With so much industry change, you may be worried about what’s going to happen to your app and desktop virtualization solution. If you’re using Citrix, you can rest assured that we’re fully dedicated to building an app and desktop delivery platform that not only gives you more choice, but also gives your users a better experience than ever before. If you’re questioning whether now might be the time to migrate your hybrid work solution to Citrix, we’ll explore three reasons why Citrix is a leader in end user computing (EUC) solutions, and how we’re leaning into that now more than ever. Citrix has become the clear choice for customers migrating from VMware Horizon because of our dedication to the EUC space, our flexible solutions, and our superior user experience.

Our commitment to secure application delivery

Our app and desktop delivery platform is our focus now and in the future, as we continue to invest in sustaining our leadership in delivering the best user experiences on any device, Zero Trust app access, automation, and cost optimizations.  If your business needs to support hybrid work, distributed workforces, third-party access, high performance graphics, M&A, etc. Citrix has the technological leadership to ensure long term success. 

Since re-focusing our energies on our core business at the beginning of this year, we have released nearly a hundred high-value client and server updates. We’re evolving our platform features alongside your business needs so you can support and secure any kind of application including Windows, Linux, web, and SaaS apps. And we’re doing it at massive scale and speed, leveraging our provisioning technologies for both on-prem and cloud, and powerful management tools for configuration and monitoring. As an example, we recently worked with Microsoft Azure to drive record-setting desktop provisioning metrics – you can fire up 5,000 virtual desktops in less than 15 minutes! It’s more than just a technical feat though – it has major value in situations where you have a serious DR event and need to scale quickly. In 2023 alone, we’ve seen many examples of extreme weather or political disruption or smoke filled air where this kind of provisioning performance can make a huge difference.  

Having options isn’t optional

Here’s an important fact: Citrix is the only major desktop virtualization provider that is NOT primarily in the computing infrastructure business. The Citrix platform is compatible with every major public cloud provider, including Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud, plus any hypervisor including Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, Citrix Hypervisor, or VMware vSphere. The advantage to this is that you can leverage your on-premises investments alongside your cloud investments to build a cost-effective environment. With our flexible licensing, there’s no penalty for switching workloads or control planes from on-prem to cloud or vice-versa. Citrix also supports the use of multiple clouds, so you can take advantage of the best features and best offers from each cloud provider, rather than getting locked in to one. Sure VMware Horizon can support Microsoft Azure and AWS Workspaces Core, but if you want more flexibility for cloud providers and hypervisors, you need Citrix. 

Citrix offers more flexibility than Horizon when it comes to cloud and vendor choice. Citrix has an extensive Citrix Ready program that develops, integrates, and tests connections with vendors, so you can enjoy hassle free rollouts. This program has over 700 partners, so you can be confident that there’s a partner for whatever solution you need. 

We’ve invested in these partner and cloud integrations so that you can build an agile hybrid or multi-cloud environment that supports your business even through the most radical changes. That means native integrations and no vendor lock-in. It also means you’re free to scale up and down on demand, change applications as needed, and create customized hybrid cloud models without needing to change your entire infrastructure from the ground up. The best part? You can manage all of these investments from a single Citrix control plane for a positive admin experience. 

Unparalleled user experience

You probably have users working in a hybrid setting. You might even have a global workforce distributed in offices around the world. To create the most productive experience for those employees, you need to deliver applications and desktops and a high definition experience, anywhere, on any device. We’ve got one protocol and we invest in it year over year to ensure that Citrix is the leader. With Citrix HDX technology, you can support support the industry’s broadest array of devices, operating systems, and peripherals and deliver smooth audio, video, graphics over any connection. This allows you to support Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies without compromising the user experience. VMware Horizon can’t deliver the same quality user experience across the same variety of devices. 

The Citrix platform includes user experience solutions too, unlike VMware Horizon where you’ll have to pay for the top tier subscription if you want to deliver high quality user experiences, manage profiles, or add personalization. Citrix offers a workspace environment manager for better management and an improved user experience. This includes custom scripted tasks for unique environments, system optimization insights, and CPU spike protection for more granular control.

While many VMware users on review sites complain about frequent restarts and lost connections, Citrix service continuity maintains virtual app and desktop connections for remote users, even if cloud components are unavailable. On-site employees can even access local resources if internet access goes down. 

Recognition in the industry

Gartner® recently published the 2023 Critical Capabilities for Desktop as a Service report, and Citrix was ranked highest in the: Remote Worker, High Security, High Performance and Custom Enterprise Architectures use cases. 

Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Desktop as a Service, By Craig Fisler, Stuart Downes, Sunil Kumar, Published 6 September 2023. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Get more from your app and desktop virtualization solution

We’re committed to delivering the features that you need the most. Unlike VMware, we’re not going to tie those features to top tier subscriptions, or lock you into using our preferred vendors. We’re all about giving you the flexibility to create an environment that supports your business, and then delivering that environment in high definition to your employees. If you want to know more about how Citrix compares to VMware, visit our compare page.

Disclaimer: This publication may include references to the planned testing, release and/or availability of Cloud Software Group, Inc. products and services. The information provided in this publication is for informational purposes only, its contents are subject to change without notice, and it should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The information is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for products remains at the sole discretion of Cloud Software Group, Inc.