M7 Global Partners Unite with EMC to Deliver Optimized Citrix XenDesktop Virtualized Deployments

CITRIX SYNERGY – SAN FRANCISCO, CA - May 07, 2012 -

M7 Global Partners today announced a comprehensive strategic initiative with EMC® to collaborate on the development and deployment of desktop virtualization infrastructures that integrate world-class technologies from EMC and Citrix.

News Summary:

The initiative comprises the following:

• Development and execution of dedicated customer-focused programs to design, optimize and support deployments of Citrix XenDesktop®
• Joint development of proof-of-concepts to meet customers' desktop virtualization requirements now and into the future
• Development of proven, pre-tested reference architectures, such as VSPEX and others, to ensure quick and easy desktop virtualization deployments
• Customer education to help establish the value and benefits of desktop virtualization as well as an understanding of deployment best practices
• A full-spectrum of professional services supporting a deep understanding of the virtual desktop deployment lifecycle to enable smooth and rapid navigation through every step of the process including assessment, design, deployment and optimization

Full Story:

M7 Global Partners today announced a comprehensive strategic initiative with EMC to collaborate on the development, delivery and deployment of desktop virtualization infrastructures that integrate world-class technologies from EMC and Citrix. An example of this collaboration will focus on EMC's recently announced VSPEX™, a new offering for channel partners based upon pre-configured and tested architectures. EMC VSPEX gives partners easy to deploy solutions that offer customers unprecedented choice while accelerating their journey to the cloud.

M7 Global Partners and EMC plan to develop and execute dedicated programs centered on the development of proof-of-concept deployments for customers, joint customer engagement and education, as well as the development of field-tested and proven reference architectures for optimal desktop virtualization infrastructures. This enhanced relationship underscores a joint commitment to meet customer needs and requirements with robust, streamlined, and timely deployments.

The collaboration between M7 and EMC is grounded upon a set of tested and validated EMC solutions for the Citrix suite of products and includes support for key hypervisors and protocols as well as both methods of desktop creation (PVS and MCS). The partnership will extend these solutions by enabling accelerated deployments of both proof-of-concepts and full-scale customer implementations.

Implementing a complete virtual desktop infrastructure requires expertise in desktop deployment and migrations, application virtualization, security, system management and storage design. M7 Global Partners and EMC are delivering world-class desktop virtualization deployments to a broad range of customers across a wide range of industries. To accomplish this, the partners are enabling customers through education and professional services including detailed assessments, deployment services and proven solutions.

Customer Quote:

Charles Rosse, system administrator II, Baptist Memorial Health Care

"To be able to manage multiple servers and their updates through virtualization represents an enormous time savings which directly translates to reduced costs in our IT organization," said Charles Rosse, system administrator II, Baptist Memorial Health Care. "With the dedicated VNX®, we are able to capture all the IOPS that we need and we can present critical applications to end users in a fast, reliable environment that is easily managed and migrated as needed. By engaging with EMC and LPS integration, a member of the M7 Global Partners, we are able to smoothly assess our needs, design the best configuration, and deploy very quickly. We were insured of fast and effective support in meeting our needs and overcoming any obstacles."

Analyst Quote

Mark Bowker, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group

"The alliance between the M7 Global Partners and EMC for desktop virtualization with Citrix addresses many key barriers to entry for a customer. This relationship marks an opportunity for customers seeking to leverage partners that are well versed and experienced in desktop virtualization with a leader in storage. By uniting the partners expertise and validated EMC solutions, the partnership is tackling key desktop virtualization implementation challenges and making a mark in this rapidly growing segment of the market."

Technology Partner Quote

Cynthia Gallant, Vice President, Channel Strategy and Development at Citrix

"Our customers will benefit from the closer alignment between the M7 Global Partners and EMC. Through M7's expertise in consulting and implementation, customers can accelerate their deployments of desktop virtualization. Industry-leading technology from EMC combined with Citrix XenDesktop gives these businesses the ability to enable mobile workstyles for their users with anywhere, anytime access to desktops, applications and data."

Channel Partner Quotes

David Linzy, CTO, M7 Global Partners, President and Managing Partner, LPS

"The M7 partners and EMC are not starting from scratch, but rather we are building on our collective efforts and experience to advance our optimized solutions.” said David Linzy, CTO, M7 Global Partners, President and Managing Partner, LPS Integration. "We are leveraging our position as leading partners for both EMC and Citrix by aligning to ultimately help customers realize the benefits associated with deploying a virtual desktop environment."

Adam Bari, CMO, M7 Global Partners, Managing Director, IPM

"M7's ability to perform end-to-end deployments allows us to build out a complete solution without having to obtain expertise from anywhere else, and extensive customer service and support is available to restore systems saving time and money for our customers" said Adam Bari, CMO, M7 Global Partners, Managing Director, IPM.

Kennith Rindt, VP of Strategic Alliances, M7 Global Partners, SVP of Sales and Strategic Alliances, AEC Group, Inc.

"M7 is very excited about strengthening our relationship with EMC in regard to the design and delivery of Citrix based solutions." said Ken Rindt, VP of Strategic Alliances for M7 Global Partners. "We have been leveraging EMC as a key component of our virtual desktop reference architectures from the start, and believe our alignment will be hugely beneficial for customers."

EMC Executive Quote

Parmeet Chaddha, Vice President, Solutions Group, EMC Corporation

"EMC is laser focused on accelerating the journey to cloud computing. Our recent announcement of the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure is a perfect example of how EMC, in conjunction with key resellers like the M7 Global Partners, is taking a concrete base of new solutions that are available today and partnering to assist customers in transforming their IT environment. We feel that through tighter technical, go-to-market and services alignment we can help customers more rapidly respond to key factors driving their decision to migrating to desktop virtualization."

The EMC solution for Citrix XenDesktop will be showcased in booth #402 at Citrix Synergy, May 9-11 in San Francisco. For further information and to view the associated whitepaper, please click here.

About M7

M7 Global Partners is a national network of the country's leading IT consultants dedicated to delivering datacenter and desktop solutions with an emphasis on virtual desktop solutions for mid-tier and enterprise customers and government agencies. The mission of M7 Global Partners is to increase the value, credibility, depth and reach of the regional M7 partner by developing a global organization that focuses on higher quality, more consistent, centralized relationship and experience for our vendors, system integrators and partners, and most importantly – our customers. M7 Global Partners is committed to providing its customers with the best desktop virtualization options available today.

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