The way people work has changed over the last two years, and even as we see more people returning to the office, remote, hybrid, and mobile workstyles are here to stay. This diversity has created a complex landscape of devices and locations, where IT needs to ensure resources are always available and accessible from anywhere, on any device.
At the same time, security admins need to safeguard the organization’s most valuable resources from bad actors. Combine this with mergers, acquisitions, and a constantly changing workforce, managing security, especially identity and access management, can become an immense and overwhelming task.
That’s why we’re excited to introduce Adaptive Authentication, a versatile identity and access management solution, for the cloud-based Citrix Workspace platform.
The screenshot below showcases Adaptive Authentication in the Identity and Access Management offerings inside the Citrix cloud console:
What can Adaptive Authentication do?
Adaptive Authentication helps admins implement uniform zero trust-based identity and access management policies across applications leveraging Citrix DaaS (virtualized) and Citrix Secure Private Access (non-virtualized apps, like web and SaaS apps).
This new capability is incredibly exciting for on-premises customers who are now leveraging multi-factor authentication using Active Directory and RADIUS (Symantec VIP, RSA, etc.), client cert authentication, or another supported authentication solution using Citrix ADC but want to make the move to cloud. Adaptive Authentication provides all of those authentication methods natively, in the cloud for the Citrix Workspace platform, allowing for a smoother migration with minimal effort.
In the case of mergers, acquisitions, or multiple IdP scenarios, Adaptive Authentication can simplify the process and significantly reduce the effort of enabling secure access to these users. It supports multiple IdPs like AD, Azure, Okta, or any SAML 2.0 or OAuth-based federated authentication. Watch the video below to learn more.
Adaptive Authentication also supports conditional authentication, challenging users with different authentication methods based on their device posture, location, and more. For example, users can be challenged with multi-factor authentication when outside the corporate office but single-factor authentication when in the office.
One of the key access control capabilities that Adaptive Authentication provides is adaptive access to both DaaS and Citrix Secure Private Access applications. Formerly known as SmartAccess for on-premises deployments, it controls which apps or desktops users can access from a particular device, location, time of the day, and more. For example, you could block users from accessing certain apps when authenticating from devices other than a managed desktop. Adaptive Authentication’s device posture check (formerly known as Endpoint Analysis) can detect managed vs. BYO devices and check for compliance like whether the user’s firewall is turned on or if antivirus is running.
The user screenshots below showcase the different apps that are offered to users based on their device type:
Adaptive Authentication also enables admins to selectively turn on and off user controls like clipboard access, printer redirection, water marking, and client drive mapping.
How do I access Adaptive Authentication?
Adaptive Authentication is bundled with Citrix DaaS Premium, Citrix DaaS Premium Plus, and Citrix Secure Private Access Advanced. Navigate to Citrix Cloud → Identity and Access Management → Authentication → Adaptive Authentication to try it out. The feature is available as an add-on with other Citrix DaaS packages. If you are Citrix DaaS Advanced or Advanced Plus customer, you can click here to sign up for a trial.
Please note, we recommend that you try Adaptive Authentication in your test/developer environment before production.
Learn More
Check out our Adaptive Authentication product documentation to learn more about this powerful feature and how it can help you implement a zero trust-based identity and access management solution to secure access to virtualized and non-virtualized apps. And keep an eye out on future blog posts on Adaptive Authentication’s architecture and how you can implement the solution.
