It feels like it was just yesterday when we announced our expanded partnership with Google Cloud, and our intention to develop purpose-built secure and reliable hybrid work solutions for our joint customers. Now, a full (and busy!) year has passed, and at Google Cloud Next ’22, we were thrilled to share what we have delivered and even more developments planned for our partnership!

Recapping How Citrix DaaS for Google Cloud Accelerates Hybrid Work

With so many releases of purpose-built products and features over the past year, it might have been easy to miss some of the exciting developments we’ve made with our Citrix DaaS solutions and Google Cloud. Here’s a recap of what we released throughout the year:

  • A new, U.S.-based Citrix control plane hosted on Google Cloud
  • Two new Citrix DaaS editions for Google Cloud, available in the Google Cloud Marketplace
    • Citrix DaaS Premium for Google Cloud: For organizations with existing VDI investments looking to modernize their deployments, this offering provides rapid migration and provisioning tools; streamlined management of Google Cloud and/or on-premises resources; advanced security capabilities like App Protection and Adaptive Authentication; and exceptional monitoring and cloud optimizations. Try it now with our 7-day FREE trial!
    • Citrix DaaS Standard for Google Cloud: For organizations or departments that are newer to DaaS or VDI, this offering provides an affordable yet comprehensive hybrid-work solution for delivering secure virtual apps and desktops quickly and easily.
  • New on-premises to Google Cloud migration tools and features
    • PVS for Google Cloud
    • Image Portability Service for Google Cloud
    • Hybrid rights for TTU customers to support Google Cloud workloads with on-premises Citrix licenses
  • Performance improvements and cloud cost optimizations
  • Google Cloud Identity support for Citrix Workspace: Combined with non-domain joined deployments now supported by Rendezvous V2, this provides organizations with significant savings by eliminating the need for Microsoft Active Directory or Citrix Cloud Connectors.

There’s Even More!

As stellar as that list is, 2022 is not over yet, and we’re happy to announce even more new features and tools to help support your Citrix DaaS on Google Cloud deployments.

So many exciting announcements were made in our on-demand session from Google Cloud Next ‘22. Bronwyn Hastings, Head of Global ISV Partnerships and Channels at Google, and Calvin Hsu, VP of Product Management at Citrix, sat down to discuss the latest news and updates from Citrix and Google!

Let’s take a closer look at the details of these announcements!

Save Time and Clicks with Reduced Administration

We know that sometimes organizations simply don’t have the time — or the need — for a full configuration interface with advanced features when deploying apps and desktops. Previously only available for Azure workloads, our new Quick Deploy interface for Citrix DaaS solutions hosted on Google Cloud offers admins a rapid deployment experience with basic configuration. This new interface is now in preview, and you can sign up to learn more and try it out.

Additionally, you can now download Citrix-prepared images for Google Cloud at no cost, directly from the Google Cloud Marketplace. The Citrix-prepared Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) image is now available and is a pre-built Windows Server 2019 image with the latest Citrix VDA installed and ready to use with your Citrix DaaS license. We also plan to offer a prepared Linux VDA image in the future. These images can save you a significant amount of time when creating a catalog for a PoC, for example, or you use it as a base to create and customize a master image.

Accelerated Migration Support with Consumption Packs

The phrase “time is money” is certainly true when it comes to IT. But when it comes to large IT projects and budget planning, sometimes it’s just the “money” part that can be the hold-up. This is especially true with on-premises-to-cloud migrations, which have the potential to be lengthy projects depending on the complexity of your deployment. And even with our automation tools, like Image Portability service and Citrix Provisioning Service (PVS) for Google Cloud, often it’s simply the expense of planning the migration that can delay these transformative initiatives.

For this reason, Citrix and Google Cloud have partnered to provide organizations with no-cost support via new Consumption Packs to help you plan your on-premises migrations to Google Cloud! Here are some examples of the support services we can provide:

  • Migration Assessment: We’ll review the current state Citrix environment, assess the various user workloads and conduct right-sizing exercises to map key workloads to Google solutions. You’ll receive these assessment results along with a migration proposal, including a recommendation on which workloads to move to Google Cloud first.
  • DaaS Proof of Concept: We’ll onboard a non-production DaaS on Google Cloud environment for evaluation using your environments and applications. This will include a single Resource Location on Google Cloud with remote access through the Citrix Workspace experience.
  • Workload Migration: We’ll partner with your IT team to design and build a production-ready functional landing zone for migration. Then, we’ll jointly conduct a phased migration of your Citrix workloads from your datacenter to Google Cloud.

If you’re interested in learning more about these free migration services, contact your Citrix account manager.

No-Risk Trials and Proofs of Concept

New to Citrix DaaS entirely? We can help there too! We are excited to now offer free 7-day trials of Citrix DaaS Premium for Google Cloud, with limited Google Cloud compute included.

Afterward, when you’re ready for a PoC, ask your sales rep how you can leverage free funding from Citrix and Google to test the solution in your environment!

Up NEXT: Extending In-Region Support to Europe

Perhaps one of the most exciting announcements we made at Google Cloud Next ’22 is the development of a new Google Cloud-hosted control plane in the EU! This is major development for our European customers looking to purchase our Citrix DaaS editions for Google Cloud via the Google Cloud Marketplace.

Additionally, to provide the best possible user experience and the lowest latency with our Citrix DaaS for Google Cloud solutions, we also intend to make two new Gateway Service PoPs on Google Cloud available in the European region before the end of the year. These two EU-based PoPs will join our existing network of U.S. Gateway PoPs on Google Cloud in Oregon, California, and South Carolina.

Innovating with Citrix Partners

In addition to the improvements that Citrix and Google are making on our joint offerings, our partners are also innovating to bring organizations the best resources for their needs. That’s why we are excited to announce that our partner HCL is delivering LibreSpace Hyperconnected Virtual Workspaces that are powered by Citrix and Google.

“HCL LibreSpace offers an end-to-end fluid workspace-as-a-service (WaaS) solution that is secure, robust and flexible,” said Rakshit Ghura, SVP and Global Head, Digital Workplace Services at HCL. “Powered by Citrix and Google, and coupled with HCL’s market leading IPs, LibreSpace will help enterprises reach new levels of agility, resiliency, and productivity thus, transforming the workplace experience with trusted security at every point. With LibreSpace, organizations gain the backing of a synergistic partnership between three market leaders to ensure that the right solution to address today’s evolving hybrid work environment.”

Innovating for Our Customers’ Needs

Organizations all over the world, like New Jersey’s largest healthcare system Hackensack Meridian Health or Italy’s largest telecommunications services provider Telecom Italia are adopting and embracing the game-changing solutions that Citrix DaaS on Google Cloud provides.

As Bronwyn Hastings, Head of Global ISV Partnerships and Channels at Google, discussed at Google Cloud Next ’22, DaaS is resonating with these organizations because it can transform the way they work — it’s no longer a solution just for legacy apps or a small subset of employees. The solution can, and is, providing a flexible, modern hybrid work solution to all kinds of users. To that end, at Next ‘22 we also announced our intention to create a purpose-built Rocky Linux hybrid DaaS offering with Google Workspace included for our engineering and developer users.

Keep an Eye Out for What’s Next!

There has been no lack of announcements from Citrix and Google this year, and there are more to come. Watch out here and on the Citrix and Google partner page for more announcements. And if you’d like to learn more about how Citrix DaaS and Google Cloud can transform your business, contact your Citrix account manager today!

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.