Citrix signaled its interest in being the top player in the burgeoning mobile device management market with plans to acquire Zenprise.

Citrix on Wednesday said it has agreed to acquire Zenprise, a solution provider that offers secure mobile access to applications and data over any mobile device, for an undisclosed sum in a deal expected to close sometime in the first quarter of 2013.

The acquisition stems from Citrix's need to respond to customer requirements for a complete, integrated stack of mobile applications, said Sumit Dhawan, vice president and general manager of mobile solutions at Citrix.

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"We started with Cloud Gateway, an application management product for a single point of control for all apps," Dhawan said. "We are also close to releasing other mobile apps, including mobile apps for secure email, secure Web browsing apps including access to corporate intranet portals, and a ShareFile app for synchronization and sharing of files. Zenprise is key to offering the entire stack, including the mobile device management part."

By integrating a complete stack of mobile application technology, Citrix is freeing customers from doing so on an ad hoc basis, Dhawan said.

"Customers need a complete stack instead of putting one together by themselves," he said. "With Zenprise, we will have a complete stack for enterprise adoption of BYOD (bring your own device)."

For Citrix, a core part of its business is allowing customers' employees to work and play anywhere, Dhawan said. "We've done that effectively with Windows apps on mobile device," he said. "With Zenprise, we can extend this to other mobile platforms."

Amit Pandey, president and CEO of Zenprise, said his company provides secure mobile device management across all major platforms, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile.

"Last year, we started with SharePoint on mobile devices," Pandey said. "Now there's no need to email a SharePoint file to yourself just so you can access it on an iPad. Zenprise is about letting users have access to apps they need while protecting corporate data."

In the next few weeks, Zenprise was already planning to release technology to access any app securely from a mobile device, Pandey said.

NEXT: Customer Choice For BYOD, BYO-Apps

Citrix's Dhawan said that the combination of Citrix and Zenprise will make it possible for business users to use their own mobile devices to access applications developed by Citrix, by their corporate IT departments or by third-party ISVs. Citrix, for instance, is developing applications that will provide any customer with such core business functions as secure email, Web access and document access, he said.

At the end of the day, customer choice is the most important consideration, Zenprise's Pandey said.

"Customers not only want BYOD, they want bring-your-own applications," he said. "A business user might go to the office and say he is using a collaboration or notes app bought in an app store. Most companies balk at that today. But we want to enable it so enterprises can work with those apps without being concerned about security."

For example, Pandey said a lot of corporate users are sending email attachments via Dropbox, which typically lies outside corporate policies regarding the security of business documents. With Zenprise, security policies are put in place so that Dropbox can be used to allow access while protecting the data.

"It's adding a layer of technology to secure the document," he said. "Dropbox is just an example. It could be any file sharing application."

Pandey said Zenprise's biggest competitors today are other mobile device management vendors, particularly the leader in this market, Mountain View, Calif.-based MobileIron.

"Post-Citrix acquisition, this deal does make us the largest player in this space," he said. "Now others will have to chase us."

Zenprise provides the mobile device management technology that underpins the offerings of a number of the IT industry's largest MSPs and cloud providers, Pandey said. The acquisition by Citrix should not impact those relationships, he said.

"In fact, Citrix is already a partner with many of these companies," he said. "We have already reached out to them about the acquisition."

PUBLISHED DEC. 5, 2012