You may have caught this week's announcement from Citrix on the availability of XenDesktop 7.5(see announcement here).  With this release, desktop virtualization implementers can tap into new elasticity and efficiencies of provisioning, managing, and scaling-up/down their deployments in real time, while also tapping into the simplicity and performance of Windows app delivery with XenApp 7.5 .

If you've followed Citrix and Cisco's journey in this space,you know that our two companies enjoy an extensive track record of collaboration and innovation in breaking down the CAPEX, complexity and performance barriers associated with delivering virtual workspaces to users, on any device, anywhere.  We're continuing to innovate on this front, bringing together a combined vision and architecture for desktop virtualization and enterprise mobility.   Cisco and Citrix continue to accelerate the ROI and performance of desktop virtualization, and are making it easier than ever for environments of all sizes to get into VDI and app virtualization quickly and cost-effectively.  Our new Solution Accelerator Paks for Citrix XenDesktop are a great proof point of that.

I want to now turn to a couple concepts that are central to this latest announcement.  The notion of an elastic infrastructure approach for these deployments, that straddles public and private cloud to enable 'capacity-flexing' in terms of virtual desktop scale. If you look at the underpinning, you see this notion of stateless, elastic provisioning present in the very core of our joint solution-the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS).

The DNA of the UCS architectureis based on answering the question "how would you build a server to deliver a pervasive virtual infrastructure that flexes in real time to changing, shifting workload capacity demands?"  Cisco answered that question four years ago with a compute platform purpose-built to deliver the goods, founded on our stateless provisioning and operations model.  This wire-once, touch-less environment for flexing desktop virtualization capacity up and down, is a foundational pillar for the Citrix announcement. If you haven't had a chance to test-drive UCS Manager and Service Profiles, check out the UCS Advantage.

Equally important is the reality that our customers need and want a balanced portfolio approach to how they consume IT servicesboth via the public and private cloud.  This hybridized approach provides insulation, security, and eliminates dependency and risk associated with any one delivery model.  This is central to Cisco's "World of Many Clouds" -and on that note you may have seen the news coming out ofCisco Live Milan on Wednesday January 28^th -available here.

If you're at Cisco Live Milan this weekI encourage you to stop by our Data Center booth and learn more about:

• UCS provisioning and management of workloads like VDI and app virtualization
• Desktop virtualization solution architectures with ecosystem partners
• Cisco UCS Invicta delivering accelerated VDI performance
• Much more