Citrix, IBM Cozy Up On Systems Integration, Portlet Deal

As part of the deal, announced Monday, IBM's sales force will be authorized to offer Citrix's MetaFrame Access Suite to IBM's Intel-based eServer xSeries customers in North America, Canada and Puerto Rico, the company said.

The two companies also announced the availability of an enhanced portlet that provides integration between IBM's latest releases of WebSphere Portal with Citrix's MetaFrame presentation server.

The custom portlet--designed to give users of IBM's portal secure, single-point access to their heterogenous Web, custom and commercial applications--features support for multiple authentiation code, Java client support, configurable user settings and built-in multiserver farm support, the company said. It is available now.

Industry observers said the deal demonstrates Citrix's aggressive intent to gain more adoption in the enterprise. The company, a longtime partner of Microsoft, plans to detail an enhanced MetaFrame Windows XP Update on Tuesday but is also out building strong alliances with other industry leaders including Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

"It's a great step forward for Citrix to penetrate deeper into the enterprise to get to $1 billion [in revenue], which is their goal," said David Greschler, vice president of corporate marketing and co-founder of Boston-based Softricity, an ISV and Citrix partner. "They're moving from tactical to strategic action. People will see this deal with IBM as not just a way to get to legacy apps but a way to help you as you develop your new applications going forward."