Since the arrival of Microsoft’s Azure Virtual Desktop (formerly Windows Virtual Desktop) last fall, customers and partners alike are taking a close look at what this platform can do to benefit their business. Azure Virtual Desktop is quickly becoming the platform of choice when it comes to delivering Windows 10 from the cloud. Some of the benefits customers are seeing when leveraging Azure Virtual Desktop include delivering a full Windows 10 experience, virtualizing Microsoft 365 apps to run in multi-user sessions, as well as extending the life of Windows 7 virtual desktops to run legacy applications.
For some customers and service providers, this might seem good enough to deliver cloud-hosted virtual apps and desktops during the current COVID-19 pandemic, where everyone needs remote access for their newly remote workforce. But IT teams are quickly discovering that managing these virtual apps and desktops in their native form can be time consuming and more technically challenging than expected. That’s where Citrix Managed Desktops can help!
Citrix has partnered closely with Microsoft for more than three decades to provide the management, scalability and performance tools that continue to take great Microsoft platforms — like Azure Virtual Desktop — to the next level. Citrix virtual application and desktops solutions like Citrix Managed Desktops are designed from the ground up to help manage and deliver a great user experience to your workers day in and day out. Citrix customers and partners have long recognized the benefits and value of Citrix technology with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS), but since the rollout of Azure Virtual Desktop, we are now being asked how Citrix brings similar benefits and value to Azure Virtual Desktop. Or more specifically, “Why Citrix with Azure Virtual Desktop?”
Let me help! Citrix has an extensive set of solutions under the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops hierarchy that enhance the capabilities of Azure Virtual Desktop. Citrix even built solutions, like Citrix Managed Desktops, specifically designed to leverage the Azure Virtual Desktop platform, but we’ve taken it one step farther by simplifying day-to-day management of your applications, desktops, and Microsoft entitlements.
Citrix Managed Desktops, our apps and desktops as a service (DaaS) solution, provides IT with the flexibility and simplified management that organizations are looking for when delivering Azure Virtual Desktop workloads.
Citrix Managed Desktops is designed with three main principles to benefit Microsoft solutions: Management, Experience, and Security. Let’s take a closer look at why Citrix Managed Desktops is a great way to deliver Azure Virtual Desktop workloads.
Simplified Management
While Microsoft Azure is quickly becoming the preferred infrastructure to host Windows workloads, Citrix Managed Desktops enhances the experience by offering a simple yet robust UI that enables admins to customize, manage, and deploy apps and desktops right from a web-based console. When we show people the power of the management console, the first thing they comment is: This is exactly what I am looking for! Citrix Managed Desktops gives you the ability to quickly create catalogs and assign users when timing is critical (think disaster recovery).
Here are some additional value-added benefits that enhance Azure Virtual Desktop:
Domain and non-domain joined devices: Sometimes you want your desktop to be domain-joined, but sometimes you just need a desktop fast. Citrix Managed Desktops gives you the option of rapidly provisioning a secure desktop or application to an external, non-domain-joined user such as a contractor, vendor, or developer during a project, busy season, or merger/acquisition. Citrix Managed Desktops also makes it easy to integrate an on-premises Active Directory with your Azure-hosted virtual desktops. The choice is yours!
Citrix Managed Azure: Concerned about managing your own Azure subscription? Multiple business units to juggle? Don’t worry, we can help! Citrix Managed Desktops lets you bundle in Azure compute from Citrix, and we manage it for you. You have the option to purchase units in advance to estimate your costs or Citrix can bill you in arrears for your monthly usage. Prefer to manage Azure yourself? No problem! You can bring your own Azure subscription too. Busy season or short-term business continuity needs? Citrix Managed Desktops lets you manage Azure based on your level of comfort.
Updated Desktop Image: Your desktop image or ours? Citrix provides an up-to-date desktop image available right in the management console that you can instantly provision in a few clicks. Want to customize your own desktop image? Well you can build a golden desktop image right in the management library and deploy as needed. Citrix also makes it easy to import a preferred image from your data center and deploy to Azure. And don’t worry, as an admin you can choose when to apply new updates with a couple of simple mouse clicks, keeping your workers from having to wait for updates to install.
Power Management (AutoScale): In the cloud, time is money! One key customer concern when moving to the cloud is the uncertain cost of cloud resources. While the overall cost is continuing to fall as the technology matures, Citrix offers power management controls to automate when to power on/off workloads in Azure to save you money. Now, you can also customize a schedule when apps and desktops should turn off/on to support your workforce and keep spending in line.
Vertical and Horizontal Load Balancing: Citrix Managed Desktops leverages our vertical and horizontal load balancing technology to optimize the number of apps and desktops running in the cloud to keep budget in check and ensure the ideal number of cloud infrastructure is actively running.
Built in Monitoring and Management: Citrix Managed Desktops provides machine-level monitoring, session reporting, and shadowing capabilities included within the console, no separate third-party application required. Track usage and adjust access on the fly to stay in control of your deployments. Citrix Managed Desktops also provides a built-in dashboard to check license and compute usage, giving you the information you need, when you need it. Citrix also includes 24×7 support, so we’re there if you have questions, at any hour.
Improved Experience
With many other desktops-as-a service solutions, the end user is an afterthought. Have you taken into consideration the affect a poor experience has when employees can’t get their work done efficiently? Not only does morale suffer but when performance is poor, so does your workers’ productivity. While delivering apps and desktops from Azure provides customers with anywhere access to their apps and desktops, Citrix Managed Desktops takes that one step further. Let’s look at all the ways the user experience is better with Citrix Managed Desktops:
HDX High Definition Experience: Citrix Managed Desktops leverages our HDX technology which consistently monitors and adjusts the user experience to ensure workers have smooth virtual app and desktop performance, even with a poor internet connection or a low-cost endpoint device.
Citrix Workspace Experience: Citrix provides your workers with a digital workspace experience that can be accessed by any device (including Linux and MacOS) via their favorite app store or simple HTML browser — if you’d rather not install a client app. IT can custom assign apps and desktops to users, and those workers can conveniently access their apps from one central portal-like location.
Teams and Skype Optimization: With more than 180 million organizations implementing Office 365, Citrix Managed Desktops optimizes Microsoft Teams for virtual environments including additional collaboration tools, app integration, and file storage capabilities. Using Teams or Skype for Business for voice or video calls? Citrix Managed Desktops optimizes voice and video calls so connections are smooth even over challenging low-bandwidth locations where service is spotty.
High-Resolution 3D Graphics: No matter how intensive your 3D graphics apps are, Citrix Managed Desktops makes them look amazing. Looking at high resolution maps or intricate engineering drawings is already hard on the eyes; users need high resolution graphics, which are easy with Citrix Managed Desktops. You can provide access to developers globally and provide instant collaboration from any device. Enable access to just the apps they need, not your entire network, keeping your corporate security policies fully intact.
Enhanced Security
With Microsoft solutions, we know that your information is already protected in the cloud, but with Citrix Managed Desktops you can extend your security perimeter. Citrix Managed Desktops provides that extra layer you need to meet strict company guidelines for confidential materials, including:
Session Watermarking: Text-based session watermarks help to deter malicious behavior and enable tracking of data theft. This traceable information appears on the virtual app or desktop session as a deterrent to those using photographs and screen captures to steal data. You can specify a watermark that is a layer of text, which displays over the entire session screen without changing the content of the original document, application, or desktop.
Identity Providers: We all love Azure AD, but we know that there are more identity solutions available and many businesses already have a different solution in place. Citrix Managed Desktops integrates with multiple identity providers, giving you the option to choose your preferred identity provider, including Okta, Google, and others.
App Protection Policies (coming soon): Remote work has been all about BYO-devices, which, if unmanaged, can be risky! Citrix Managed Desktops will soon offer App Protection Policies with Citrix Managed Desktops to provide an additional level of protection against keylogging and screen capturing malware. This prevents bad actors from capturing sensitive virtual app and desktop information.
Citrix is proud to expand on our long history with Microsoft to offer increased value, simplicity, security, and agility to cloud-hosted DaaS solutions. Citrix is now offering an opportunity to experience Citrix Managed Desktops at no cost to you.
For more information, visit us at Citrix.com/daas.
This forward-looking indication of plans for products is preliminary and all future release dates are tentative and are subject to change.
The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion and are 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.
