Citrix Collaborates with Microsoft to Simplify Transition to Hybrid Work

The way people work is changing. To meet the needs and expectations of an increasingly flexible workforce, IT has to provide fast, reliable, and secure access to the resources employees need to get things done, whether they are working at home, in the office, on the road or anywhere in between. And Citrix Systems, Inc. is collaborating with Microsoft to help them do it with greater simplicity and speed. The company announced that Citrix Desktop as a Service (DaaS) is now available in Azure Marketplace, making it easier than ever for companies to purchase the market-leading solution and use it to quickly stand up the secure, high-performing workspaces that distributed workers demand.

Better Together

“Citrix and Microsoft have long been partnering to accelerate the future of work by combining the power of Microsoft Azure with the user experience, management and security benefits of Citrix digital workspace and virtualization solutions,” said Carisa Stringer, Vice President of Product Marketing, Citrix.

And the partnership is paying off. According to a Forrester Total Economic Impact report, when customers use Citrix DaaS alongside Microsoft Azure, they can deliver key business improvements that have a positive impact on the bottom line, including:

• $1 million legacy on-premises IT cost reductions
• 10 percent IT efficiency improvement
• 33 percent reduction in desktop-related helpdesk calls
• 53 percent resource time savings onboarding employees
• 153 percent ROI

“In transitioning from Citrix on-premises to Citrix DaaS, customers can save 50 percent to 70 percent over a three-year period, including an additional 25 percent of costs above and beyond the savings delivered using Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop alone,” Stringer said.

Modernizing IT

Citrix DaaS, formerly known as Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Service, is a market-leading cloud service that modernizes IT and addresses the needs of distributed workers by providing a secure, agile and easy way to quickly deliver apps or desktops from any cloud or datacenter to any device worldwide.

Using the solution, Microsoft customers can simplify the delivery of Windows and Linux desktops and applications to any device, anywhere and enhance key platforms like Windows 11 and Windows 10 multi-session. 

Key Features:

• High-definition HDX Technology – Citrix HDX technology delivers optimized voice and video performance to any device for Teams, Skype, and other multimedia applications and provides an interactive experience regardless of internet connection or location.
• Comprehensive Management Tools – Built-in tools streamline image management, application lifecycle and IT operations tasks to provide a customized experience to all workers as both Azure and on-prem deployments can be managed from a single interface.
• Integrated Analytics – Citrix performance and security analytics capabilities give admins deep visibility into application performance and security concerns, allowing them to quickly address issues and mitigate their impact.
• Provisioning Services (PVS) – Acclaimed software streaming technology enables desktops and apps to be deployed and re-deployed in real time, from a single shared golden image and gives IT the ability to stream hundreds – or thousands – of cloud-hosted virtual machines in minutes – optimizing cloud resource consumption and improving IT agility.

Enhancing Employee Experience

“With Citrix and Microsoft Azure, IT can serve up a superior experience that keeps users engaged and productive,” Stringer said. “Video streaming is smooth, audio calls are clear, and graphic-intense engineering applications render seamlessly.”

Among the other benefits they can deliver:

• Enhanced Performance – Workspace environment management service optimizes user density and performance to deliver a superior experience.
• Improved Security – App protection, dynamic policy control, and watermarking keep data safe from malicious agents or inadvertent data loss.
• Cost Efficiencies – Autoscaling capabilities rapidly scale environments up or out as needed to support business requirements and keep costs in check.

With Citrix DaaS now available in Azure Marketplace, customers have access to key benefits including:

• The Azure consumption commitment benefit, allowing eligible commercial marketplace offers to contribute towards your organization’s Azure consumption commitment.
• Simplified procurement and management including access to Azure cost management

Citrix DaaS joins a wide selection of Citrix solutions available in the Azure Marketplace that enable customers to rapidly scale environments into the cloud, and accelerate the transition to the future of work.