Citrix AppDNA (discontinued) vs. Citrix Virtual Apps Essentials (discontinued) vs. Quest Migration Manager & Migrator

Desktop Operating System upgrades and migrations to ensure installed applications are compatible with the new environment. If an environment does not have a lot of locally installed applications and heavily dependent on web applications, cloud applications, and Microsoft App-V, then AppDNA is not going to be beneficial in that organization.

Incentivized

For fast setup and implementation, Citrix Essentials was an enabler for connection success, otherwise, we could have just wasted time on other alternatives. Seemed that it was more 'out of the box' which works for us since we don't have the financial resources for complicated implementations. If this was a major ERP implementation, not sure if this would be the most appropriate solution across many countries.

Incentivized

Dell ChangeBASE is well suited in migrating an OS to a new version, or 32/64-bit. It's also helpful when virtualizating workstations into Thin Clients for use with Citrix or other thin provisioning services.

Incentivized

• Citrix AppDNA has a user friendly interface for admins to use and the product is updated well by Citrix Support.
• It does not take a lot of resources to deploy AppDNA and can be done within a work week even for a large environment.
• The reports not only show compatible and incompatible applications, but provide suggested solutions for incompatible applications to resolve and make them compatible with new Operating System.
• If you have Citrix XenApp or XenDesktop Platinum, AppDNA is included and no additional cost.

Incentivized

• User interface
• Support
• Integration

Incentivized

• OS Patch Testing - We further used this to test Microsoft's Patch Tuesday releases before we put them in production.
• Web Dashboard - The latest version added a fully customization dashboard with widgets to give you an at-a-glance view.
• Application comparability - We used this to test our Windows XP to Windows 7 migration.

Incentivized

• Citrix AppDNA should get more frequent updates on application compatibility list and provide even more detailed suggestions for fixes and perhaps auto-fix feature for some applications.
• Compatiblity with legacy Operating Systems could be expanded to include more applications and OS to increase usability.
• A good essential tool that should be marketed more by Citrix to organizations for usage beyond Citrix environment. Most non-Citrix IT personnel and management are unaware of the benefits of AppDNA and it's ability to help with desktop Operating System migrations.

Incentivized

• Network Fileshare mapping where I have encountered some issues.

Incentivized

• Initial setup can be tricky - We needed to contact support for some help.
• Prior to the latest version, there wasn't an easy way to view all of our results. The new dashboard has rectified this.

Incentivized

AppDNA is more robust and provide a nice report of application compatibility list to review and segment verified applications from problematic applications. It takes one step further from the Microsoft Windows Migration Tool by providing solutions to fix the problematic applications.

Incentivized

Frankly, there were limited alternative products besides Citrix Essentials, and maybe we just need to learn more. We did not have the time to process complex Request for Proposals, obtain RFP responses, do a short-list, reference checks and a final selection with oral presentations, so IT helped Finance with moving forward and we appreciated their technical advice, speed, and guidance.

Incentivized

Dell ChangeBASE is more costly when compared to Admin Studio, I believe the price was almost double. However, Admin Studio did not provide a comfortable level of support and we felt we were in better hands with Dell's patching schedule. Admin Studio wasn't able to answer our question on when they released software updates and how complex an upgrade would be.

Incentivized

• AppDNA was relatively easy to deploy with a small team of 3-4 support IT personnel and took a week to deploy and another week for us to configure and use.
• Great tool to cut down on manual process of testing initial application compatibility before system upgrade.
• If you are a Citrix Platinum customer, there is no reason not to use this tool and a great way to consider upgrading to Platinum if you are an Advance or Enterprise customer.
• For a single large organization (over 3000 desktops), if you are planning a desktop Operating System upgrade you need to take a look at AppDNA.

Incentivized

• Client delivery
• Relationship management
• Visualization

Incentivized

• ROI was seen after 10 months of use.
• Greatly sped up the application testing process by several weeks, and allowed our existing development team to continue working on other projects.

Incentivized