Citrix Sees Great Opportunity for Desktop Virtualization in CAD Applications

Citrix, a provider of virtualization solutions, is expanding the reach of Citrix XenDesktop with HDX 3D Pro with new customers.

The new customer wins further underlines Citrix’s success in virtualizing 3D CAD apps, allowing customers to extend desktop virtualization to engineering, design and manufacturing segments, the company said.

In today’s competitive environment, design and manufacturing organizations require the ability to collaborate and manage design lifecycles effectively with offshore, mobile and remote employees across the globe.  They also have to maintain tight security and control over valuable intellectual property as the workforce becomes more mobile and distributed.

XenDesktop with HDX 3D Pro stands out among competitive products because it is the only solution that can support high-end designers, engineers and broad range of employees working with 3D data, while delivering real-time, remote collaboration, Citrix claims.

With XenDesktop, customers can securely deliver CAD applications to dispersed design teams, with the stunning visual performance required for this type of intensive design and engineering work, Citrix said.

Citrix has won global customers like Knightec and Wiha Werkzeuge for XenDesktop. The solution has seen rapid uptake across several organizations across North America, Europe and Japan in heavy manufacturing, global engineering and energy sectors.

The market for CAD virtualization is huge. Today, there are nearly 15 million CAD users that design products and another 100 million users require access to design data to view and edit these designs. 

“Supporting the CAD application market with our desktop and app virtualization solutions represents a significant growth opportunity for Citrix,” said Calvin Hsu, vice president of product marketing, Desktop and Apps at Citrix, in a statement.

Knightec, one of the new customers, said it is delivering product design projects faster and at a lower cost by empowering engineers to work and collaborate from anywhere using Citrix technologies.  

The company selected XenDesktop with HDX 3D Pro because of its better performance with their design and simulation applications and shared GPU roadmap with NVIDIA (News - Alert), said Jörgen Norman, head of IT at Knightec. “Now engineers in any location can use their virtual desktops to access CAD applications and collaborate around project files.”

 Germany’s Wiha Premium Tools, a manufacturer of precision hand tools for use in industry and skilled trades, uses XenDesktop with HDX 3D Pro technology to support remote locations securely, while enabling mobile work styles for CAD developers.

“The development of a completely independent environment would have caused high costs and considerable administrative effort, and synchronizing data regularly with the head office would have taxed the network connection enormously,” said Wiha IT manager, Siegried Disch, in a statement.