An Essential Tool For Microsoft Operating System Migration That Is Often Missed
Rating: 8 out of 10
IncentivizedUse Cases and Deployment Scope
We started with a migration project for Citrix XenApp 6.5 to upgrade to XenDesktop 7.x version and with several hundred applications in the environment with only a small Citrix support team at the organization, we knew the most challenging would be to verify those published applications for compatibility with new XenDesktop 7.x and going from Windows 2008 R2 to WIndows 2012 R2. Citrix AppDNA became an essential tool in helping us audit and verify which applications will be compatible in the new XenDesktop 7.x environment and reduce the time needed to test compatibility. Citrix AppDNA has a robust user interface to analyze all the applications and provide a report of compatibility as well as useful suggestions on how to mitigate issues with problematic applications that are not going to work as-is in the new environment. The project was successful that our enterprise is considering using Citrix AppDNA for our Windows 10 migration project as well.
Pros
- 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.
Cons
- 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.
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
KK
Keith Kyaw, MBA, ITIL, CCA
Senior Citrix Engineer in Information Technology at LyondellBasell (10,001+ employees)
Vetted Review
4 years of experience