Billing it as the first self-service “storefront” for enterprise applications, Citrix today launched a new product aimed at bridging the growing gap between web-based consumer services and traditional enterprise computing – a gap that Citrix believes has simply become too big to ignore, both in terms of user experience as well as cost of delivery. The new offering is called Citrix Dazzle.

"Every day, employees are presented with an amazing array of exciting apps and services on the web that spark their imagination and put them in full control of their experience. Then they come to work, and their IT experience is mandated by a bland 'general issue' sameness that threatens to drive every ounce of productivity and innovation out of them," said Mark Templeton (pictured), Citrix President and CEO, as he announced Dazzle at the company's Synergy event in Las Vegas.

"Now, for the first time ever, we're giving IT a tool that helps them truly 'dazzle' end users with an ultra cool, self-service storefront, empowering employees to select the apps, desktops and services they need, whenever they need them," Templeton continued.

"The hidden reality, of course, is that by giving employees the choice they so desperately want, IT actually saves a ton of money and gains even more control over the things that really matter," he added.

In an official release, Citrix described Citrix Dazzle as "the first self-service 'storefront' for enterprise applications" and notes that Dazzle gives corporate employees 24x7 self-service access to a broad array of applications, desktops and content, "allowing them to choose exactly what they need, when they need it."

The release notes:

"For the more than 200,000 enterprise customers already using Citrix Delivery Center products like XenApp and XenDesktop, Dazzle effectively acts as a storefront to their existing delivery infrastructure. Best of all, Dazzle offers a rich, intuitive user experience that requires no training. If you've used DirecTV or Apple iTunes, you already know how to use Dazzle. In short, Dazzle makes self-service IT a reality for the first time ever, giving users simple access to apps and IT services, and bringing the economics of the web to enterprise IT."

Dazzle is a user-facing application that runs on any Windows or Mac computer. It essentially acts as a lightweight storefront for all the applications IT has centrally staged in head-end infrastructure products like Citrix XenApp. To select an application in Dazzle, users browse and search based on application name, description, or type. They can also choose applications based on IT-defined categories such as functional department or group name. Organizing selected applications into user-defined “playlists” gives Windows users full control over how apps will appear in their Start menu and apps available for offline use are clearly designated in the Dazzle console, for laptop users who need to work while disconnected from the network.