Indian market is abuzz with the immense potential and scope of information technology (IT). The new cloud computing platform, a offering of IT with huge prospects, is gaining enormous popularity in India as it makes using software and application programs considerably easy and hassle free, given that these programs are available on Internet; thereby, the cost of owning them gets minimal.
 
In order to ensure full utilization of this emerging cloud computing market, Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) has laid down strategic plans to increase its foothold in India.
 
Citrix has opened a new Research and Development (R&D) facility in Bangalore, India, which would carry out all sorts of research, including design, coding, functional testing and engineering management.
 
In addition, Citrix is also opening up an office in Mumbai to accommodate its expanding sales team. The facility will help accelerate customer response time, accomplish development work for mobile devices and offer support services.
 
The company has five R&D centers worldwide, with other facilities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan.
 
According to the U.S. research firm Gartner Inc., global cloud based services may attract hefty revenues of $148.8 billion by the end of 2014, thereby witnessing a growth of 16.6% from 2009.
 
Citrix has made several key additions to its Citrix OpenCloud™ infrastructure platform for cloud providers, such as enhanced networking and interoperability capabilities. To further enhance its OpenCloud prospects, Citrix signed a definitive agreement to acquire VMLogix, a leading provider of virtualization management for private and public clouds.
 
The acquisition will allow Citrix to add an intuitive, self-service interface to its popular XenServer® virtualization platform.
 
CA Technologies Inc. (CA), which provides cloud computing portfolio, has teamed up with Citrix’s rival Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) to focus on collaborative technology integration. With this agreement, the organizations are heading toward cloud computing based services to achieve greater agility, automation and scale in their data center operations.
 
Another global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, VMware Inc. (VMW) paired with Google Inc. (GOOG) to make cloud applications more productive, portable and flexible.
 
As per IDC, enterprise server cloud computing will grow from an $8.4 billion opportunity in 2010, representing over 600,000 units, to a $12.6 billion market in 2014, with over 1.3 million units.
 
The company is benefiting from the trend toward globalization and the growing popularity of the concept of the virtual office. The desktop virtualization market is expected to accelerate further in 2010. While server virtualization currently has an addressable market size of approximately 35 million servers worldwide, desktop virtualization has the potential to impact more than 600 million desktop users in corporate environment alone.
 
We maintain our long-term Neutral recommendation for Citrix. Currently, it is a Zacks #3 Rank (Hold) stock.
 
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