In today’s rapidly evolving cloud computing environment, balancing operational costs, user experience, and environmental sustainability is challenging and time-consuming for IT organizations. The recent general availability (GA) of Azure Hibernation with Citrix DaaS addresses these challenges. Since its initial tech preview, over 160 customers have successfully trialed this feature, transforming the management of their Azure virtual desktop infrastructure.

Technology that drives actual cloud cost reduction

Azure Hibernation allows businesses to pause virtual machines (VMs) when not in use, significantly reducing compute costs. It saves the VM’s memory contents to the OS disk and deallocates the machine, stopping billing for compute resources and only charging for storage. Combined with Citrix AutoScale, this feature helps organizations manage VMs efficiently based on user demand, ensuring that resources are used only when necessary.

Since the tech preview many Citrix customers have found innovative ways to optimize their usage and costs by leveraging hibernation and reserved instances.

Some have are using reserved instances for peak concurrent usage (7k users) and hibernating the rest for other users, providing an excellent experience to all 21k end users. In this scenario, customers maintain a low number of reserved instances for peak usage periods and use hibernation to manage the remaining instances. This hybrid approach ensures optimal performance during peak times while maximizing cost efficiency during off-peak periods.

Others are choosing to use only hibernation instead of reserved instances, achieving significant cost savings. By hibernating instances during non-working hours and resuming them during a typical 50-hour work week, customers can save up to 70%. This approach avoids the long-term financial commitments of reserved instances and provides a flexible, on-demand solution that matches actual usage patterns.

Both strategies allow end users to resume their sessions where they left off, eliminating the time-consuming process of reopening applications and files, enhancing productivity, and reducing downtime.

Enhanced user experience

Integrating Citrix DaaS and Azure Hibernation offers a smooth experience for end users. The hibernation process is designed to be transparent, allowing users to hibernate and restart their sessions without disruption. This feature is particularly valuable in environments where users require periodic access to resource-intensive applications, enabling them to continue their work effortlessly and efficiently.

Admins have the ability to select which users have the option to hibernate and view the hibernation states of their own machines, promoting sustainability awareness and cost-efficient resource usage. 

Driving environmental sustainability

Azure Hibernation with Citrix DaaS significantly reduces data center energy consumption by optimizing resource use. This reduction in active compute time lowers IT operations’ carbon footprint, aligning with corporate sustainability goals. Based on feedback this technology is helping organizations comply with environmental standards and achieve a more sustainable future.

Getting Started

If you are looking to implement Azure Hibernation, Citrix provides comprehensive guides and documentation on Citrix Tech Zone, detailing step-by-step procedures for setting up and managing the hibernation and AutoScale features. Whether through PowerShell or REST API, these resources offer valuable insights for IT administrators to optimize their VDI deployments effectively.

Please refer to Microsoft’s documentation for Windows and Linux VMs for all requirements.  

The launch of Azure Hibernation with Citrix DaaS is more than just an advancement in technology—it is a strategic enhancement that addresses real business challenges of cost, efficiency, and sustainability. Organizations that leverage this feature can achieve significant savings, superior user experiences, and a measurable reduction in environmental impact. As cloud technologies continue to evolve, Azure Hibernation and Citrix DaaS are setting new standards for how businesses can maximize their IT infrastructure in an eco-friendly and cost-effective manner.

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