Citrix and Nutanix share a rich history of collaboration dating back to the early days of Nutanix’s HCI solution. Our joint sponsorship of industry events over the years underscores the significant value our solutions offer to our mutual customers.

The unique architecture of Nutanix, a topic I’ll explore in upcoming blogs, has consistently made it the preferred platform for deploying Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) or Citrix DaaS, whether on-premises or in the public cloud with Nutanix NC2 (Nutanix Cloud Clusters) offerings for AWS and Azure.

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending Nutanix.NEXT in Barcelona. For those familiar with me, it’s no secret that I thoroughly enjoy these events. Although I’m not naturally extroverted (I’m really not), discussing topics I understand and believe in, such as Citrix running on Nutanix, truly excites me. In this piece, I offer a glimpse into my experience at .NEXT24. Enjoy the read!

Key Nutanix Announcements

Let’s start with Nutanix. Yes, this is a Citrix article, so without focusing too much on “Nutanix”, I still think it’s worth highlighting the major announcements Nutanix made at .NEXT. 

    • Collaboration with Dell Technologies to accelerate digital transformation journeys.
    • Expanded AI Capabilities with GPT-in-a-Box 2.0
    • Collaboration with NVIDIA to Accelerate Enterprise AI
    • Simplified Kubernetes Operations
    • Introduced new Nutanix AHV enterprise features and deployment options
    • Introduced features to Help Customers Track Sustainability

    Details can be found in their .NEXT News blog here. 

    Breakout Sessions

    In terms of content, there were some excellent breakout sessions delivered by Gaby Grau, Kees Baggerman, Dave Brett, Jarian Gibson, Sven Huisman, and James Kindon. The sessions aren’t yet available for viewing, but hopefully they’ll be released soon, as I’d highly recommend watching these EUC focused breakout sessions. I’m sure the presenters (I did ask beforehand ) would be happy to explain more if you ping them though .

    • Simplify, Scale, Succeed: EUC Mastery with Nutanix – Dave & Gaby
    • Mastering EUC Performance Optimization in the Nutanix Ecosystem – Kees & Sven
    • The Power of Hybrid Multicloud EUC with Citrix & Nutanix (NC2) – Jarian & James
    • Ask me Anything EUC edition.

    “Citrix on Nutanix” Announcements

    In terms of Citrix news, we announced an upcoming Tech Preview of the CVAD plug-in for Nutanix Prism Central. This will enable customers who have multi cluster deployments to use templates to streamline their image management and provisioning operations across hybrid clouds. 

    We also announced the Tech Preview of the NetScaler VPX for Nutanix. But the NetScaler appliance for AHV has been around for years, I hear you say. Correct; the difference now is that the appliance is directly supported by Citrix Support and not via the Citrix Ready program. Sign up here.

    The 3rd important announcement is our support for Nutanix GPT-in-a-box thereby helping you “Enable Your Enterprise AI” by being able to quickly deploy APIs, LLMs on standard servers, GPUs and Containers without needing to deploy a “GPT” specific architecture.

    And lastly, there’s Never Been a Better Time to Make the Move from VMware Horizon. We’d love you to move from Horizon to CVAD / DaaS. Nutanix would like you to Migrate from VMware to Nutanix as well and have put together an interesting migration offer.

    Benefits of Running Citrix on Nutanix

    All this brings me to the point of this article; Why Citrix on Nutanix. This article, Unlocking Synergies: The Advantages of Citrix and Nutanix, that I posted on LinkedIn a while back still holds true. In addition to the section discussing Nutanix vs.VMware, the demo crew showed close to 300 attendees the benefits of a joint Citrix Nutanix solution.

    Enhanced Performance

    Nutanix’s hyperconverged infrastructure significantly boosts the performance of Citrix environments. During the event, we demonstrated and discussed scenarios showcasing dramatic improvements in application responsiveness and user experience.

    Simplified Management

    Management is now more streamlined than ever. The unified management console allows IT administrators to easily monitor and manage their entire virtual desktop environment, reducing complexity and operational overhead.

    Cost Efficiency

    One of the key advantages highlighted was the cost savings associated with running Citrix on Nutanix. The combination of reduced hardware requirements and efficient resource utilization results in a lower total cost of ownership and a higher return on investment.

  • In conclusion

    I first attended .NEXT in Vienna as a Nutanix employee in 2016. As always, this was another brilliant event, a lot of great presentations, especially the EUC ones, some exciting product announcements, and the usual networking opportunities. From a business perspective, the key announcements, being able to demonstrate the benefits of running Citrix on Nutanix, make these events a success. 

    From a personal perspective, meeting old friends, making new ones and geeking out about technology are probably the most important aspects of these events.

    Hope to see you at the next one. Cheers,

    Paul