrix continues to see investments in its channel partner program—including pushing all billable services to the channel—pay off, Ethan Fitzsimons, Citrix channel chief, told CRN in an interview.

The vendor’s fourth quarter saw the highest percentage of the business go through the channel in the past five years, said Fitzsimons, whose official title is vice president and head of global channels.

“We continue to not only be channel-led and channel-first, but even more so than we have been,” he said.

He pointed to the recently revealed Citrix Preferred Services Partner accreditation, which is now held by more than 30 partners worldwide.

“It’s really a stamp of approval from us,” he said. “We are actually looking at customer deliveries and validating their skills, validating their capabilities, and we make a significant investment on that front.”