Microsoft Ignite is November 2-4, 2021. Every year, this event delivers an exciting array of new insights and groundbreaking innovations that help organizations build technology solutions for the modern digital workspace. It’s also a great place to learn about joint solutions from Microsoft and Citrix.

Recently, at our Citrix Launchpad Series for Cloud, Work, and Security, we shared many of our latest innovations supporting the Microsoft relationship, designed to power the distributed workforce and help companies organize their IT strategies to benefit from hybrid work models.

“We are excited to see all the progress Citrix and Microsoft engineering have made to simplify cloud adoption come to life,” says Calvin Hsu, Citrix VP of Product Management. “Our innovations on Citrix Provisioning, Microsoft 365, and hybrid cloud technologies are enabling customers worldwide to modernize their deployments, streamline operations and reduce infrastructure costs through cloud transition.”

Here’s a recap and a sneak preview of what you’ll learn about by attending Microsoft Ignite 2021 including the not-to-miss session Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) on Azure. Make sure you register.

Cloud: Accelerating IT Modernization While Reducing Complexity

Over the past few years, many organizations have shifted from on-prem VDI deployments to modern, hybrid cloud VDI and DaaS solutions, which offer more resilience, agility and scalability to meet unexpected shifts in workforce needs. The trend to move to cloud continues as we adjust to new hybrid work models. Together, Citrix and Microsoft have been building flexibility for customers to transition from their datacenters on-prem into Azure or a hybrid solution of the two. We’ve seen customers all over the world take advantage of the value of Citrix with Azure Virtual Desktop to drive powerful transformations within their organizations. Today Citrix and Microsoft are radically simplifying the journey to the cloud to better enable hybrid work. These are some of our latest innovations that make cloud adoption easier:

  • Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) for Microsoft Azure — Citrix and Microsoft engineers have worked together to deliver our flagship provisioning technology to Azure, targeted for general availability December 2021. With Citrix PVS you can rapidly provision and re-provision Azure-hosted VMs on the fly, streamed over the Azure network backbone. If you’re an avid consumer of Citrix PVS on-prem, be sure to take advantage of this release and see a demo at Microsoft Ignite.
  • Citrix Ready validation for Virtual Apps and Desktops service and Azure Stack HCI — Citrix Ready has validated Azure Stack HCI for your Windows and Linux virtual machines (VMs) hosted on Azure Stack HCI. Get infrastructure modernization, consolidate virtualized workloads, and gain cloud efficiencies on premises — all with familiar management tools.
  • Citrix Image Portability Service for Azure — A preview of Citrix Image Portability Service is available for Azure. This service simplifies the management of images across platforms, making it easy to manage images between an on-premises resource location and on Azure. Learn more on The Click-Down podcast or try it out today.
  • Citrix provides support for Azure VMware Solution — Today VMware customers can benefit from Citrix’s official support for Azure VMware Solution. With this enhancement, you can now easily manage and provision Citrix workloads between on-prem vSphere deployments or within VMware-based clouds.
  • New Citrix products are on Azure Marketplace — Simplifying your procurement process, a wide range of Citrix offerings are available for purchase directly from the Azure Marketplace, including the latest Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure and Workspace Premium Plus. If you already have an Azure commitment with Microsoft, be sure to take advantage of the Azure consumption commitment benefit with your Citrix purchase.

“With organizations shifting strategies to enable hybrid work, there’s an even greater need for flexible solutions to support the rapid business transformation underway,” said Erin Chapple, Corporate Vice President, Azure Core Product and Design, Microsoft. “Together with Citrix, we’re making this possible with powerful cloud capabilities that enhance scalability and performance while helping customers modernize their IT infrastructure and strategy.”

Learn more about the full stack of new hybrid-cloud solutions from Citrix and Microsoft.

Work: Keeping Employees Productive, Engaged, and Connected to Each Other

As organizations embrace new digital tools to increase their flexibility and agility, employees are switching between more digital workspaces and collaboration tools than ever. This is slowing people down and preventing them from doing their best work.

  • Citrix Workspace integration with Microsoft Teams — Citrix will provide flexibility for how employees want to centralize their daily collaboration. Citrix integration with Microsoft Teams means that employees can launch Citrix Workspace from within Teams or vice versa. Employees can share files, preview shared documents, and use any action on shared files — all while staying within Teams or, alternatively, in Citrix Workspace. The choice is yours.
  • Citrix Secure Mail now offers Teams support — It’s easier than ever to schedule meetings. This new feature allows employees to add Teams meetings to any new Citrix Secure Mail calendar event.
  • Citrix provides support for Windows 11 — We have worked closely with Microsoft to ensure that Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and so that admins can deliver high-performing, secure, and reliable experiences on Day 1 for both on-prem and cloud-hosted environments.

Security: Protecting the Hybrid Work Environment without Impacting Productivity

New work models have made organizations more resilient, but they’ve also expanded the attack surface to threat actors and ransomware. The best defense is one that takes a zero trust approach without slowing down the user experience.

  • Citrix launches cloud-delivered zero trust based adaptive security — Citrix Secure Private Access provides IT with adaptive authentication and adaptive access policies, enabling administrators to define security policies based on a user’s location, posture of their device, and the user’s risk score. Get in-depth details on The Click-Down podcast.
  • Citrix has added bot management — Bot management capabilities are now part of Citrix Web App and API Protection. This feature enables IT to filter bad bot traffic and reduce strain on infrastructure. You can protect apps from account takeovers, prevent content scraping, and more. Watch the bot management announcement.

Learn About What’s Next at Microsoft Ignite 2021

We’re excited about the future of hybrid work, where cloud complexity is a thing of the past, productivity tools help employees work smarter, and valuable assets are secured safely in the cloud. Together Citrix and Microsoft are reimagining a new, flexible workplace by designing new solutions that help organizations accelerate their journey to the cloud and their adoption of the cloud. Come join us at Microsoft Ignite by signing up for our joint session; Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) on Azure. Make sure you register now!

Disclaimer: 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.