In a move to provide its AutoCAD Map 3D customers with increased data privacy, lower cost deployment, and centralized software management, Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) today announced it has joined the Citrix® Alliance Program. In addition, Autodesk announced it has completed verification testing of its AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 software with Citrix XenApp™ through the Citrix Ready™ program. The Citrix Ready designation identifies products that are compatible with a Citrix application delivery environment, thus simplifying the software selection process for Citrix users and allowing them to now deploy AutoCAD Map 3D. Since AutoCAD Map 3D users' data will now reside on Citrix servers, Autodesk customers can expect increased security, reduced hardware costs and, ultimately, increased ROI up to 30 percent.

The Citrix Alliance Program, a key component of the Citrix Partner Program, is an extensive ecosystem of more than 1,800 software and hardware manufacturers and service providers who complement and extend the Citrix Application Delivery Infrastructure.

"Some of the largest telecommunications firms, power utilities and government agencies are Citrix users and they need an easy and cost effective way to deliver and leverage AutoCAD Map 3D across their organizations, regardless of location, device or network connection," said Lisa Campbell, vice president, geospatial solutions, Autodesk. "Our participation in the Citrix Ready program means our customers can now virtually create, deploy and manage their geospatial software solutions from a Citrix environment."

Citrix XenApp, an end-to-end application delivery system, provides a more secure environment to deliver AutoCAD Map 3D across the enterprise without sacrificing performance or functionality. As an industry-proven application virtualization system, Citrix XenApp helps further reduce IT management costs and increases data security and regulatory compliance by centralizing application processing and administration in the data center.

"We significantly enhanced Citrix XenApp to virtualize and deliver high-performance graphics-intensive applications like AutoCAD Map 3D,"said David Roussain, vice president, Application Virtualization Group at Citrix Systems. "As a market leader in 2D and 3D digital design, Autodesk's verification work completed through our Citrix Ready program is an important step that enables its customers to deliver their AutoCAD Map 3D applications to any user in any location using Citrix XenApp."

By completing verification testing with XenApp, Autodesk joins a growing network of independent software vendors who have verified their products with the Citrix Application Delivery Infrastructure. Citrix Ready has been designed to recognize and highlight Citrix alliance partner products that add the greatest value to Citrix application delivery infrastructure solutions. By utilizing the Citrix Ready verification process, Autodesk and Citrix help mutual customers select and deploy the best solutions for their enterprises.

AutoCAD Map 3D

AutoCAD® Map 3D software is the leading engineering platform for creating and managing spatial data. Bridging the gap between CAD and GIS, AutoCAD Map 3D provides direct access to the leading data formats used in design and GIS. AutoCAD Map 3D enables the use of AutoCAD software tools for maintaining a broad variety of geospatial information and allows design processes to integrate GIS functions in a single environment for more efficient workflows. The results are better designs, increased productivity, and better data quality.

Citrix Ready AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 is available now. For more information, go to www.autodesk.com/citrix

Wed Apr 09 09:54:00 CDT 2008