Reaction from channel was 'stunned silence followed by anger and disbelief'
One reason for that reaction is a change to licensing for partners that, we understand, will see Citrix charge double the price for its wares unless partners pay upfront for a year.
Those wares will be bundled as"Citrix Universal for CSP" that encompasses"the best Citrix and NetScaler capabilities", we are told. That bundle sounds a lot like the"A Citrix partner of our acquaintance described the license as"everything included including all the bits you don't need." Citrix appears to have justified the cost increase on grounds that a"flexible monthly model introduces a level of incremental costs and uncertainty into the business." The biz has also pitched the annual licenses as a way for partners to lock in costs and prices for their customers, rather than being buffeted by potential cost increases during a year.
The document we believe to be Citrix's letter to its partners mentions"more than two million active subscribers today"– some of whom will not immediately be ready to switch to Windows 365 or any rival desktop-as-a-service platform. But between the changes we believe Citrix is making, and VMware by Broadcom's spin-out of its end-user compute products, virtual desktop users have very good reasons to consider their alternatives.