Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) Reviews

I am publishing desktops as well as applications.

Citrix offers a range of products that can be used straight out of the box.

When it comes to Citrix, the main advantage is its protocol, which has gone through several name changes including ICA and HDX. It originally started out as Thinwire in 1988, and now they are back to using that name again. 

This protocol allows for faster transmission and beats competitors such as RDP. Citrix has tried various approaches with VMware, but nothing can beat the speed of their protocol, which works very effectively. 

Using the app layering feature can be quite difficult and cumbersome.

I have experience installing Citrix since 1997 when we published desktops using Windframe 1.7. Back then, we had to publish desktops and applications from the terminal server, which is now known as the remote desktop server, but we didn't have a desktop for over a decade. 

We had to figure out all the applications and printing for ourselves. However, everything has become much simpler now, and the issues we used to face have been largely resolved. 

Citrix has proven to be quite stable in my experience. Of course, its stability ultimately depends on the skill and expertise of the people managing it. However, I have personally overseen the implementation of Citrix in very large hospital systems, with over a hundred thousand concurrent connections, specifically for the deployment of medical applications and desktops. Overall, I find Citrix to be very reliable and stable.

I would rate the stability a nine or a ten out of ten.

Provisioning Server is a fantastic option for image management in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops. It offers excellent performance and reliability. On the other hand, while Machine Creation Services can be scaled easily, they can significantly increase storage consumption. For instance, creating a Windows 10 image in MCS typically requires at least 80 GB of storage, in addition to any separate disks needed.

To store changes made by users in Machine Creation Services, the differencing disk must be equal in size to the base disk, leading to significant storage consumption. On the other hand, Provisioning Server uses image versioning, creating a new image version every time it's modified. As a result, virtual machines streamed from the server revert to their original state after a reboot, which is similar to their state during the first boot.

Using the provisioning server, I start by configuring a virtual machine with either a 2016 or 2019 server operating system. I install the necessary Citrix client provisioning server target device software, followed by installing the required applications. After that, I capture the entire configuration to a file share. The image is then streamed from the file share to the hypervisor, which can handle multiple machines. In some large-scale deployments, we have used a single image to provision thousands of servers.

Once the image is captured and stored on the file share, it is set to read-only mode, and any changes made to it are not accepted until it is put in read-write mode. When a virtual machine is rebooted, it returns to its previous state before the changes were made. This feature can be beneficial in situations like a virus outbreak, where a simple reboot of the virtual machines can remove any malicious code or changes.

A provisioning server offers a faster recovery time from a bad change and is generally faster than machine creation services. With the provisioning server, changes are not accepted until the read-write mode is enabled, and if a virus outbreak occurs, rebooting the machines restores them to the previous state. On the other hand, machine creation services' speed is dependent on the storage's speed, and recovery time from a bad change can take longer, especially with a large number of devices. If a bad change is made with machine creation services, the replication process can take a while to revert, whereas, with a provisioning server, all machines can be rebooted quickly.

Within thirty minutes, I can restore my system to its previous state using the provisioning server.

Technical support is not the best. The quality of technical support has declined over time. Previously, their support was excellent, and you had to pay for each call. 

The support staff were very efficient and did not waste time. However, they have now changed their support model so that it's included with your licensing, and they have hired new staff. 

The first-line support staff follows a scripted process, and they are not necessarily highly skilled. You have to go through all the steps before you can speak to someone knowledgeable, or you have to insist that it's an emergency and you need immediate assistance.

In general, the support used to be good, but currently, I am not satisfied with it.

It depends on the image management that you choose to use. 

Provisioning Server is one such solution, but it can be challenging to set up without the right expertise. As an alternative, Citrix offers another image management technology called Machine Creation Services, which is easier to use but can significantly increase storage consumption.

Their licensing model used to be on a per-year basis, where you would negotiate the cost per user for a year. For instance, if you had 25,000 users, you could negotiate the cost accordingly. However, they are transitioning to a subscription-based model where the cost is incurred monthly. 

They argue that this model allows companies to switch from a capital expense to an operational expense, making budgeting easier. However, I am not a fan of this model. I prefer paying only for the number of licenses that I need based on the number of concurrent users, like the previous model.

It is important to receive proper training rather than relying solely on online resources or Googling.

I have been using it successfully in larger enterprise deployments since 1997.

I would rate Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops a nine out of ten.

I am currently working as a senior infrastructure engineer for a company, but in the past, I have also been a reseller and had my own consulting company where I sold and provided consulting services for Citrix products.

Main functions as a call center and also evaluates our Tender evaluations. We utilize a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) to enhance security. Currently, we have another solution in place.

The security layer is very high because I cannot copy-paste outside of the VDI. Screenshots are not possible, as everything will appear black. Within the VDI, users are focused on their specific tasks. 

It is a lightweight application that incorporates multi-factor authentication. It allows contact centers to work from home, using the VDI for application access while ensuring the person accessing the machine is the one doing the work. The security layer is robust, preventing copy-pasting outside the VDI or screenshotting.

The dashboard should be more user-friendly as the tabs are not organized clearly. The integration processes behind the scenes require improvement. Companies should be advised on capacity planning before using VDI. Citrix needs to provide comprehensive advisory to DaaS customers before they use the tool.

I think I have used it for the past two years, approximately.

To plan for Citrix, it is essential to plan correctly for my company. It is quite difficult to determine whether issues arise due to the network or the VDI.

I would rate scalability as either five or six out of ten. It is hard to troubleshoot from the VDI perspective. I am unable to ascertain if the issues are due to the network or the VDI environment.

I think speaking support has improved lately after the merger with another company. The support mechanism has changed and it is much better.

Neutral

The switch was due to technology transformation. They purchased a new suite for Tender evaluation that is web-based now, instead of VDI.

For the service side, it is difficult to set up because you need to understand everything. For the endpoint, it is very easy. Just click, click, click, and it is done.

The investment is not cheap. It is very high, however, the return on investment is good for the service.

VDI is expensive. Both the subscription and equipment are costly.

I am not sure if right now other companies are looking into it, especially regarding security aspects, such as Microsoft with Windows 365, Azure with Desktops, and others like Huawei in China or JetPE.

It is the best solution for virtual Desktops in the market. If they can increase the security level, they will continue to be pioneers. The security, data leakage protection, and the support mechanism have all improved. Continuous improvement is still necessary. 

Overall, I would rate the product nine out of ten.

Our usage of Citrix Workspace includes standard office applications as well as specialized ones, such as those for automotive design and engineering from a major car manufacturer.

This solution has been convenient for us and has our capital cost increased.

The most valuable feature of Citrix Workspace is the virtual desktop that we can use anywhere, at any time, and without taking our laptop.

I have noticed that the current compatibility issue with the latest version of Windows 11 is a concern for me and my client. While the client has support for Windows 11, it appears that the Citrix Workspace is only compatible with Windows 10, which does not support the newest version. This is an area that I believe could be improved upon.

I have been using Citrix Workspace for approximately two years.

Citrix Workspace is stable.

The solution is scalable.

We have approximately 6000 users using the solution.

Sometimes we escalate issues to the technical support of Citrix Workspace.

I rate the support from Citrix Workspace a seven out of ten.

Neutral

We have tried VMware but it did not fit our needs and this is why we are using Citrix Workspace.

The initial setup of Citrix Workspace is simple.

The process of deploying Citrix Workspace is simple and straightforward. All you need to do is download the front portion of the website, double-click on the package, and utilize the default settings. It should not require much effort to successfully implement this application.

We used a Microsoft solution called SCCM to automatically install Citrix Workspace.

The solution is straightforward to maintain.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Citrix Workspace an eight out of ten.

We use Citrix Workspace to virtualize applications and desktops.

One of the best features of Citrix Workspace is that we can access it from any device anywhere. The solution is very user-friendly.

The solution's cost has almost doubled this year, and it could be made cheaper. On some occasions, if the screen resolution is not set correctly, you cannot see the Citrix environment correctly. Sometimes, if the aspect ratio is set to 150%, the Citrix environment doesn't pick up on that. The screen looks zoomed in on the Citrix environment, and sometimes it's difficult to navigate.

However, once you know the problem and correctly set the resolution on your PC, you can navigate Citrix correctly.

I have been using Citrix Workspace for six years.

We haven't had any issues with the solution's stability.

I rate the solution's stability a nine out of ten.

I rate the solution’s scalability ten out of ten.

I have previously worked with Microsoft VDI. I have found Citrix to be better than Microsoft because it is more user-friendly.

Since I am a technician, the solution's initial setup is relatively easy for me. The deployment takes around three to four hours.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup ten out of ten.

We spent nearly 1,50,000 Euros for 250 licenses.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a nine or ten out of ten.

We use Citrix Workspace on Citrix Cloud. We have all of our servers on the AWS public cloud. There are a number of tools that we can implement that would save us costs. However, we've stuck to Citrix for convenience. If the prices keep increasing, we will have to consider other solutions.

Users need to understand the tool's limitations correctly and what they require from a usability perspective. They should also understand the configuration of security policies. In some cases, people are unable to download or upload files onto their PCs, which is necessary for them to do their work. Users should understand the limitations of the product or the configuration options.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

I use it to deliver applications and desktops over the Internet and secure data.

The main benefits include:

• enhanced security,
• return on investment since we're only delivering applications,
• flexible work hours for remote employees, and
• ensuring data and applications are always accessible and
• availability of the systems.

The challenge is that people don't want to take their data or applications from the data center. When I need to deliver an application or data securely to a laptop connected to the Internet, or to someone working from home who may not be able to have the application installed due to GDPR or compliance issues, or because the laptop or desktop lacks the power to run those applications or process that data, in this situation, Citrix DaaS allows for secure delivery over the Internet without exposing it to the rest of the world, keeping it within the data center.

To integrate Citrix DaaS with other infrastructure components, such as Active Directory, which is an integral part, and other applications like SaaS or the printing system, these need to be locally installed or packaged and delivered to our Citrix infrastructure. 

The integration depends on various factors:

• type of applications, 
• connectivity, and 
• actual business use case driving that integration. 

So, it's quite subjective, but it largely depends on these factors.

There are many features that I like, but the stability over the Internet is exceptional. Even if there's bandwidth fluctuation or network jitter, it performs well, offering a seamless experience to end-users without noticeable disruptions.

From the productivity perspective, the seamless end-user experience is key for productivity and user experience. This is managed through the HDX technology, which ensures a smooth and efficient workflow.

The experience with HDX technology has been amazing, especially for organizations dealing with videos, AutoCAD, and 3D image rendering. 

Unlike competitors like VMware or AVD, Citrix DaaS handles these tasks smoothly without the choppiness, providing excellent video playback and stable collaboration tool calls, like Teams, Zoom, or Webex, by efficiently compressing voice data to utilize minimum bandwidth without distorting the original quality.

I would like to see simplification in the management of the on-prem infrastructure component of Citrix DaaS, particularly in the studio tool used to manage the DaaS infrastructure. 

This simplification should make it easier for admins to understand and execute their tasks, possibly through an overview of operations and the availability of helpful articles or resources. 

Making the studio tool more user-friendly would not only ease the administration of the Citrix infrastructure but also ensure it is configured correctly.

I'm also interested in a feature that would allow end users to hide their screens. For instance, when launching a Citrix VDI on my laptop, as soon as I start sharing my screen, the VDI should lock out, preventing the person I'm sharing my screen with from seeing anything on that VDI. 

However, there are scenarios where an end user might want to share the VDI screen as well. Currently, whether this is possible or not is not controlled by the end user. Introducing a feature that provides end users the ability to share their screen along with the VDI would be beneficial.

I've been working with it for nearly 12 years.

In my 12 years of customer-facing experience and managing over 80+ accounts, the environment, once stabilized, remains stable for a good amount of time unless it's tampered with.

I manage around 80+ accounts for Citrix virtualization across the entire virtualization stack, involving approximately 1.4 million users.

Both scalability and reliability are really good. If supporting components like Active Directory, networking, and storage are functioning well, then Citrix DaaS proves to be highly reliable. 

Scalability is easy too, thanks to Citrix's image management system, which allows for quick expansion, scaling thousands of machines in hours, a feat not possible with physical infrastructure.

The technical support is neutral, indicating there is room for improvement.

Neutral

I also handle accounts for VMware Horizon, Azure Virtual Desktop, and AWS Workspace, among others.

The main challenge with Citrix is its pricing. However, it offers a robust feature list, great stability, and the best audio and video experience over the Internet.

I would classify the initial setup as medium complex. It's not extremely complex, but due to the involvement of various technologies and the need for advanced configuration—such as coordination with the Active Directory team, understanding storage, and networking—it's not straightforward either. 

For someone familiar with these technologies, the setup process might be seen as straightforward.

I work with both on-premises and cloud versions.

The implementation strategy is always very simple, though people often confuse deployment strategy with mere installation. 

Before deployment, it's crucial to understand the business use case for deploying Citrix infrastructure. This involves assessing what type of users are involved, whether they're suitable for VDI, and if there are any within this user base who cannot use VDI and instead need physical laptops. 

This assessment covers their profile needs, required bandwidth, and resources. After this assessment, a testing phase, followed by a pilot, should be undertaken before a full rollout. This thorough approach is essential; without it, many customers face issues.

Therefore, the timeframe truly depends on several factors, such as the type of applications, the number of servers, and the number of users involved. So, it really varies.

On average, it might take around eight weeks. A lot of resources would not be needed if you have the right resource or a team with the right skill set. They would be able to deploy and scale it very easily.

Citrix itself doesn't require much maintenance, but it's important to have people with the necessary skill set to identify issues related to other components like networking or storage.

Implementing Citrix DaaS with thin clients, rather than physical laptops, has resulted in savings of 27% to 29%. 

Additionally, moving 1,000 users from physical laptops to thin clients and VDI solutions can save around 40,000 kilograms of carbon emissions, benefiting both the environment and the company's economy, provided thin clients are used.

Anyone looking to deploy Citrix DaaS needs to first understand their business use case and determine why they want to offer Citrix DaaS as either an application or desktop version to their end users. 

It's crucial to assess whether their end users truly need this solution. If so, they should understand the profile requirements and how applications will behave when virtualized or moved to the cloud. 

After this assessment, proceed with testing, then a pilot, and finally, roll out to production.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

Our use case for Citrix Workspace in our environment is optimizing connectivity for over 5,000 shopping centers. It helps us provide secure access to our data center.

The product's technical support services need improvement. They have different priority support engineers, including schedule support and case support. The schedule support engineer could be more productive. Along with that, the case support engineer could study the issues in depth and give a prompt response. Instead, they give basic suggestions and respond very slowly.

Integrating a 64-bit network directly into the environment could eliminate the necessity for third-party solutions. This enhancement would help users who need a workspace to install components. Horizon provides functionality where users can seamlessly connect via the website without requiring a dedicated client installation. 

Our company has been using Citrix Workspace for over ten years. I started using it two years ago.

The platform is stable. However, we sometimes encounter glitches during upgradation.

We have more than 10,000 Citrix Workspace users working in our environment and have conducted 17,000 sessions.

I have used VMware Horizon before. I recommend a preference for Workspace for virtual app delivery. However, regarding Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and desktops, Horizon is a much more flexible environment, as users can directly access the website and log in without needing a dedicated workspace.

It is a complicated system to maintain. We have around seven executives in the virtualization team and over 300 executives in the IT department working on the maintenance.

Citrix is expensive. In comparison, VMware is less expensive and gives free licenses as well.

Citrix Workspace substantially enhances team productivity. It allows us to mute users who adhere to a policy of not allowing direct VPN access for security reasons. It is easy to use.

No essential documentation is available for understanding the integration process with existing infrastructure. We have to refer to other portals more than Citrix for the same.

I rate it a nine out of ten.

We initially implemented it so that our attorneys had an option to work from home. The majority of them did not want to carry a laptop back and forth. Prior to 2020, we did have four of our 40 attorneys using it almost full-time on a work-from-home basis.

We use the following in protecting our environment: Citrix Gateway, Remote Desktop Access, Citrix Secure Browser, Web/URL Filtering, and Contextual Access.

It's amazing that if someone has a sick child, they can still work. It's not that they are completely dead in the water. They can log in and access 99 percent of what they need to, as if they were in the office, and the workflow is the same.

Our previous solution was Terminal Services and that had very low security. My only security concern with this solution is users saving their logins and passwords in the browser. The security it provides is relatively high. The built-in security of Citrix is leaps and bounds above what the basic Microsoft solution had. I did request we add two-factor authentication, but that has not yet been approved. My management feels that I am doing a disservice by trying to add security measures.

But something that makes our security easier is that Citrix provides access control based on device, location, end-user device, or application. One of the reasons we chose Citrix was because it was one of the more secure offerings for remote access. I have faith that Citrix will continue to have that.

In addition, when COVID hit and I maxed out my Citrix licensing, I used the automated analytics to try to ensure everything was running well. It was very nice to be able to log in and see that I wasn't exceeding any capacity of Citrix or the servers themselves.

It provides everything in one integrated platform, and most of it is on one dashboard, which makes it even better. Monetarily, Citrix is a mid-range cost solution compared to some others out there. It does help our attorneys because, with attorneys, time is money. It helps alleviate downtime. I don't think that Citrix actually saves me any money, but it prevents me from losing any.

The most valuable feature has to be the non-persistent desktop. If one of my users messes something up and blows away their desktop, it goes back to what it was originally, before they had an issue.

Our employees also absolutely love the flexibility of using it on any device. We have quite a few people who use iPads and they really like the experience on that, regardless of where they are. The only difference is that the speed of the connection changes, but nothing else does. The consistency is huge.

The solution's centralized policy control and distributed enforcement work well. We have the desktops locked down so users can not add their own software. That's centrally controlled and it does make it easier to be able to present a consistent experience.

I also like that we have redundancy built in. The last time we upgraded, which was three years ago, we put in dual controllers and dual storefront machines. We have never had an outage that the users were aware of. I did have a desktop server crash and was able to restore that from backup. Nobody ever knew. They had had the same experience regardless.

The only thing we have found to be detrimental is when we have tried to find training. I realize that we're looking at it at the worst time possible, with a pandemic going on, but it seems that most of the training offered is learn-by-yourself online. I have a desktop admin who would love to be able to dig deeper into group policy and settings, to be able to admin Citrix a little bit more easily. That's the only thing that I would like to see an improvement on, the availability of training for novice users.

I've been using Citrix for at least 14 years, maybe 15.

It's very stable. It's one of the most stable software applications I run. You set it up and it just goes.

In terms of scalability, it seems that the only things that limit you are your number of licenses and your compute. So scaling is very easy.

Prior to the work-from-home initiative, I had about a dozen users who consistently used it. After COVID and the work-from-home, even though I had only 20 licenses, I had 24 people who were using it. Those four extra people were working part-time in the office and part-time from home so they shared the license. When one was in the office, the other would use it, so I never exceeded my license capacity. And now, since the State of Idaho lifted work-from-home, I'm back down to about eight people who are on it consistently.

The support is excellent. They are wonderful. Luckily I have only had to use them once for a critical issue. I got on the phone, was transferred to an engineer, and had it resolved in less than 20 minutes. For minor issues that are questions, they usually have those resolved in less than 24 hours. And usually, the delay is on my end getting their fix implemented and responding.

We had tried Microsoft Terminal Services and found it sadly lacking for the user experience. We went ahead and implemented Citrix and we have been using it ever since. Terminal Services was Microsoft's attempt to do a remote desktop presentation and it failed miserably. There were a lot of issues and items with Terminal Services. The biggest advantage with Citrix was the consistent experience. Terminal Services was not consistent. If you got too many users on it, desktop icons would move and applications wouldn't load.

While the centralized policy control and distributed enforcement work well, I wish we understood it better. I had a local engineer with Citrix certification build my farm for me. Since it was a brand new concept for me, it was very difficult to grasp at first. He did some preliminary training for us: How to admin it, how to update, how to make things run. But I am in no way an expert on the back-end. If I was able to take the time, which is kind of hard, to learn how all of the nuts and bolts work, I could improve the user experience a little bit. It's a lack of knowledge from my side.

From start to finish, our deployment took about two weeks, and that was mostly because the engineer could not dedicate his full time to me. It was a couple of hours here and there. Overall, the time billed was about 20 hours.

We built the servers, we tested the servers, and then we pushed them out to the handful of attorneys who had requested the ability to work from home. Then we fine-tuned it from there. I really let my users be my test-bed.

Any maintenance is done by me, but it requires minimal maintenance, mostly upgrades.

My advice is get an engineer. Their knowledge can't be matched. A very good one will do it as an educational experience, so you learn as you go. Having somebody who knows Citrix inside and out build it, with best practices and what would suit our needs the best, was invaluable to me. And our engineer has provided support on the minor things afterwards and that has been wonderful. I love the support.

My users either love it or hate it. There is no in-between. The ones who love it do so because it is very consistent in how it works. You log in, everything works. It's the same desktop, the same software, every single time. The people who hate it are the ones who use their desktop to store things, and I don't save the world on their desktops. As soon as they hit that 2 GB mark, I start deleting things. Those are the people who don't know how file stores work.

Even though we run the servers on-prem, we advertise it as a "cloud solution" since it's accessed through a web portal, and that has helped quite a bit in pushing my user base to understand what "cloud" really means. I can see moving this off-prem to a cloud solution in the future, but at this time my budget is frozen, so it's not going to be anytime soon.

I usually don't have to refer to the solution's behavior analytics for detecting anomalies because if something isn't working optimally, my users let me know immediately. They're very vocal if something isn't the way they expect it to be.

Our primary use case became present during the COVID-19 pandemic where we were forced to send all employees home and deploy Citrix Cloud Virtual Apps and Desktops to enable users to work remotely.

It's deployed as a hybrid cloud, the Citrix cloud with on-premise workloads. We deployed the hosted shared desktop, so we have terminal servers running on-premise in our data center, and users connect via Virtual Apps and Desktops to their desktops. This allows users to use their own laptops.

We also use Citrix Gateway, Access Gateway, and SD-WAN to protect our environment.

It has given us the ability for people to access the apps that are on-premise, meaning users can work from home or from anywhere. It's allowed the business to carry on like it did before COVID. As a result, COVID hasn't had an impact on the productivity of our users while they're working remotely. Users have been able to carry on working the way they did when they were in the office. If this was not in place, our staff would not have been able to work and we would have lost productivity.

Our company supports Zero Trust as a security strategy and Citrix is excellent as an end-to-end solution for implementing Zero Trust principles. We are able to use security analytics to determine whether a device or a user has been compromised and we can actually then log the user off or block the user from accessing our Citrix environment. That gives us great peace-of-mind.

In addition, the security of our intellectual property and data when remote employees are using the solution is strengthened significantly because data does not leave the business thanks to Virtual Apps and Desktops. Our previous solution was a full VPN, and that gave users the ability to leak data. With Virtual Apps and Desktops, it's a lot more difficult to do that.

It has also given us the ability to implement business continuity plans, with the example I mentioned above being one that we have already implemented.

Another way this solution improves the way we function is that it provides intelligent analytics for proactive detection of malicious user behaviors. We're using the security analytics from Citrix and it improves our security operations because we've made central rules. If somebody breaches the rules, the analytics will kick in and stop that user from working. It has enabled us to detect breaches both before and during their occurrence. It has saved us a lot of time because it automatically blocks malicious users.

Furthermore, it provides access control based on device, location, end-user device, or application. That improves our security posture because if you don't want somebody from a malicious location to access things, it will block them.

The most valuable feature is the ability to connect to our on-premise applications, through the Workspace app and the Workspace experience.

The user experience when using the solution's technology remotely is outstanding. Our users are able to work and it's seamless with fantastic performance.

The solution provides the flexibility of being used on any device. It improves the user experience because users are able to use whichever device they prefer.

The solution’s centralized policy control and distributed enforcement is a major benefit because it allows us to manage everything in one place. We can enable users to remotely connect and access local devices, and we can change that in one place. It will then either lock it down or give the user the abilities granted. It's all done in one place.

In addition, the solution's user behavior analytics for detecting anomalies and enforcing security policies works. When you put rules in place, they are enforced and the solution will immediately prevent unwanted activity from happening. Our security is improved as a result because our staff who manage security don't have to worry. Citrix is doing the work for them.

At the moment, we are not using Citrix Endpoint Management. It has provided obstacles preventing it from working on our system.

The visibility the solution provides across SaaS, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments, for user and application traffic, is also limited if you do not enable all the services and is based on which services you are utilising. Citrix provides end-to-end visibility based on their services you are utilising.

In addition, improved "how-to" guides would be hugely beneficial in setting the products up.

We have been using Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops for the last seven months.

It's very stable at the moment. We haven't had any issues.

The solution is incredibly easy to scale.

We have about 200 users of the solution in our company. Everybody, every single role in the business, uses it. It has been adopted 100 percent in our company, but we use the solution to showcase what's possible to other companies.

Technical support is not too bad. It's okay. It's not 100 percent great. I would give it 85 or 90 percent. There's room for improvement.

With the cloud services there isn't enough understanding of the different services within the solution. We've got more than one product from them and for some of the products there is good support and for some of the products there is not good support. I've had a call open for quite a while and it's still not resolved.

Before Citrix we used VPN. We enabled Citrix for the business because it was a simpler solution and provided a great user experience. To roll out the VPN solution for everybody would have taken too long during a state of urgency. Also, there was a concern that capacity on the firewall might not handle all the user connections. With Citrix, there will be limited impact on the network and cost savings on data usage compared to normal VPN.

The initial setup was easy. The team built the whole environment in two weeks, and it would usually take six months if you had to do so on-premise. With the cloud, it's a lot faster.

The implementation strategy was to make sure we enabled users to work from home and that we provided them the tools they needed to be able to do their daily work. The strategy was to go with the cloud because it was quick and easy to deploy. With on-premise, while it wouldn't have been more expensive, the time to do it would have been much longer.

We use two people to deploy the solution, senior engineers or one of our leading architects.

We did it ourselves as we're a Platinum Citrix partner.

There would have been increase in data cost for the business as the usage for VPN would have required bigger data bundles to be provided for the end users and with Citrix the data usage went down as the technology does not required a lot of data. The users were also able to process more activities with Citrix Workspace in comparison to utilising VPN connections. The business had capacity on our current infrastructure which limited the cost to deploy the solution, the only cost was the software that was required like Citrix.

The licensing, in general, is expensive. A lot of customers battle to pay the amount. It's very difficult to ensure that your solution provides the business value that the customer is after.

In addition to the standard licensing fees you need to pay Microsoft licensing as well.

Make sure you do a proper assessment and plan the rollout properly. That will ensure that the product is a success. Understand what the use cases are and if the Citrix solution is the right use case for the problem that you have. Explain what the business value is, because sometimes it's difficult to explain that.

User training is something that is important so that people understand how to use the product. This is important because the new way of working through one workspace is something that users still need to understand and get use to.

It provides an integrated platform but I wouldn't say it does everything you need to do. It's a step in the right direction. The value that the security analytics bring is to ensure that there are no malicious attacks. You enable the product and you don't have to worry about it. You need to do some maintenance on it at times, but it improves security for you.