Bring your own device (BYOD) is a reality and enterprises are embracing instead of fighting the inevitable as they offer choice to their workers to attract and retain younger talent who are early adopters. According to Sanjay Deshmukh,area vice-president,Citrix India subcontinent,users are demanding the freedom to choose their own devices,use any app and access their e-mail and documents from anywhere. Organisations require a solution that addresses these user expectations,while also meeting ITs need for security. Santa Clara-based Citrix is a business software firm and Sanjay is responsible for the companys entire operations in India including enterprise and field sales,services,technical pre-sales and the post sales functions. In a recent interaction,he tells Sudhir Chowdhary that India is definitely expected to move up the adoption curve of using personal devices. Excerpts: BYOD is the latest buzzword in the tech industry. Is this a realistic concept in India? Let me share some statistics with you. Citrix commissioned a Workshifting Index survey,conducted among 1,100 companies globally,which had a representation from 100 companies in India as well. Around 47% Indian respondents polled currently provide flexible work environment for employees and are continuing to expand this scenario. This percentage is greater than the global average,which stands at 42% in the survey. Also,flexible work environments are being adopted for a litany of reasons as cited by Indian respondents. From a future perspective,India is definitely expected to move up the adoption curve of using personal devices. Around 38% of Indian respondents in this survey are currently using personal devices at workplaces; higher than the global average at 34.2%. India stood at fourth position preceded by countries such as Brazil (1st position),China (2nd position),the Netherlands (3rd position). Going forward,50% of the Indian respondents mentioned that they will use a personally-owned device at the workplace 24 months from now. The findings also state that by 2013,India would bridge this gap (beat the Netherlands) and be the third largest adopter of personal devices at workplaces after Brazil and China. The increasing use of personally-owned devices is a concern for most Indian respondents. Almost 67% of the Indian respondents feel a heightened level of concern over security,which is more than the global average at 43%. Basically all these statistics indicate that concepts like BYOD and work shifting is increasingly becoming a reality even in India. Two years ago,enterprises may have felt that consumerisation of IT was a threat,but now they see it as an opportunity to save money,especially in tough times. How important is India as a market for Citrix? The Indian market represents one of the highest growth businesses for Citrix and,therefore,has top priority exposure within our company. Building India is mainly about two things. On one hand,India is a significant market from a sales perspective. Aside from sales,we have a large India R&D team of more than 1,000 employees,which is part of our global innovation fabric. What are the broad focus of activities for Citrix in India? Having started our India operations in 2000,Citrix has completed over a decade of its presence in the country. Today,we have our offices in Mumbai,Delhi and Bangalore strengthened by a sales,marketing and support staff of more than 50 employees coupled with over 1,000 employees in the R&D team. In India,Citrix has a portfolio of over 3,500 customers across major verticals such as IT-ITeS,banking and financial services,manufacturing,telecommunications among others. From a sales stand point,2011 has been an exciting year for the virtualisation industry,and for Citrix in India. In terms of moving the needle of adoption,Indian customers transitioned from testing phase,to actual implementations of desktop virtualisation. We also signed prestigious customers such as Aegis,Perfetti Van Melle India,TJSB Sahakari Bank and Geometric in the desktop virtualisation space. In terms of our strategy for the market,Citrix currently operates in the country through more than 55 partners which include distributors,system integrators,Citrix solutions advisors,Citrix service providers and Citrix cloud advisor partners. How are Indian customers adopting solutions such as desktop virtualisation? In India,we have seen a change in mindset of organisations. Most of them are looking for virtualisation and cloud like models of delivering IT,which means services are on an on-demand format. This is a function of multiple industry drivers and an imminent change in the way we work. Increasingly,employees are beginning to get their own devices to work; a trend that has been triggered by multiple factors such as the need to be mobile and productive. Desktop virtualisation has emerged as a key driver for this trend of consumerisation of IT. By virtualising desktops and applications and by delivering them on any device,on any network and in any location,companies will be able to realise their ultimate vision of delivering entire IT as a service,and will also drive huge productivity gains. Can you elaborate on some of the benefits that your clients have accrued as a result of a desktop virtualisation implementation? Employees are beginning to get their own devices to work; a trend that has been triggered by multiple factors such as the need to be mobile and productive. With IT becoming increasingly consumerised and businesses now operating in a heterogeneous mobile environment,CIOs are looking to embrace technologies such as desktop virtualisation to maximise the true potential of a consumerised workforce. In the case of Essar group,the company is planning to move 90-95% of its workforce to Citrix XenDesktop platform and aims to complete implementation of virtual desktops for 40,000 users this year. On the operational efficiency front,desktop virtualisation has the ability to reduce operating expenses by centralising desktop maintenance and reducing desk-side support needs. Acute downward pressure on capital and operational expenditure is now driving adoption of desktop virtualisation. This is giving the organisations the ability to extend the life of their devices and delay the refresh cycle.
