Secure App and Data Delivery
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White Paper Secure app and data delivery - across devices, networks, and locations How Citrix Virtual Apps dramatically simplifies data protection, access control, and other critical security tasks Citrix | Secure app and data delivery 2 Most discussions of application and Growing IT security challenges desktop virtualization focus on cost Corporate IT groups are continuously challenged to support critical new business initiatives and improve reduction, simplifying IT operations, and end user computing experiences, while facing limited increasing convenience for employees. budgets and mounting pressures to improve information These factors are extremely important, security. Many of these challenges involve making computing resources easier to utilize, regardless of but IT professionals should not overlook physical and geographical boundaries. Employees are the immense impact of workspace demanding the following: virtualization on information security. • Work anywhere, with a consistent experience, from In fact, application and desktop PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphone virtualization have profound advantages • Freedom from rigid IT security controls that restrict for key security functions such as performance and inhibit productivit data protection, access control, user • Access to corporate data and self-provision provisioning and compliance. They can applications on-demand also give administrators extremely Rethink Security granular control over how employees, Clearly these trends are not sustainable with current contractors and business partners use approaches to security and remote access. How can IT and share application data. groups provide easier access to resources, in the face of more sophisticated threats, with multiplying endpoints to defend? And the challenges are not just related to the quantity of end points, but to the increasing diversity. Each type of device—PC, laptop, tablet and smartphone—requires different security products, protecting against different threats, and applying different access policies. Citrix | Secure app and data delivery 3 The remedy is not adding yet another layer of security of personal or corporate-owned device while ensuring products that require more management. Instead, it is that IT security procedures and processes are enforced. to change the game by moving to a computing model Citrix Workspace is in constant communication with that is inherently secure, with an architecture that the Citrix Virtual Apps infrastructure, making it easy dramatically simplifies fundamental security functions to identify the optimal application delivery method for such as data protection, access control, provisioning and any user based on device features, available network secure remote access. connection, and specific application-related tasks. Users in any location can download Citrix Workspace Citrix Virtual Apps and securely access Citrix Virtual Apps published Citrix Virtual Apps is an application delivery solution applications making it easy for IT to meet the employee that enables any Windows®, Linux, Web or SaaS demands without compromising security standards. application to be virtualized, centralized and managed in the datacenter and instantly delivered as a service to Citrix ADC users anywhere on any device. With Citrix Virtual Apps, Citrix Virtual Apps deployments can be further applications execute in the data center and are securely enhanced with Citrix ADC. Citrix ADC is a secure accessed from any location. Keeping applications and application, desktop and data access solution that data protected within the hardened data center and provides granular application and device-level policies hosted in the same location as the back-end databases and action- controls. Citrix ADC secures remote access further enhances application performance even when to Citrix Virtual Apps infrastructure and provides users accessed from distant locations. with a secure, single point of access to published applications and desktops from any type of device. The application access and performance benefits Citrix ADC ensures secure remote access by using of Citrix Virtual Apps are numerous, but many times secure Citrix ICA® proxy technology to encrypt data the security advantages of a centralized application without the need to establish a full VPN tunnel from deployment model are overlooked. Citrix Virtual remote devices. Apps provides an inherently secure architecture that dramatically reduces the quantity of data exposed Citrix ADC leverages HDX SmartAccess™ technology outside of the data center without configuring extensive to give IT managers a single point of management security features or add-on security products. The for controlling access and limiting actions allowed to fundamental design of Citrix Virtual Apps is to keep all users. With HDX SmartAccess, IT administrators can apps, data, and information secured in the data center strike the right balance between security and end user and only send screen update, mouse click and keystroke convenience in every situation. They do this by defining commands across the network to the user’s endpoint a precise set of policies based on users, devices and device. locations. For example, administrators might want to create policies so that one group of users can access a Citrix Virtual Apps keeps sensitive corporate information wide range of applications and data while on the LAN, protected in the data center, but employees still need a subset of those resources while on a tablet at home, secure access to the Citrix Virtual Apps infrastructure. and a smaller subset from a smartphone connected Applications published using Citrix Virtual Apps are through a public network. Another, less trusted group accessible through Citrix Workspace —a lightweight could be restricted to a small subset of resources under client that can be installed on any type of device, all conditions. Administrators can go even further by including iOS, Mac®, Android®, Windows and more. restricting the ability of users in insecure environments Citrix Workspace makes it easy for IT administrators to copy, email or print data, or to save confidential files to securely enable application access from any type to removable media. They could limit users on public Citrix | Secure app and data delivery 4 kiosks to viewing data and nothing else. With Citrix Virtual Apps, data is never transferred over the network, and if policies are enabled to allow data Further, access can be limited based on the security transfer, that data is encrypted. Keeping intellectual posture of the endpoint. HDX SmartAccess includes property and sensitive information protected from endpoint analysis software that can scan remote eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks, and other computers and determine if security tools like anti-virus threats to “data in motion.” software, client firewalls and hard drive encryption utilities are present, running, and up-to-date. If these Application and desktop virtualization with Citrix Virtual requirements are not met, the user can be restricted to Apps also simplifies the operational aspects of data a limited set of applications and data, or redirected to a protection. Databases and files in a central location are remediation site where the security deficiencies can be far easier to monitor and back up than those residing on remedied. These policies can be applied dynamically as distributed devices. users move between different devices, applications and Employees are easily protected from data loss due to locations. hardware and software failures, accidents and human Administrators can enforce compliance with rules that errors. Data can be recovered faster in the event of a govern privacy and the secure storage of data. This is major outage or disaster. critical for enterprises that are affected by regulations such as those in some European countries that require Access Control data about its residents be stored within the country’s Controlling access to applications and data residing on borders. With HDX SmartAccess, an organization endpoints is extremely challenging, especially since could not only prove that the data resides in a virtual the tools available to manage those local controls vary environment located in the country, it could also create widely across different types of laptops, tablets and policies so that nobody located outside of the country, smartphones. or using a mobile device, could access that data. Further complicating the picture is the fact that Data Protection most organizations have multiple access points and authentication procedures to support different use The architecture and core features of Citrix Virtual scenarios. Three different gateways and three different Apps with Citrix ADC make security far more reliable authentication procedures might be needed to handle and easier to manage. By opting for a solution that is one employee connecting from a PC in the office, a inherently secure, some of the most vexing challenges second employee connecting over the Internet from of protecting data on endpoints simply disappear or are a tablet at home, and a contractor connecting from a dramatically reduced in complexity. smartphone at the airport. Data Protection With Citrix Virtual Apps, administrators can use one Sensitive data can be centralized in the data center set of tools to create and enforce a single set of and protected by a complete set of network and host access control policies for all users, regardless of their security products such as next-generation