Citrix has early gifts for security-conscious customers

Citrix has gone on a European shopping trip, and come home with its bag of gifts bulging thanks to a pair of major buys: infosec outfits deviceTRUST and Strong Network.

German outfit deviceTRUST’s approach to security starts with its well-founded belief that cyber crims try to steal valid authentication credentials, and their efforts to do so mean even two-factor authentication cannot guarantee whoever is logging on to your systems and apps can be trusted. The vendor’s products therefore allow users to understand the context in which devices are being used by assessing matters such as location and the presence of USB devices. If a user’s machine or behavior are outside expected contexts, the software can limit or deny access.

Swiss developer Strong Network offers “Cloud Development Environments” – coding environments that run in the cloud and which organizations can customize with their preferred tools, plus integrations with IDEs, GitHub and other online code repositories, and cloud storage services. Its offerings are suggested for developers who work on their own devices – perhaps a nod to contract coders or those who prefer Linux or macOS.

Both firms’ wares will be integrated into the Citrix Platform – the bundle of products Citrix offers under an invitation-only license and which includes tools to deliver virtual desktops and publish applications, plus plenty of other management and security tools for the networks and other infrastructure involved.

An FAQ [PDF] states that both will be made available to those who hold Platform licenses (and to some other customers), suggesting Citrix wants to boost the value of its bundle.

Citrix has also positioned the deviceTRUST acquisition as part of a plan to enhance its security capabilities by improving on its existing zero trust tools.

Another security advancement announced on the same day as the acquisitions is expanded support for Citrix’s Secure Private Access product in hybrid environments. Secure Private Access allows management of, and access to, applications hosted on almost any platform.

Strong Network brings a new capability for Citrix, which suggests it offers organizations the chance to create isolated environments for coders with less effort than is needed to implement desktop virtualization or desktops-as-a-service.

Coincidentally, Broadcom brought goodies of a similar sort on the same day as Citrix’s announcements by revealing a new enterprise edition of Bitnami – the app catalog that allows cloudy deployment of packaged apps, which VMware acquired in 2019.

Bitnami Premium includes support for the 500-plus packages included in the offering, a promise that all LTS versions of packaged apps will be kept up to date, and various services that seem designed to guard against packages falling victim to supply chain attacks.

Back to Citrix, which hasn’t disclosed the price it paid for its two new assets. We’ve asked the biz for an interview to learn more about how these deals fit into its strategy – but we’ve been asking that for months now without any luck. ®