Chromebooks are making inroads into the education sector , and a push is coming for the enterprise with new native Chrome capabilities from Citrix. Google and Citrix have announced Citrix Receiver for Chrome, a native app for the Chromebook which has direct access to the system resources, including printing, audio, and video.

To provide the security needed for the enterprise, the new Citrix app assigns a unique Receiver ID to each device for monitoring, seamless Clipboard integration across remote and local applications, end user experience monitoring with HDX Insight, and direct SSL connections.

Google and Citrix have partnered to bring Chromebooks with the Citrix software to 20 global enterprises over the coming months. These deployments cover many industries, including healthcare.

Chapters Health Systems, a company providing hospice and palliative care to patients in Florida, has tested using Chromebooks to provide secure access to apps and tools to mobile nurses and remote healthcare providers. Chris Williams, Director of IT for Chapters Health Systems explains why the company went with Chromebooks running Citrix software.

“At Chapters Health, our main priority is delivering superior patient care. Our investment in HP Chromebooks combined with XenApp and Citrix Receiver give caregivers simple, secure access to the virtual clinical and business apps they need, when they need it. By keeping the technology simple and easy to use, we’re giving them the freedom to put patients first. This combination works for our employees and for our organization, which is why we are looking at additional deployments of Chrome with XenApp in the near future.”

Chapters Health conducted a test with its caregivers using Chromebooks, Windows systems, and iPads to determine which solution was best suited for remote work. The following infographic sums up the conclusions of the real-world test.

Image: Google

Citrix partnered with Google due to the growing popularity of Chromebooks. Calvin Hsu, VP of Citrix, sees Chromebooks as a solid mobile solution.

“Citrix and Google are changing the way people work. In addition to the joint collaboration around XenApp and XenDesktop with Chromebooks, Citrix ShareFile features a personal cloud connector for accessing Google Drive files, Citrix GoToMeeting® is now available on Chrome, and Citrix Podio is integrated with Google Apps. Google and Citrix are committed to continued innovation across our product lines to bring best in class mobile workspaces to our customers.”

Citrix technology is one of the top remote communications solutions for the enterprise. Major corporations use Citrix to allow workers to remotely access computing environments back at the office, and have secure access to files. App and desktop virtualization are key features of the Citrix solution.

The company’s GoToMeeting service is an industry standard collaborative tool, and along with the new Citrix Receiver for Chrome is a solid effort to make the Chromebook a good fit for the enterprise.

The Chromebook/ Citrix combination goes a long way to counter the upcoming " Chromebook Killers " from Microsoft and its partners.

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