Citrix has taken another step towards enabling enterprises to deliver applications and services to their workers on any device anywhere, with new releases of XenDesktop, XenMobile and ShareFile.

Announced at the firm’s Citrix Synergy event in Los Angeles, XenDesktop 7 is the first release of Project Avalon, an initiative to deliver Windows as a cloud service. Meanwhile, a new XenMobile Enterprise edition combines device, app and data management, while ShareFile can now deliver mobile access to data inside the corporate firewall.

XenDesktop 7 now integrates Citrix’s XenApp application delivery platform with XenDesktop’s existing virtual desktop capabilities. This provides app and desktop delivery from a unified framework with a single management console, according to Citrix.

Project Avalon, first discussed at Synergy in San Francisco last year, is an ambitious project to take Windows and enable it to be delivered as a scalable cloud service that can be accessed on any endpoint device.

With XenDesktop 7, Citrix is delivering the first portions of this, in a release codenamed Excalibur. The second release, codenamed Merlin, will be available as a technical preview next year and will focus on automating deployment and management in private and public cloud infrastructure while providing self-service provisioning, Citrix said.

Citrix chief marketing officer Steve Daheb said that the firm is following this strategy to help customers adapt to the changing technology landscape and the way that IT services will be delivered in the future.

“IT decision-making is being shaped by the forces of BYOD and personal cloud services,” he said. “By providing powerful cloud solutions, we are helping our customers embrace mobile workstyles to succeed in a dynamic and mobile world.”

In a similar vein, XenMobile Enterprise edition now combines device, app and data management into one platform, according to Citrix. It updates the XenMobile MDM platform Citrix released earlier this year, which is based on technology gained through its acquisition of Zenprise.

In addition to a corporate app store, XenMobile Enterprise edition includes an updated mobile device client that provides help desk support as well as app and data access, along with new Worx Mobile productivity apps, comprising WorxMail for secure e-mail, WorxWeb for secure web browsing, and ShareFile for data sharing.

ShareFile itself has now been updated with the ability to link to network shares and SharePoint sites behind the corporate firewall. ShareFile StorageZone Connectors creates a direct and secure connection to the data from mobile endpoints rather than synchronising it elsewhere, Citrix said.