Happy New Year everyone! It’s 2019 — a brand new year filled with already-broken resolutions and good intentions. And I know what you’re thinking: “This is the year I finally give my employees that awesome digital workspace experience they’ve been yearning for.”
Here’s some good news: Delivering a comprehensive digital workspace has never been easier, so this is one New Year’s resolution you might actually be able to keep!
Why so easy? Here are a few reasons:
- Delivering new workspace services for modern applications like SaaS and web can be accomplished while leaving your existing Citrix infrastructure practically untouched.
- There’s free help. Your success is our success, so we’re going to provide you with free resources, including a Citrix Cloud Success Manager and a Rapid Deployment Team to walk you through the basic steps required to get up and running with your new Citrix Workspace experience.
- A single console for unified management of the entire workspace enables you to light up new services like SSO, secure SaaS provisioning, and web isolation in a matter of minutes.
- It’s easy on the budget. Not only will you be able to take advantage of OpEx spending, existing Citrix customers get a 60 percent discount BEFORE volume and term discounts kick in. Contact your local Citrix Rep or Citrix Partner for more information.
Let’s take a look at what’s new with the Citrix Workspace for January 2019.
Customize the Workspace Experience with Brand Personalization – Sign-up for Tech Preview Today!
This month, we’re proud to announce the technical preview of the Citrix Brand Personalization service. This new service will allow you to customize the Workspace app’s name, app icon, splash screens, and more. You can see the custom-branded Workspace experience for our partner Red Bull Racing below. The best part about this service is that it’s currently included with Workspace Premium and Premium Plus, and it can be turned on in just a couple of minutes. If you’re interested in a Tech Preview, please complete this form.
How easy is it to deliver a custom experience? Check out the video below to see for yourself.
New Citrix Cloud Comes to Cisco HyperFlex
Cisco is the latest vendor to validate its solution in the Citrix Ready HCI Workspace Appliance program. Cisco HyperFlex for Citrix Cloud services delivers deeper integration between your on-prem Cisco infrastructure and the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service. Now, it’s even easier to get up and running with deploying your app and desktop workloads from Citrix Cloud to your on-prem Cisco HyperFlex infrastructure. Check out this blog post to learn more.
New Citrix Analytics Integration with Microsoft Graph Security API
Security risk indicators from the Microsoft Graph Security API are now available with the already rich set of security risk indicators provided by the Citrix product portfolio. This provides customers with a unified view of user security risk across Citrix and Microsoft environments.
Microsoft Graph Security API is the technology Microsoft uses to provide a unified view of threat intelligence across its offerings. Connecting to the Microsoft Graph, Citrix Analytics will receive risk indicators provided by Azure AD Identity Protection and Windows Defender ATP (Advance Threat Protection). Future plans include receiving events from Office 365 and other Microsoft offerings. Check out this blog post to learn more, and read about new risk indicators from Microsoft here.
New Experience Improvements for Personal Cloud Connectors
A big reason why so many organizations have chosen Citrix for content collaboration is because we enable choice. Citrix Content Collaboration connectors enable IT to provide unified access to all documents, no matter where they’re stored, to their employees.
Many connect repositories like network shares, SharePoint, and OneDrive for Business so their employees have simplified access to all of their files. However, we also empower IT to let employees connect to personal file sharing sites like Box and Dropbox so Citrix Workspace truly becomes a single point of access. We’ve enhanced the user experience for those using personal cloud connectors, enabling them to favorite folders and access recent files quickly and easily (see images below).
Additionally, we’ve enhanced the experience for customers who have set up a connector to OneDrive for Business to provide a seamless experience across both solutions. Citrix will now support uploads of files up to 15 GB, up from 100 MB, to users uploading a document to OneDrive for Business through the Citrix Content Collaboration connector.
IT pros will also benefit for easier account administration, as they will be able to consent on behalf of their users when first authenticating to the OneDrive for Business connector.
Amazon Web Services Quick Start Now Available for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Service
AWS Quick Starts are easy-to-use cloud formation scripts that accelerate the deployment of different solutions on top of AWS. The Quick Start for the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service was co-developed by Citrix and Amazon Solution Architects and will help you create all the needed infrastructure for a high-available Resource Location on AWS, including the creation and configuration of a VPC, internet facing gateway, public and private subnets, and an Microsoft Active Directory. Not only that, it will even install and configure the Citrix Cloud Connectors, install and configure a VDA instance, and create the needed Machine Catalogs and Delivery Groups to publish a hosted shared desktop and two published applications.
Use the Quick Start to take the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service for a test run on AWS or to speed up the deployment of a production resource location on the biggest and technologically most advanced public cloud. All you need is an AWS account and Citrix Cloud account with the Virtual Apps and Desktops service enabled. For more information about this exciting possibility check out the AWS Quick Start for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops web page.
Sign Up Now for More Information on Upcoming Windows Virtual Desktop Support
Microsoft has generated a lot of buzz around their upcoming Windows Virtual Desktop offering, and we’re excited to support this new platform. Hosted in the Azure cloud, Windows Virtual Desktop will bring you new options for deploying Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, side by side with existing on-premises or cloud-hosted environments. Citrix will be with you every step of the way from pilot to production. Sign up now to stay informed on our solutions for Windows Virtual Desktop and to be notified when Citrix technology previews are available.
New Client-Side Updates for Citrix Endpoint Management
- Secure Hub (iOS & Android): Secure Hub for iOS enriches the user experience with revamped fonts, colors, and other UI improvements.
- Secure Mail (iOS & Android): Export meeting time and location from Secure Mail calendar events to native calendar for interchangeability between native and Secure Mail calendar.
- Secure Mail (iOS): Support for iPad Pro 11 and 12.9 inch. Now users can experience Secure Mail from an iPad Pro. Also, new enhancements to contacts provide more customization including options to edit, add to VIP or cancel when viewing contacts.
- Secure Mail (Android): Enhancements to attachments simplify experience; view attachments from within the Secure Mail app without the need of being redirected.
If you’re an existing Citrix customer and you haven’t yet taken advantage of all the new capabilities that come with the Citrix Workspace, the time has never been better. And leveraging your existing Citrix infrastructure while reaping the benefits that come with the Citrix Workspace has never been easier. We’re here to help with our Cloud Success Managers and Rapid Deployment Team.
For more information on special Workspace pricing promotions for new and existing customers please contact your local Citrix rep or Citrix Partner.
