Citrix Workspace is a workspace solution that delivers secure access to all apps and files from a single interface. Based on the former Scalextreme product, it will not receive future updates from Citrix.
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Unidesk (Discontinued)
Score 5.7 out of 10
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Unidesk was a virtual desktop technology from the Massachusetts company of the same name, and acquired by Citrix. It has reached End of Life (EOL).
Citrix Workspace is no doubt one of the best solutions if you are looking for seamless access to multiple daily used applications at a single place in a company secured connection. It has centralized updates and a patching mechanism which makes it operate hassle-free. If you are using AWS cloud in your company and big fan of it, you can also go for Amazon Workspaces for a uniform ecosystem.
Right now, I would advise it to anybody who has 1,500 or fewer users they wish to provide desktops for. I would advise to go with persistent desktops or use a UEM solution like AppSense or RES Workspace Manager when trying the non-persistent desktops. I would suggest that using an AppVirt product like App-V with Unidesk still makes a lot of sense as you can use Shared Content Store Mode and sequence once for many. AppVirt solutions still have value with isolation. I would suggest looking at Turbo browsers for their redirect feature to an sandboxed browser running legacy IE or a browser with Java or Flash (to eliminate security threats related to these running locally on the system). Also, I would suggest looking at Atlantis for deduplicating those desktops and allow them to perform quicker with less storage required. Unidesk by itself is awesome. It really simplifies things. Throw it together with other products and each compliments the other well. Also, Unidesk makes some of those other products more valuable as you're not completely reliant on them like you would be without Unidesk.
I find it particularly difficult to easily save to anything other than my file database, such as my regular desktop files. The series of folder paths is very confusing in my opinion.
I cannot save pdfs to my remote system and must save them locally.
Disaster recovery options for the Unidesk solution are not easily accessible or require personalized attention from support.
Issues when creating software layers do not always have a obvious fix. Make sure to look for and follow Unidesk's published "recipes."
The software/OS layering introduced by Unidesk is not "sanctioned" behavior by Microsoft, and thus you're at the mercy of Unidesk's ability to keep up with widespread changes to operating systems.
We find Citrix Workspace an easy to use, reliable and secure remote access tool. We never have issues accessing either environments (workstations, servers and virtual machines) not using deployed applications.
Access to the workspace is simple and quick, using username and password and a second factor authentication. Once logged in, you can see all the environments (servers, virtual machines, etc) and applications that are available based on the permission granted to your user. With a couple of clicks you can easily access to your remote desktop or to one of the applications.
Citrix does great at allowing us to access work from remote locations. Our IT provider is very familiar with the product and is able to troubleshoot this product much better than the competitors.
AppVolumes seems to be a lot less mature as a product. It does have some benefits over Unidesk e.g. the fact it doesn't include the OS Layer (image management) side means I can just use it for the app layering piece if I like. I can also deploy my application layers to physical desktops BUT I have had less success compatibility wise with my applications as AppVolumes 'AppStacks'. I believe Unidesk has a better handle on the do's and don'ts, or at least may be a little more honest about them. I also don't enjoy the Console with AppVolumes and while I can use it without the image management or tied into the stack the way Unidesk is...you also lose that image management and need to couple it with another product in some scenarios. FlexApp to me is stronger than AppVolumes. FlexApp is coupled with a profile management solution called ProfileUnity which makes it a more attractive alternative (at least at the time of me posting this). However, I prefer other UEM products at this moment in time. I also value the image management and ease of a single console for all of Virt Desktop management that Unidesk provides.
During the pandemic, Citrix Workspace was vital in allowing me to continue operations by working from home. Without Citrix Workspace, I think that our company would have had a lot of trouble with all of the WFH operations.
Storage density with Unidesk (via the use of OS/application layering) is 60-70% improved over standard persistent one-to-one virtual desktops.
Unidesk virtual machines can be deployed in under 10 minutes by a lower tier of technician without the need to "touch" the vCenter hypervisor.
Reliable performance across Unidesk virtual workstations. Added desktops/layers does not adversely effect performance nearly as bad as older persistent desktops.
