IndependenceIT announced yesterday that leading DaaS provider nGenx is dropping Citrix in favor of standardizing IndependenceIT Cloud Workspace Suite (CWS)—covered in depth here last month. CWS will serve as the foundation for nGenx nFinity Workspace, nGenx XP apps hosting, and nGenx Line of Business Application Hosting for faster deployment and simplified management at a lower overall cost.

nGenx’s decision to transfer allegiance to IndependenceIT is a bit of a blow to Citrix. Long recognized as a leader in cloud desktop delivery, nGenx has more than ten thousand customer seats deployed worldwide. It was named a Citrix Partner Visionary Award Winner for 2014 and a Microsoft Partner of the Year finalist.

This will hurt all the more given that nGenx CTO Rick Dehlinger is a long-time member of the select Citrix Technology Professionals group. Citrix has high expectations for its new service provider platform, Cloud Workspace Services, but if it can’t convince nGenx to stay on board, or conversely deliver a product that meets nGenx’s needs, it looks like it has a fight on its hands.