If you joined our What’s New and Next Webinar, you know that we’ve released tons of new features for on-premises deployments this year. We also recently announced that the next Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Long Term Service Release (LTSR) is coming early next year! With this in mind, all of our great on-premises features that we have recently released will roll into, or be compatible with, the new LTSR. This includes Citrix Secure Private Access, Autoscale, and Web Studio for on premises. The release of these features shows our commitment to supporting your business, no matter where your environment is hosted, so you can take advantage of your existing investments in infrastructure and keep sensitive data on premises.
If you’re looking forward to the upcoming LTSR, make sure to check out our blog on how to prepare for it. In this blog, let’s explore Citrix Secure Private Access, Autoscale, and Web Studio on-premises and what those features can do for your on-premises deployment.
Zero Trust security for Web and SaaS applications
Over the course of this year, we have continued to bolster security capabilities beyond virtual apps and desktops. That’s why we introduced Citrix Secure Private Access for your IT-managed on-premises environments. Citrix Secure Private Access provides VPN-less access to web and SaaS applications using single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, device posture assessments, and application security controls. Additionally, users can securely access internal resources with the Citrix Enterprise Browser without having to connect to a corporate VPN. The best part about the Citrix Enterprise Browser is that it is built on a Chromium base, so your users can enjoy the same seamless browser experience they are used to, without having to compromise on corporate security.
At its core, Citrix Secure Private Access gives admins control to set security policies on top of web and SaaS apps within their Citrix environments. In tandem with Citrix app and desktop virtualization, admins can fully secure and deliver any app or desktop users require. Bringing this solution on premises brings security functionalities to admins that they haven’t had before. Secure Private Access helps maintain a secure environment for a variety of use cases, including VPN-less access for employees and contractors, security for managed and unmanaged device access, and consistent security across different user groups.
This means easier and more secure access for businesses that have a bring your own device (BYOD) policy, use third-party contractors, or have recently acquired a company and need to secure all apps and data. Even better, if you are on the Citrix LTSR track, the upcoming LTSR will include a complete customer-managed on-premises ZTNA solution with Secure Private Access for on premises.
The video below showcases the end user experience when leveraging Secure Private Access technologies on premises.
Power managing workloads across cloud and on premises
Citrix Autoscale, one of our most widely adopted features, became available for on-premises environments in the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2305 release earlier this year. Autoscale is a power management solution that helps you optimize costs and make the most out of your computational resources. Previously, admins had to provision on-premises resources based on peak user capacity at all times, which made for a great user experience, but wasted a lot of resources during off hours. Autoscale can now automatically allocate resources across your IT-managed datacenter based on how you configure your settings.
Bringing this capability to on-premises data centers allows organizations to get the most out of their datacenter investments and save on needed power and resources. Autoscale allows for schedule-based scaling where your virtual machines (VM) automatically power on and off at specific times. This is especially useful for predictable workloads. Sometimes you might have a spike in demand even with predictable workloads though, which is where load-based scheduling helps accommodate sudden spikes in demand. You can set a capacity buffer as a percentage of your machines to make sure that users do not have to wait for additional machines to power on when workloads spike.
Autoscale also offers a few other cost-saving settings including dynamic session timeouts, user log off notifications, and Autoscale tagged machines. Dynamic session timeouts reduce expenses by shutting down inactive machines based on your timeout configurations. Autoscale tagged machines is a great feature for those with hybrid deployments, because it lets you specify which resources to use for workloads. For example, you could tag on premises resources to be used first before cloud resources. This feature helps reduce cloud spending by maximizing your on-premises workloads first before bursting to the cloud.
Check out the video below to get a closer look at how to implement Autoscale on premises and in the cloud.
Modern admin experiences
Just because your workloads are on premises, does not mean you should have to use an outdated management console. Admins can now use the new Web Studio to manage their on-premises Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops deployments. Bringing the power of Web Studio on premises allows you to leverage the same interface across cloud and on premises to easily manage your hybrid environment.
The new Web Studio comes with a couple other new features too, including REST APIs and an Automated Configuration Tool. The on-premises REST APIs are based on the same schema as cloud APIs, which makes less work for admins as they only have to create one set of automation APIs for both cloud and on-premises deployments. In addition, we’ve added the Automated Configuration Tool which enables syncing between one or more on-prem sites for use cases like backup and recovery, mergers and acquisitions, creation of new lab environments, or to sync test and production sites. Improving the on-premises admin experience is just one of the many ways we’re investing in supporting on-premises deployments.
Check out our Web Studio for on premises video below to see the management console in action.
Get ready for our latest LTSR
We’re furthering our commitment to supporting your deployments on premises, so make sure to keep an eye on the blog regularly for more announcements on what’s to come for on-premises deployments in the next year. If you’re getting ready for LTSR 2402, read our blog on preparing for the latest LTSR so you know what to expect with this new release.
