Your business needs modern IT solutions that securely deliver apps and desktops anywhere. Depending on what applications you use and how your employees work, some vendors will work better for your business than others. At Citrix, we know that flexibility is important to you, so we’ve built the Citrix platform to be compatible with a wide variety of vendors, so you have the freedom to choose the best third party authentication provider, the best cloud provider, and the best platform. 

We’re excited to announce that support for Amazon WorkSpaces Core on Citrix DaaS is now generally available! If you’ve been following or were part of the tech preview, we’ve added new capabilities as part of this release. Citrix DaaS for Amazon WorkSpaces Core provides a powerful and cost-effective solution, with flexible pricing options, support for Microsoft 365 apps for enterprise, and new Windows Server and encrypted disk support.

What is Amazon WorkSpaces Core?

Amazon WorkSpaces Core is a managed virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) service designed to work with third-party solutions such as Citrix DaaS. The Citrix DaaS control plane can help orchestrate and manage the compute layer of AWS workloads to help deliver HDX optimized apps anywhere. Together, Amazon WorkSpaces Core and Citrix improve cost savings, simplify cloud management, and deliver superior user experiences. Take a closer look at the announcement on the AWS blog here. Amazon WorkSpaces Core is another resource location option that you can leverage with your Citrix environment alongside Amazon EC2 and on-premises resources.

Flexible pricing

Citrix DaaS for Amazon WorkSpaces Core comes with many features to streamline your VDI deployment, and Amazon offers a variety of pricing options so that you can choose the most cost-effective plan for your business. Amazon WorkSpaces Core includes a fixed price model so you can make the most of your IT budget. When you use Citrix DaaS for Amazon WorkSpaces Core you can take advantage of a special pricing discount too. This means you can combine all the features and functionality from both Citrix and AWS, at a major discount with the Amazon Enterprise Discount Program. 

Not only can you take advantage of discounts when you use both Citrix and Amazon, but you can also take advantage of all the cost-saving tools already included with Citrix. For example, Autoscale helps you save by automatically scaling resources up and down with demand, without over provisioning infrastructure. You can set up your virtual machines on a schedule, powering them up and down based on set times. Alternatively, you can set up load-based scaling where machines are turned on and off based on demand, so users don’t have to wait for additional machines to power on during peaks and you don’t have to pay for idle machines during periods of downtime. You can learn more about the other cost-saving tools included with Citrix in our white paper.

Integrations with Productivity Apps

If your business uses Microsoft 365 apps for Enterprise or Windows 10/11 already, you can now run your applications on Amazon WorkSpaces Core. Both Windows Server and Windows Desktop operating systems running on dedicated instances are supported. Depending on your license type, you can activate it at no extra cost. By using Amazon, Microsoft, and Citrix together, you can securely deliver applications to your users anywhere, on any device, and take advantage of existing IT investments. 

New support for single session and encrypted disks

Our tech preview of Citrix DaaS for Amazon WorkSpaces Core introduced simplified cloud and on-premises resource management and high-quality audio and video even over low bandwidth. We’ve added new features to our offering too, starting with Windows Server 2019 and 2022 single session support, with multi-session support in tech preview. In tech preview only Windows 10 and 11 were supported, so this addition offers more flexibility for your deployment. We’re also adding Encrypted Disk Support so you can add an extra layer of security to your Citrix Daas for Amazon WorkSpaces Core deployment. We have more features planned in our roadmap too, so this partnership will continue to grow and expand in the future. 

Automation via Terraform

Apart from using Citrix DaaS Studio to deploy AWS WorkSpaces Core instances, customers who prefer infrastructure-as-code can add to their automation pipeline using the Citrix Terraform Provider, which will create the corresponding resources using DaaS APIs. Please go to our Terraform documentation to get started on this exciting journey!

Citrix and Amazon, better together

This solution makes it easier than ever for you to manage your existing investments in Citrix and Amazon WorkSpaces Core and deliver a cost-effective virtual desktop solution to users anywhere, on any device. Plus with the bring your own license for Microsoft, you can easily deploy Office 365 apps too. 

If you’re ready to start using Citrix DaaS and Amazon WorkSpaces Core, check out our product documentation for more information on how to prepare and deploy this solution. You can also read more about this release on the AWS blog. Additionally, be sure to listen to our podcast with Product Manager Jason Samuel to learn even more about this latest update!

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.