Two weeks ago at Google I/O, we unveiled the first Chromebooks, a new kind of computer built and optimized for people who live on the web. Chromebooks are fast, secure and easy to manage. With a monthly subscription that includes a Chromebook, a web-based management console and 24/7 support starting at $28 for businesses and $20 for schools, Chromebooks will delight users, reduce IT complexity and save money.
The best part is: most organizations can use Chromebooks today because they’re already using web-based applications, or they’re using browser-based apps and virtualization technology to remotely access any remaining desktop apps. In fact, a recent survey we commissioned found that two-thirds of companies could switch the majority of their employees to an exclusively browser-based computing environment like Chromebooks by using a combination of web apps and application virtualization.1 To this end, we’ve worked closely with Citrix to bring application virtualization to Chromebooks.
Today we’re excited that Citrix has announced Citrix Receiver for Chromebooks, based on HTML5 standards - coming soon to the Chrome Web Store. This is great news for businesses and schools that want to take advantage of a modern browser-based operating system while preserving access to their existing desktop applications. At I/O for instance, we demonstrated Citrix Receiver running on Chromebooks and accessing a virtualized version of Adobe® Photoshop® right from the browser.
Now Chromebook users can not only access the huge number of business web apps and browser-based applications behind the firewall, but through Citrix Receiver they can also access an exhaustive set of desktop applications. This means that organizations don’t have to repurchase or rewrite existing applications when moving to Chromebooks, and they can offer Chromebooks to a wider range of users. We’re working to make the browser the platform for business computing, and we’re happy to be collaborating with Citrix on this transformation. Learn more about Chromebooks.
1Google-commissioned 2011 Hall & Partners online survey of over 400 IT decision makers.
8 comments:
Excellent
Will the Citrix Receiver Application be published on the Google Chrome Webstore? Will you work with Citrix to have it as a download or link option for "Google Chromebooks" on their Citrix website. I am unable to locate this HTML5 enabled application. I am certain everyone will have a problem with this if it is not easy to access.
Hi,
Will people who are self-employed (ie who work for themselves) be counted as business users and so be able to rent a laptop?
Cheers.
Awesome :D
It is unclear to me, after reading the Citrix website, what the Citrix Receiver actually does and how one would configure it.
So, is the Citrix Receiver a RDP client? Would a business need to buy some more server-side software from Citrix in order to be able to use the Receiver? Would a business need to hook into the Citrix cloud which would then act as a proxy?
Because if the Citrix Receiver needs more than an open port, it's a lot less useful than I assumed.
As I understand, Chrome OS is based on Linux and Citrix receiver was already available for Linux systems.
Whats new or whats different?
To answer a few of your questions....
Nimesh: While the Citrix receiver is available for Linux, it is not a web based application. This announcement shows that Citrix is going to port their application to an HTML5 based version that will run in a browser. Specifically the chrome browser within Chrome OS.
Emilian: The Citrix Receiver is a client that allows enterprise customers to view their citrix published apps already running inside the corporate firewall. The receiver is available on iphones, ipads, android devices, macs, and much more. The receiver communicates with a citrix security gateway at your companies firewall and all communication travels over default SSL (443). So to answer your question, yes you need citrix and a security gateway already in your organization in order to use the receiver. There might also be public cloud offerings of the security gateways that connect to cloud based app hosting but I haven't looked in to that.
Brian,
Rackspace offers hosted Citrix XenServer and XenApp which would in turn permit the ability to access via ICA protocol or through Citrix Receiver.
Post a Comment
Thank you for sharing your feedback with the Google Enterprise team. We will respond to open issues addressed in Comments with future posts on this blog. We appreciate your interest in Google Enterprise.