With VDI and DaaS technologies becoming the go-to solution to support secure hybrid work, organizations have more deployment options than ever before, allowing customer choice in service providers and configurations at nearly every step of the way. With Google Cloud growing in popularity, Citrix has been working hard to expand our support for Google Cloud technologies, which we are excited to announce now includes support for non-domain joined desktops and Google Cloud Identity authentication with Citrix Workspace.
Eliminating Cloud Connectors with Non-Domain Joined Solutions on Google Cloud
The allure of non-domain joined solutions (not managed through Active Directory) has been receiving more attention recently, whether it is to support temporary workforce uses cases where workloads are only needed for a short time, or for organizations with limited resources looking for simpler licensing and more manageable alternatives.
To address this need for customer choice and deployment flexibility, Citrix’s recent rollout of Rendezvous protocol V2 for Citrix DaaS now allows non-domain joined workloads to no longer require cloud connectors in those resource locations. Rendezvous V2 enables all VDA traffic to bypass Cloud Connectors to connect directly and securely with the Citrix Cloud control plane. This not only reduces the complexity of deployment setup but can also potentially improve rollout time for large-scale deployments and reduce overall cloud consumption costs.
This is significant for organizations that have made investments in Google Workspace and Google Cloud Identity, by eliminating the need for Microsoft Active Directory (AD) and Citrix Cloud Connectors when leveraging Citrix solutions.
Now in Preview: Google Cloud Identity Support for Citrix Workspace
Of course, for Google Workspace and Citrix customers leveraging non-domain joined desktops, the other half of the coin required is enabling Citrix support for Google Identity authentication — which we’re happy to announce is now available in public preview!
Citrix Cloud now supports the ability to use Google as an identity provider to authenticate subscribers signing-in to their Citrix workspaces. By connecting your organization’s Google account to Citrix Cloud, you can provide a unified sign-in experience for accessing Citrix Workspace and Google resources. This feature enables Citrix Workspace authentication using both native Google Cloud Identity accounts and/or Active Directory backed accounts.
To enable this feature, navigate to your Citrix Cloud Identity and Access Management page. You will now see Google Cloud as an option listed as a supported identity provider. Learn more about how to connect Google as an identity provider to Citrix Cloud.
Significantly Reduce TCO with Citrix and Google Cloud
The combination of these two new developments offers significant cost savings to organizations looking to go all-in with Citrix and Google Cloud. By running non-domain joined desktops on Google Cloud with Google Cloud Identity authentication, organizations eliminate the need for costly cloud connectors and Active Directory. Plus, with the reduced complexity that traditional domain-joined desktops require to set-up, IT admins will also substantially save time on deployment, actualizing their Citrix and Google investments faster than ever before.
These features join a growing list of cost and time-saving product developments that have come to fruition with our recently enhanced partnership with Google, including the availability to purchase Citrix DaaS through the Google Cloud Marketplace and new suspend/resume functionality that provides an estimated 66 percent savings in compute costs for VMs not being actively used.
You can check out our Citrix Cloud Updates page to track the progress of this Google Cloud Identity authentication preview feature, as well as other Citrix Cloud features relevant to your deployments.
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.
