Citrix is making it easy to deliver Windows applications and Windows 10 Enterprise desktops from Azure.
Citrix officially announced the availability of XenApp Essentials and XenDesktop Essentials in the Azure Marketplace on April 3, 2017. In less than two months, the customers, partners, analysts and even competitor interest in our new Essentials services has been record breaking. Let’s have the numbers do the talking, on the day we announced availability we had dozens of XenDesktop Essentials and XenApp Essentials orders. Today we are seven weeks post-launch and have received hundreds of XenApp Essentials and XenDesktop Essentials orders. These are truly amazing results and we are just getting started!
Customer Reaction to XenApp Essentials and XenDesktop Essentials
We love to hear customer feedback, both good and bad. In the case of Essentials customers, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. As you can imagine, we have been actively collecting feedback from our early adopters and wanted to share some of our favorite quotes:
“4 hours from purchase to publish” this was a comment from one of our XenApp Essentials customers who was thrilled to see how quickly he could virtualize a Windows app on Azure and publish it out to users.
“Realized cost savings by using Windows 10 on a shared cloud” from a XenDesktop Essentials customer who was actually considering an alternative solution, but quickly recognized how XenDesktop Essentials and Windows 10 Enterprise CBB on Azure is more cost effective.
Industry analysts are taking notice, too. Robert Young, Research Director, IT Service Management and Client Virtualization Software, IDC follows the market quite closely and had this to say, “Any time you can help customers realize time-to-value, for end users and IT, it helps to quickly build interest and credibility for new solutions. Trending data seen on the Azure Marketplace, and early customer feedback, suggests net-new and existing customers are taking notice and action.”
However, those are simply a few select quotes from Essentials customers and analysts. The greatest complement of all is actually a collective response from all of our Essentials customers and even prospective customers who are only beginning to investigate the Essentials services. For this kind of feedback we went straight to the source — Azure Marketplace. As you can see in the image above or by going directly to azuremarketplace.microsoft.com, the number one and number two top trending services available on the Azure Marketplace today are XenApp Essentials and XenDesktop Essentials. There you have it, the most flattering compliment of all.
Citrix Essentials harnesses the power of Microsoft Azure
The launch and early success of XenApp Essentials and XenDesktop Essentials has been solely dependent on one single factor: the Citrix and Microsoft partnership. The availability of these Essentials services on Azure was based on the integration of Citrix and Microsoft technology, but it was also completely dependent upon the integration of the back office systems that enable you, our customers, to purchase both XenApp Essentials and XenDesktop Essentials directly from Azure Marketplace. The Citrix and Microsoft teams worked in lock-step to make it easy for you to purchase Essentials on a monthly basis directly from Marketplace. Best of all, you get one bill from Microsoft that includes your Citrix Essentials services, as well as your Azure compute costs for which you are hosting your virtual apps and desktops. “Citrix continues its strategic focus on strengthening and executing around its partnership with Microsoft,” said IDC’s Young. “Together, they are both capitalizing on technology integration efforts as well as the business integration efforts making it easier do business with both companies.”
Citrix continues its strategic focus on strengthening and executing around its partnership with Microsoft. Together, they are both capitalizing on technology integration efforts as well as the business integration efforts making it easier do business with both companies.
During Microsoft Ignite, one future Essentials customer stopped by the Citrix booth to share how much easier it would be for him to purchase Citrix technology directly from Marketplace simply because Microsoft was already an approved vendor and purchasing Citrix Essentials services directly through Marketplace meant he could avoid extensive vendor approval processes and focus on the technology. In addition to the massive scale and investment Microsoft has made in Azure, many customers are also in possession of Azure monetary credits which they can use in conjunction with the Essentials services. Azure monetary credits can be used for the Azure compute hosting the virtual app and Windows 10 Enterprise desktop workloads, lowering the total cost of ownership even further.
Continuously improving the Essentials cloud services
We’ve only just begun. The beauty of both XenApp Essentials and XenDesktop Essentials being a Citrix Cloud service is that we can constantly improve. For XenApp Essentials, we have already introduced support for Azure N-Series VMs and premium storage for your app workload VMs. This week at Citrix Synergy in Orlando, we will showcase a new, simplified user interface for XenDesktop Essentials. This new interface is designed to make XenDesktop Essentials even more intuitive and easy-to-use. In addition, we are excited to announce the XenDesktop Essentials service will also include the NetScaler Gateway Service at no additional charge. Now XenDesktop Essentials will have even more functionality to make Windows 10 Enterprise desktop on Azure easier for the masses.
Learn more at Citrix Synergy Orlando 2017
Looking to learn more about XenApp Essentials and XenDesktop Essentials? Join us for a live streaming video of the Synergy keynotes featuring Citrix and Microsoft executives. For those of you attending Synergy live in Orlando, please take in these sessions: Wednesday, May 24: SYN334: XenApp Essentials the fastest way to deliver apps from Azure; and Thursday, May 25: SYN101: Conquering the cloud frontier: XenDesktop Essentials … and stop by the Expo Hall for a live demo.
The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion and is subject to change without notice or consultation. The information provided is for informational purposes only and is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions or incorporated into any contract.
