Explore the Business Value of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Service
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
White Paper Explore the business value of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service Key considerations when moving from on premises to cloud Citrix | Explore the business value of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service 2 Table of contents Executive summary 3 Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 5 service—an overview Value and benefits of Citrix Virtual 7 Apps and Desktops service Faster time to value 7 Deployment flexibility 10 Simplified management, security 12 and business continuity Summary 15 Appendix A: References 16 Citrix | Explore the business value of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service 3 Executive summary Benefits delivered by Citrix. As organizations shifted from traditional PC desktops Faster time to value: Deploy Citrix workloads up to 4 to virtualized solutions, IT administrators hosted and times faster from any cloud, on-premises data center, provided access of applications and desktops from or hybrid scenario, simplifying user on-boarding an on-premises data center. This proved to be more for mergers and acquisitions, new employees, efficient than traditional PC environments because IT contractors, and a multitude of business-critical uses admins were able to centrally manage desktop and app cases. delivery, however, there were still aspects that needed Deployment flexibility: Adopt public clouds at your to be streamlined and made more efficient. Now, with own pace, support new workloads and business the increased availability of public clouds, businesses continuity expansion, or move into the cloud as can harness the power of cloud services to simplify the needed. IT can transition on-premises deployments management of their existing deployments. They can to hybrid/cloud resource locations in a time frame also unlock additional benefits, ease administrative that aligns with business needs. burdens, and enhance end-user experiences, and create Simplified management, security, and business a more agile, secure IT environment. In this paper we will continuity: Integrated cloud services simplify the assess the benefits of transitioning to Citrix Virtual Apps management of on-premises and cloud-hosted and Desktops cloud services over a traditional, fully on- resources, reduce public cloud costs by up to 80%, premises deployment. We will also examine how it can fit streamline business continuity and disaster recover within an organization’s overall corporate strategy, help planning, and help protect sensitive intellectual prepare for today’s business demands, and those in the property. future. When evaluating on-premises versus cloud service solutions, it is important to assess the value-add of moving an existing Citrix on-premises infrastructure to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service to provide a net positive impact for their business and simplify the delivery and management of virtual applications and desktops. Specifically, Citrix aims to deliver significant benefits to IT teams and their organizations. Citrix | Explore the business value of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service 4 This paper provides guidance to administrators Citrix cloud services are always up-to-date, helping and IT leadership to help them better explore the reduce costs associated with upgrading and transformative journey to cloud. We will elaborate on the patching by up to 30% basic economic considerations as well as the intrinsic • Leverage your existing knowledge of Citrix Virtual value of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service and Apps and Desktops technology to simplify your its industry-differentiated management platform. In cloud transition this paper, we will discuss how Citrix Virtual Apps and • Architect your cloud transition to maximize IT control Desktops service help IT: and minimize exposure to external threats, creating agile deployments that can respond to unforeseen • Accelerate time-to-value with faster onboarding, events deployment, and production services • Simplify business continuity and disaster recovery After reading this, you will have a better understanding planning, avoiding outages that can cost up to of how to assess the economic and net-new benefits of $100,000 per hour, through the flexibility of scalable investing in new Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service cloud services and infrastructure and transitioning existing Citrix on-premises software to • Reduce infrastructure and management costs the cloud. typically associated with on-premises deployments by transitioning those components—physical servers, operating systems, databases, and software components—into Citrix-hosted cloud services • Leverage efficiencies with Citrix automation and cloud tools to control cloud IaaS (Infrastructure- as-a-Service) costs based up to 80% on user and business demands • Adopt public cloud IaaS at your desired pace by seamlessly integrating cloud resources alongside your existing on-premises data center resources • Eliminate the need to plan and execute cumbersome upgrades/patching activities associated with maintaining on-premises Citrix deployments given Citrix | Explore the business value of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service 5 Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Who manages what? service—an overview The following graphic shows the core differences between the components in a traditional, on-premises Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, the on-premises Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops deployment versus a solution existing administrators are familiar with, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service deployment: provides virtualization solutions that give IT control of virtual machines, applications, desktops, and security • All of the control plane components—StoreFront/ while providing access from any device. End-users can Workspace, Delivery Controllers, and even the SQL use applications and desktops independently of the database, are made highly available and part of the device’s operating system and interface. cloud service offering. Administrators can focus on the workload resources of the server and desktop With Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service, Virtual Delivery Agents* (VDAs) hosted on the organizations can securely deliver virtual apps and hypervisor or cloud of their choice. Each workload desktops to any device similar to the on-premises location defined to a hypervisor or cloud with solution, and leave most of the product installation, specific resources is known as a Resource Location. setup, upgrades, and component architecting to Citrix. • The Cloud Connector is installed in the resource As the IT admin, you maintain complete control over location to connect the resources up to Citrix cloud applications, policies, and users while delivering the services. It is placed next to the VDAs, within the best user experience on any device. Simply connect hypervisor(s) or public cloud(s), and the Active resources to the service through Citrix Cloud Connector, Directory environment. Citrix Cloud Connector is which serves as a channel for communication between designed for seamless integration and for delivering Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service and the the best user experience on any device under any organization’s resource locations. Cloud Connectors network condition. The Cloud Connector also works enable cloud management without requiring any in conjunction with the Citrix Virtual Apps and complex networking or infrastructure configuration such Desktops service to extend access to your virtual as VPNs or IPsec tunnels. Each resource location hosts apps and desktops even in the unlikely event of a a Cloud Connector alongside the machines and other cloud outage. resources that deliver your applications and desktops to *VDA Definition: A VDA enables connections to applications and desktops. The VDA your users. is installed on the server that runs the applications or virtual desktops for the user. It enables the machines to register with Delivery Controllers and manage the High Definition experience (HDX) connection to a user device. Traditional Citrix Apps and Desktop Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop service On-Premise or Cloud (Customer) Citrix Cloud (Customer managed) Studio Director Licensing Studio Director Licensing Storefront Delivery Controllers SQL Storefront Delivery Controllers SQL Deployment comparison Cloud Connectors Hypervisors Hypervisors Citrix Gateway Server VDAs Server VDAs AD Citrix Gateway Server VDAs Server VDAs AD Resource Locations on-premises or Cloud (Customer managed) Citrix | Explore the business value of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service 6 The elegant way Citrix supports different resource Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service is a cloud locations is by having IT deploy a Citrix Cloud Connector service offering as part of the broader cloud service per resource location. The cloud connector “connects” solution, Citrix Workspace, a complete digital workspace all of the components under the administrator’s control solution that unifies other Citrix cloud services in order to the Citrix service. Once installed, the connector is to allow organizations to deliver secure access to the low-touch. It includes an auto-update service managed information, apps, and other content that are relevant by Citrix, which ensures it is always patched and up-to- to a person’s role in organizations. Citrix Workspace date with the latest features. For better security and risk helps organize and automate the most important details mitigation, the connector only needs outbound Internet your users need to collaborate, make better decisions, access. All the traffic is just one-way