Citrix tech guy gives his take on directions in mobile and odds on Apple, Android, and yes, Microsoft....
Citrix’s Harry Labana has a notable view of mobile enterprise computing. Labana has been a Wall Street technology executive, is responsible for supporting multiple devices with the Citrix Receiver and has a ground-level view of mobile development and what it means to the enterprise.
We caught up with Labana, chief technology officer of desktop and application virtualization at Citrix, to talk strategy, managing mobile devices in the enterprise, Microsoft’s tablet prospects and cloud computing.
Here’s the recap from our conversation earlier this week.
On bring your own IT, Labana said the trend isn’t going away, but also noted that Citrix isn’t only promoting consumerization. “BYO isn’t a religion and we’re not only promoting it,” said Labana. “The devices can be enterprise or consumer owned, but there will more of them.”
What about the impact of consumerization on managing technology? The reality here is that there are costs to managing distributed devices, said Labana. “If it costs X to manage the PC and phone fleet it’s going to cost even more to manage tablets,” said Labana. “The greater number of devices there are the greater the risks.” Before joining Citrix, Labana was a technology executive at Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms so he knows the perils of data leakage and risks to a company’s reputation. The Holy Grail for IT is to manage a smaller, simpler device footprint, but with enough flexibility to keep users happy.
Are so-called thin clients the answer? Labana played down the role of the thin client. The reality is that some things will need to run locally. Labana prefers the idea of a slim client that can run some things locally, but is simple. In the enterprise, these slim clients are really lightweight PCs. “Companies aren’t buying workstations and several hundred dollar PCs,” he said. Some verticals like healthcare can use zero touch thin clients, but most will prefer slimmed down PCs.
How’s Microsoft’s tablet strategy looking? Citrix is a long-time partner of Microsoft so Labana couldn’t complain too much, but did acknowledge that the software giant has catching up to do. However, Labana noted that it isn’t too late for Microsoft to be a tablet player. “The sweet spot for Microsoft is still the enterprise customer, who is broadly Windows based. That’s not going to change,” said Labana.
What are the most mature platforms today? Given Citrix’s move to put its Receiver software on multiple devices, Labana has a good view of the mobile platform landscape. “We have focused the Citrix Receiver to run on all devices, but it requires a lot of spending to make it run on every platform,” he said. Labana breaks down the mobile platforms this way:
Apple’s iOS is the most mature to develop for. Android is second and Citrix’s Receiver was easy to port since it was built on Linux. The problem with Android is that it runs differently on each type of device—Dell Streak, Samsung’s Tablet, Motorola, HTC etc.
Who wins in the enterprise? Labana says the customers and technology managers he talks to are split on Apple vs. Android. “To some of them, open and fragmented (Android) is a good thing. The IT buyer won’t feel locked in,” said Labana. “But all the users are buying iPads.” He did note that enterprises are concerned about lock-in with Apple.
Where will the enterprise app focus go—smartphones or tablets? Labana said “the IT guys are not writing apps for smartphones. If they are going to invest in something they are going to write apps for tablets.” Why? Form factor. The tablet is simply more useful for work tasks.
This site is produced by