Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops

Formerly XenDesktop

Flexibility to find the best configuration for your company's needs.

Good options/tools for managing the environment.

Suite of products that support XenDesktop like Storefront and NetScaler.

Well established company in Citrix that has been developing this technology for over 20 years.

While you can present multiple global sites in one pane of glass to users, from an administrative standpoint they must be managed separately.

XenDesktop is more complex than previous Citrix products (XenApp).

Secure - several layers

Ease of use - just log in to the web portal

Great support when I do have an issue

I wanted to expand use for the COVID quarantine and work from home directive, but Citrix refused to allow temporary or short term licenses

Licenses are very expensive

Implementation and configuration does require a high end skill set

accessing your work computer on the go

ease of logging on

high adoption across multiple users

bookmarking the landing page could be easier

better mobile app

quicker log on speeds

Enables remote access anywhere, to any device which eliminates managing the endpoints how traditional VPN would require.

Integrates well with modern applications to offer optimized user experiences similar to native applications which increases user acceptance.

Extremely flexible in how policies are applied to different use cases to ensure the appropriate security mitigations are in place with minimal effort.

Easy to maintain and expand environments to fit business needs.

There isn't much automation built-in beyond Machine Creation Services, so you must develop a lot of your own code - though their PowerShell module is excellent.

General monitoring is decent and has the ability to send email alerts, but the scope is very limited to mostly user experience components or requires the most expensive license level to get some additional support - though that also requires other software to be owned.

Allowing more customizations to the "Director" support web tool would really allow for ease of use by management and help desk users in ways that simplify there workflows.

You can login from anywhere you have an internet connection.

You have a fast virtual desktop without the user having a fast desktop.

It's easy to manage from a support perspective.

Profiles that are as easy to configure and managed as FSLogix.

We use WEM as a workspace environment manager but it could still learn a lot from products like Ivanti Workspace Control.

Using Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (formerly XenDesktop) allows you to do a one to many deployments with apps. Whether you stream them to desktops or host them via web protocols, you can install it once and allow many to use.

If you want to minimize IT resources, you can use this program to produce virtual desktops that can be static or allow users to change as needed. There is no need to go to each desk to fix issues with their desktops when they are all centralized and managed via Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (formerly XenDesktop).

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (formerly XenDesktop) has a great protocol (HDX) that minimizes bandwidth needs allowing you to use Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (formerly XenDesktop) to offices or devices with slower internet connections.

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (formerly XenDesktop) has a great management interface that allows granular control over all your apps and desktops.

Users can bring their own device, whether a mobile or PC type.

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Formerly XenDesktop) does have a bit of a learning curve and can get complex at times.

Pricing on the system can be a little steep for large deployments considering it is an add on to MS Terminal Services/RDS.

An issue that is probably not Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (formerly XenDesktop) specific, but since these are virtual apps if used on a connection that has high latency or frequent internet drops users can become frustrated. Unlike true web services, users do require a solid internet connection. Slow is ok; latency is not.

It has a really good end-user experience when using desktop features.

It's easy to use Citrix Storefront.

Optimization for audio and video is not the best.

Logging is very weak and makes it hard to troubleshoot issues.

Centralize data.

Ease of user desktop management.

Standardization of desktops.

It's not cheap to operate.

Complex, there are a lot of moving parts, so it takes some dedication to set up and manage.

The constant changing of names is annoying (i.e., Virtual Apps and Desktops—formerly XenDesktop).

Fast connection

Secure connection

Ease of use for new and existing users

Simple user interface

Can run a little slow depending on the applications

Overall desktop lag is present

Works with Mac but not without issue occasionally.

All Management resources can now be installed on a single server. Reducing the overhead required to maintain a citrix environment.

Granularity of the Delivery groups allow you to define allowing a remote user to connect to a random XenDesktop VM or individually assigning VMs to users.

HDX RealTime Optimization Pack has stabilized some of the issues of utilizing all of the features of Skype for Business in a ZenDesktop VM.

Product documentation is bloated with information and lacks documentation on assisting with first time setup.

Customer service offers very little assistance when it comes to using your support contract.

Default Policy, out of the box, allows Clipboard, File Share, Printer Sharing, Drive redirection, and others security risks that should be disabled by default.

Screenshots are not prevented, other products blank a screenshot or sniping tool image. Watermarks are the only security citrix offers and are disabled by default.

Renewal cost of support contract is 80% of initial purchase price. Other companies renewal cost is significantly less.

End users who do not properly log off can leave a hung connection, and requires manual deletion of the connection for users to re-connect.

Management of the entire solution is central and intuitive.

Printing is simple and easy to manage.

Deploying the client and updating it are a challenge at times.

Fast connectivity

Easy installation

Stable connection, no drops

Connection can sometimes "stutter" when moving between screen setups (example: docked laptop, multiple monitors, etc.)

XenDesktop runs Microsoft Office software very well. It's as speedy as running on your own hard drive.

XenDesktop enables users to easily share files across shared servers.

XenDesktop makes it easy for IT in other locations to troubleshoot user issues.

XenDesktop is not good for running Adobe Creative Suite.

XenDesktop is not good for color accuracy when compared to print output.

XenDesktop is not good for fast response when accessing large image files.

Can be accessed from anywhere

One central location for everything to be stored

Sometimes the system freezes

I've run into issues where it tells me I have multiple instances of a program running even if I don't

I wish the mobile versions worked better

Security

Authorization

Desktop mirroring

Speed could be improved. But this will always be an issue for connecting to servers.

Direct mirroring of desktop would be better than a similar desktop setup for all employees.

It makes connecting and managing a server through VDI simple.

Easy to access through the Citrix XenApp for anyone regardless of location.

Gives options for Dedicated, Full Screen, and Partial Desktops.

Sometimes the VDI system can be in maintenance mode which keeps users from being able to connect to them.

No other issues reported.

More features

NetScaler

Name changes

Vaporware

Platinum tax

Remote access. Even with high latency, HDX helps with working no not so ideal situations

PVS server lower IOPS and faster image management

USB redirection is a nice for remote users

Technical support is lacking.

Flash or HTML Videos lag with Zero clients.

Support cost is expensive when their support is really poor.

Ease of Management

Scalability

Ease of Use

Integration with third party server and storage vendors

Easy to provision machines

Easy to update systems

Easy to apply policies

Better user control

Better reporting

More open API

XenDesktop 7 provides two effective methods of managing session host updates and keeping them consistent within a machine group. In prior versions of XenApp/Metaframe, each host had to be updated individually resulting in inconsistencies across the resource pool.

XenDesktop 7 provides several efficient methods to maximizing session performance while minimizing bandwidth utilization. We can effectively facilitate an average of 8-10 clinicians at a remote site across a 1.5MB WAN link, working in multiple applications, printing, scanning and streaming video.

XenDesktop 7 enables user mobility by using a common interface across multiple platforms - Windows/Linux/IOS and OS X.

Monitoring and troubleshooting tools are lacking. Unless you can afford the costly step up to Platinum licensing, there is little native visibility into the Inner workings of the system, or into the ICA tunnel protocols. there are third party tools available, but because ICA is licensed by Citrix, there are only a few vendors who have the ability to really see what is occurring under the covers.

Profile management is very sloppy. Once again, a third party tool is required to effectively manage roaming profiles and keep login times down to a manageable level. UPM allows profiles to grow dramatically and requires careful monitoring and frequent intervention.

The Citrix Receiver client (Windows) is quirky and often causes end user performance and UX issues. Installing and upgrading the client is not straightforward or easy, although Citrix has been improving this weakness in recent releases.

Great for remote office deployments as it usually resides in the same data center as the servers and provides much quicker access to the resources avoiding high latency that is common on the intercontinental connections

Good choice for the DR as it can be migrated between the data centers if needed.

Good solution for remote access providing extra security over a VPN connection.

Using XenDesktop on a non computer device is a bit cumbersome.

Not ideal for traveling users, who would need to work offline and carry a laptop with them to be able to use the XenDesktop.

App Streaming

Connectivity

Ease of use

Powerful and Secure

None that I can point out at this time.

XenDesktop does a very great job at load balancing our applications and desktops across servers. It uses a load evaluator index to gauge the load on the server and sends new connections to the server in the group with the lowers LEI.

The integration into our VMware environment has been critical. Using Machine Creation Services, I am able to create an image and all machines created from that image are reset to it upon reboot. No more worrying about a user corrupting one server and having to rebuild it or deploy again from a VMware template. Creating a new server in a group is easy and fast.

Management of user sessions within XenDesktop's Director is simple and straight forward. Finding and managing a user's session is without complication.

The Director leaves a lot to be desired. I have had to resort to scripts and a custom page to get the information I need to properly manage our environment. The previous EdgeSight had detailed information that this just seems to leave out. There is no way to customize views, add or remove content, or otherwise customize for our brand.

One thing left out from this version that was in previous versions, was the ability deploy applications from all servers, not just those in a delivery group. As it is set up now, you can only deploy an app to a specific set of servers in a delivery group. If I have Group A running SAP and Group B running Office, only Group B can host Office for the users, even if Group A has Office installed. It would make better use of my servers if I could have on application run from both groups and still load balance properly. It is possible to have it run from both delivery groups, but the load balancing functionality appears to not work correctly.

A new functionality in the Feature Packs (1 and 2) was session recording. The functionality is useful, but is still clunky and uses a large amount of storage space. I have yet to see a way to auto purge old recordings without manually deleting them. Storage may be cheap now, but it still needs to be managed and used wisely. Being able to purge old recordings would go a long way.

Minimizes new desktop provisioning time.

Allows for a standard desktop image which increases stability, decreases downtime, and simplifies updating.

Increases user productivity while moving between devices.

For 2008 R2 Hyper-V environments, if VMM goes offline no new connections to desktops can be made. VMM cannot be clustered making it a single point of failure.

Desktop Director could be more robust.