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Citrix (Nasdaq: CTXS) Online, a division of Citrix Systems, announced on Wednesday the acquisition of Paglo, a remote support service provider.
The purchase signals Citrix Online's entrance into the IT management sector. Citrix Online has relaunched the Paglo service as GoToManage. That service is an integrated Web-based platform for monitoring, controlling and supporting attended or unattended IT infrastructure anywhere.
The launch of the new GoToManage service enables Citrix Online to meet accelerating demand from the large emerging SaaS-based IT management market, according to Elizabeth Cholawsky, vice president of products and client services for Citrix Online. That market will reach US$4 billion in 2013, predicted analyst firm Forrester Research.
"This is a very important market for us for the online meeting space. I'm looking for online support becoming an emerging market. We wanted to add an online support outlet and began looking around for a provider to acquire," Cholawsky told The E-Commerce Times.
Acquisition Details
Company officials closed the deal in January. Paglo cofounder and CEO Brian de Haaff, cofounder Chris Waters and the entire staff joined the Citrix Online team. De Haaff is now serving as senior product line manager for GoToManage.
Existing Paglo customers will not have service interruptions, the company said.
Citrix Online will integrate GoToManage with remote support capabilities later this year.
Specific financial details were not disclosed.
Paglo History
Paglo launched in 2007 as a mobile apps infrastructure provider. It captured 34 percent of the worldwide market share with its GoToAssist remote support services, according to research firm IDC.
"We had to deploy quickly. We had no customers when we launched. We completely bootstrapped our startup. We started with credit cards and personal savings," de Haaff told the E-Commerce Times.
Paglo founders started early on to address the substantial shift they anticipated in the online market for IT, de Haaff said.
"The market is showing a growing interest in remote management. IT professionals want the opportunity to monitor networks and the ability to fix problems. That was intriguing," he said about a service offering remote IT management.
Paglo garnered about 10,000 customers spread between SMB and IT consultants, he said.
How It Works
GoToManage is an integrated Web-based platform for monitoring, controlling and supporting attended or unattended IT infrastructure anywhere. It achieves this by creating an IT system of record.
This provides businesses with the ability to discover and identify all network devices. It monitors critical servers and applications in real-time and manages network usage, tracking configuration changes.
GoToManage will provide small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) and managed service providers (MSPs) an alternative to premise-based software, said Cholawsky.
Customers can purchase GoToManage individually or bundled with its remote support services later this year.
GoToMeeting is priced as a standalone at $1 per device per month. Devices include computers, servers and network equipment, explained de Haaff.
Citrix Online is still considering pricing models for it integrated
offering, said Cholawsky.
