Microsoft has a simple way of gauging which security applications are rising in popularity worldwide. Every year, it tracks which apps were accessed by customers of Azure identity. According to Microsoft’s Active Directory app rankings in 2020, customers chose Citrix ADC as the second-fastest growing app and the fifth-most popular app in the security category among thousands in the Azure AD app gallery.
As the workforce becomes more spread out and workloads migrate to the cloud, a key priority for CISOs is to provide consistent, secure hybrid access and authentication to applications irrespective of where they are deployed. Many organizations have turned to Microsoft Azure Active Directory to provide one-stop authentication. Azure AD provides critical zero-trust features like strong authentication, a point of integration for device security, and user-centric policies to guarantee least-privileged access.
Not surprisingly, many of these organizations already use Citrix ADCs in front of their apps for load balancing, SSL termination, or app and API protection, so it’s simple to configure them to authenticate credentials to Azure AD. As the use of Azure AD usage grows exponentially (and it is), Citrix and other partners “have become business critical because they help securely access any app regardless of location,” according to Microsoft.
Citrix ADCs Strengthen Security Posture
With Citrix ADCs, customers can easily strengthen their security posture by integrating with Azure AD secure hybrid access. This solution is the simplest path to zero trust security when organizations are 1) expanding on-premises applications to external users and/or when they are 2) migrating apps to any public cloud.
Expanding Access to External Users
Citrix ADCs and Microsoft Azure AD help customers scale their cloud-access management without requiring them to modify their legacy on-prem applications. Using Citrix ADC as an application proxy can provide secure remote access to on-prem applications from any external device after single sign-on. Users can sign in with their Azure AD account or go directly to a Citrix application URL on their browser. Either way, Citrix ADCs will ensure authentication thru Azure AD.
Migrating Apps to Any Public Cloud
Azure AD helps secure access to any cloud app, including those on Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure, as well as SaaS apps. Citrix customers can use Citrix Application Delivery Management’s simplified application migration tool to deploy ADC instances across multiple clouds. Due to our single code-base across Citrix ADC platforms (SDX/MPX/VPX/BLX/CPX), customers can be assured of operational consistency. The same configuration rules and policies will continue to work after migration.
The use of Citrix ADCs for both use cases has been jointly tested and is supported by Citrix. To learn more about configuring Citrix ADC for both use cases, see this excellent tutorial.
Thank you again to our customers for making Citrix ADCs extremely popular and fast-growing. The flexibility of this solution means that they can authenticate any app from anywhere and get secure hybrid access everywhere with Microsoft Azure AD.
