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Citrix expects strong growth in ME revenues

A global provider of IT software and services to enhance corporate and web-based applications, Citrix grew 40 per cent to Dh5.1 billion ($1.4 billion) in turnover as at end-2007, with the Middle East accounting over one per cent of the total.

Frederic Tourisseau, area vice-president for Southern Europe, Citrix Systems Finance, said the UAE and Saudi Arabia account 35 per cent each of Citrix's regional market while the remaining 30 per cent is distributed among the other Gulf states, the Levant countries of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, and Egypt, Libya, Turkey and Greece.

Seba Zreiby, manager for consulting services, Citrix Systems Middle East, said the company's regional headquarters in Dubai would transfer to a bigger office next month as part of its expansion in the Middle East. The number of Citrix employees will rise to over 20 from 15. Tourisseau stressed that Citrix is poised to grow tremendously in the Middle East, particularly Dubai, through partnerships with banks and small and medium businesses. "Our goal really is to grow by having more partners," he said yesterday.

He noted a recently expanded alliance with Microsoft Corporation as having achieved good results for both companies and their end users. Boosting their 18-year partnership, the two companies vowed to deliver and market joint virtualisation solutions with Windows Server 2008 for a more dynamic client-computing infrastructure.

The virtualisation technique hides the physical characteristics of computing resources from how applications or end users interact with those resources.

Tourisseau also said that Citrix's acquisition of XenSource, a virtualisation solutions provider from California, for Dh1.8-billion ($500 million) last year would fuel further growth of Citrix.

Citrix and another strategic partner, IBM, yesterday hosted chief information officers from across the region to discuss the latest industry trends.

Tourisseau said that 90 per cent of global telecommunications companies use Citrix application delivery to bring their products and services to customers. It counts Emirates Airlines, the Dubai Municipality and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank as among its major clients in the UAE.