Update: Microsoft’s Azure Virtual Desktop is now available worldwide. Check out our Day 1 Support blog post for details!
Citrix is excited to extend Azure Virtual Desktop through our comprehensive Citrix Workspace offering and technologies. At Ignite, Microsoft unveiled its vision for Azure Virtual Desktop (formerly Windows Virtual Desktop), the future of the Remote Desktop platform. Azure Virtual Desktop is a new cloud-hosted service that virtualizes and delivers business applications and desktops. The new offering includes a multi-user Windows 10 experience optimized for Office 365 ProPlus, Windows 7 virtualization rights on Azure, and deep integration with Microsoft 365 security and management.
As a long-standing Microsoft partner, Citrix delivers a powerful set of digital workspace technologies designed to extend Azure Virtual Desktop. This makes it even easier for you to manage and deliver critical business applications and desktops on Microsoft Azure at scale.
Meet the Challenges Faced by Enterprise IT
Evolving business priorities drive IT to provide flexible and agile solutions. As IT leaders, you must demonstrate increased value and improved reliability. This is where Citrix Workspace comes alive for the enterprise, offering a robust IT management experience and comprehensive user access to all your corporate Windows, Linux, mobile, web, SaaS apps, desktops and data. With Citrix Workspace, users will have instant access to all your business resources, whether they are hosted on-premises or in the cloud.
Our powerful set of enterprise management tools and networking technologies makes it easy and cost-effective to securely deliver your business applications, optimized for Azure Virtual Desktop. Leveraging unique Citrix remote access technology, we can ensure a high-definition user experience for Azure hosted apps and desktops for users connecting from anywhere.
Together with Microsoft, Citrix can accelerate your cloud initiatives and help your enterprise IT team maximize the benefit these new Azure deployment options and entitlements. Jointly focused on helping our customers realize the benefits and flexibility of cloud computing, Citrix and Microsoft are radically simplifying today’s complex IT environments.
Citrix Workspace and Azure Virtual Desktop — A Win for IT and End-Users
Citrix Workspace brings Azure Virtual Desktop and your other enterprise resources together into a streamlined interface for users. The Citrix Workspace UI combines application, desktop and file access, providing a secure, unified launchpad for resources hosted on-premises or in the cloud. Seamlessly blend Azure Virtual Desktop resources into your Citrix digital workspace, giving you flexibility to increase capacity, provide resiliency, or tackle cloud migration projects — all while maximizing workforce productivity.
As a Citrix Workspace administrator, you will be able leverage the new Azure Virtual Desktop multi-user capabilities of Windows 10 to simplify application compatibility and usability. This is great news for Citrix customers who previously had to weigh their needs for server OS scalability and cost savings against client OS compatibility. With user density benefits previously limited to Windows Server, Citrix now empowers you to deliver virtual apps, hosted shared desktops, and VDI within Azure, thanks to Azure Virtual Desktop.
Enterprise management and monitoring for Azure Virtual Desktop
With an integrated suite of technologies, only Citrix Workspace delivers enterprise-class management and administration benefits for Azure Virtual Desktop. Benefits include:
- Less time spent on updates and app maintenance. Simplified image management with portable app layers separates the desktop into flexible containers, or layers, so admins can package and deploy operating system updates, applications, and user data as individual components.
- Optimized performance. With Workspace Environment Management, admins can actively monitor Azure Virtual Desktop resource utilization and dynamically adjust the environment based on user profiles, system policies, and resource consumption.
- Improved Login Speeds and Profile Management. Maximize user experience through efficient handling and automatic consolidation of profile data.
- Accelerated branch and remote connectivity. Azure Virtual WAN Optimization accelerates branch and remote connectivity back to your enterprise, improving connections to your existing infrastructure. End users will experience performance benefits using Office 365, virtual desktops, or connecting from branch office locations.
- Scanning for performance or threats in real-time. Advanced Analytics give admins the ability to monitor the entire Citrix and Azure Virtual Desktop deployment to scan for performance issues or security threats in real-time. This gives admins valuable end-to-end visibility into their environments.
By deploying Citrix Workspace with Azure Virtual Desktop, administrators can modernize their environments with minimal disruption. New users can be onboarded to Azure Virtual Desktop resources alongside familiar Citrix- or RDS-based deployments, and Citrix management tools ensure the sustainability and consistency of the experience, maximizing user productivity.
A new Citrix DaaS offering based around Microsoft technologies
Expanding on our Microsoft partnership, Citrix is building a new DaaS offering, an end-to-end cloud solution that simplifies and accelerates the delivery of Windows 10 Enterprise for Virtual Desktops. The upcoming Citrix Desktops-as-a-Service release will include the cloud services, software licenses, and Azure compute needed to securely deliver a Azure Virtual Desktop on demand.
Built around Azure Virtual Desktop, Citrix makes it easy for organizations to instantly deliver a desktop experience to any user, anywhere. Designed with simplicity in mind, business users with any level of IT skills can quickly sign up and provision desktops from our integrated solution.
Of course, our DaaS offering will include Citrix signature HDX desktop virtualization technologies to provide a high-performance user experience when connecting anywhere, from any device.
Citrix has also announced its intent to become a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider, enabling our customers to transact directly with Citrix to purchase everything you need to deliver on-demand virtual desktops.
Stay notified of Citrix releases
As organizations accelerate their transition to the cloud, Citrix offers unique Azure Virtual Desktop-only capabilities that:
- expedite the migration to Azure
- accelerate the deployment of Windows virtual apps and desktops on Azure at scale
- streamline the ongoing management of your corporate hosted virtual app and desktops as part of your digital workspace strategy.
Sign up to receive notifications of Citrix Workspace and Azure Virtual Desktop tech preview invitations, demo videos, release information and more.
For Citrix Investors
This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Those statements involve a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including risks associated with the impact of the global economy and uncertainty in the IT spending environment, revenue growth and recognition of revenue, products and services, their development and distribution, product demand and pipeline, economic and competitive factors, the Company’s key strategic relationships, acquisition and related integration risks as well as other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Citrix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein. 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.
