Citrix DaaS

Citrix DaaS is a service for delivering virtual apps and virtual desktops to users on any device, with the control plane hosted in Citrix Cloud and the desktops and apps running on infrastructure that the customer chooses. That infrastructure can be public cloud, on-premises, or hybrid.

Audience

IT administrators and IT leaders who deliver virtual desktops and applications to employees, and who manage the infrastructure, access, and licensing behind them.

Key Capabilities

• Architecture: Citrix Cloud hosts the control plane, and the customer's workloads sit in resource locations. A Citrix Cloud Connector in each resource location carries all communication with the control plane. Connectors make only outbound connections on HTTPS port 443 and accept no inbound connections from the public internet, and the documentation recommends at least two connectors per location for availability.
• Session independence: The documentation states that the end user's connection to resources in the resource location does not rely on a connection to Citrix Cloud wherever possible.
• Desktop and app delivery: The feature matrix lists multi-session Windows Server and Linux desktops, single-session Windows 10 and Windows 11 desktops, single-session macOS desktops, Remote PC Access, and multi-session Windows 10 and Windows 11 desktops on Azure.
• Infrastructure: The vendor states that workloads can run in Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS. The matrix also lists Windows 365 Cloud PC, Amazon WorkSpaces Core, Azure Stack HCI, XenServer, and VMware integrations, with machine provisioning and disk streaming for hyperscalers.
• Management and monitoring: The matrix lists Autoscale, Workspace Environment Management, a Monitor Premium tier, Experience Insights, and a gateway service for proxying connections.
• Security: The matrix lists session recording with audio, device posture checking, App Protection for virtualized apps and for endpoints, adaptive authentication, and multifactor authentication for administrator access. Which subscription includes each feature could not be read from the text version.
• Protocol: The vendor describes HDX as optimized for unified communications tools and graphics-intensive apps. The pages I read give no protocol details.
• Regions: At onboarding a customer chooses one Citrix Cloud region, either the United States, the European Union, or Asia Pacific South, and cannot change it later. Separate Citrix Cloud Government and Citrix Cloud Japan offerings exist.
• Licensing: The licensing documentation names user or device licensing and concurrent licensing. A license is assigned when a unique user or device first launches an app or desktop, and a license that goes unused for 90 days is released automatically. The sources name Standard and Premium editions for Azure and Google Cloud, and three subscriptions in the feature matrix: NetScaler Fixed Capacity, Citrix Universal Hybrid Multi-Cloud, and Citrix Platform License. Pricing was not stated.

Technical Specifications

• Connector installation: cwcconnector.exe on a dedicated, domain-joined machine.
• Network: Outbound HTTPS on TCP port 443 only.
• Control plane regions: United States, European Union, Asia Pacific South.

Name Change: Formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Service

Citrix's documentation describes Citrix DaaS as formerly the Virtual Apps and Desktops service, and it describes the Standard editions for Azure and Google Cloud as formerly Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure and for Google Cloud. The platform page presents Citrix DaaS alongside the on-premises Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, and the vendor's subscriptions combine the two. Documentation, listings, and reviews that use the older service names describe this product.