Citrix’s annual showcase of the latest advancements in workplace digitisation and cloud computing will be the first event of this scale I’m attending as a reporter – hosted this year in Anaheim, California.

The last year has seen the virtualisation and software-as-a-service (SaaS) company undergo a rocky period – with CEO Kirill Tatarinov stepping down from the helm after only 18 months – replaced with former CFO David Henshall in July – as well as announcing plans to issue layoffs and consolidations.

But having recently overseen increases in revenue by 5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2018, the company will be in a buoyant mood entering next week’s conference. Citrix has had a roller-coaster last 12 months, something I’m hoping to grill its chiefs on over the coming days.

But the company will be very much focussed on the future – with CEO Henshall aiming to outline the company’s vision and strategy in delivering its single driving principle; making apps and data secure, and easy to access anywhere, at any time. Together with fellow execs Tim Minahan and PJ Hough, I expect to hear plenty of digital transformation related announcements, with a particular focus on those companies taking a cloud-first approach, as well as the latest innovations in cloud-based app security.

Speaking of security, it’s almost certainly going to feature heavily on the agenda. After launching Citrix Analytics in April, I’m expecting the conference to put a heavy focus on how machine learning can further help businesses detect anomalous behaviour and potential threats, and how this is integrated with their overall strategy to deliver always-accessible workplace apps.

I’m also expecting a great deal of commentary about Citrix’s general vision, and what cloud computing looks like moving forwards – from outlining the future of digital workspaces, to how user experience can best be configured, to the way Citrix envisions businesses utilising cloud infrastructure to maximise productivity – with a host of successful user cases, and updates on flagship products, to follow.

Beyond this, however, I’m looking at what we can gain from the ‘super sessions’, featuring former Secretary of State Condi Rice, and Moneyball author Michael Lewis. Between them we’re likely to hear about how technology has affected and changed international affairs, as well as how businesses and governments can use technology to affect positive change, including the ways in which politics, technology and finance intersect.

I’ll be live-tweeting and filing reports about the conference’s biggest takeaways over the next few days on both Cloud Pro and our sister site IT Pro.

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