Citrix is using CloudFormation (think of almost OO, but not quite) to provide an almost turnkey service.
Today at Citrix Synergy we are pleased to announce Support for Citrix XenApp on Amazon Web Services' cloud platform. Companies of all sizes are now free to deliver their Windows applications and desktops from the largest, most scalable, public cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS).
To make it easier for our joint customers to leverage the combination, we've also created some tools that make building Citrix farms on AWS easier. This is more than just a cosmetic upgrade from last year's XenApp 5 preview on AWS to XenApp 6, since the tools encompass additional technologies from Citrix's portfolio and embrace new services from AWS. Together these drive a significant improvement in flexibility, rapid provisioning and security.
To start, our reference design now incorporates AWS's new Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). This permits the use of highly configurable public and private networks just as you would in an enterprise datacenter. The majority of the XenApp 6 farm components run in the new Windows Server 2008 R2 AWS instances on our private network and only Xen App's SSL encryption Secure Gateway or Citrix Access Gateway are exposed on the public network. This further protects your confidential data with multi-tiered security controls.
We've also packaged reference Amazon Machine Instances (AMIs) for our customers' convenience with XenApp eval licenses and automated the process of creating new farms with AWS's new CloudFormation service.
Evaluating cloud based delivery of your Windows applications or desktops is now as simple as clicking a few buttons, waiting a few minutes for CloudFormation to run and logging into your new Citrix farm. More detailed, how-to information can be found here and here. A demo can be viewed here.
When you run XenApp on Amazon's cloud, there's no longer a need to incur capital costs or to wait for physical infrastructure to be constructed before you can deliver virtual applications and desktops to your users on nearly any computer, tablet or smartphone over any network.
