Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) Reviews

We use Remote PC Access and Remote Desktop Access. We use the solution for two of our clients. For each, we virtualized their whole workspace, so if they log in from anywhere, they get access to all the applications. 

We've locked down their data centers, so some of the users, depending on their rights, cannot even copy stuff from the Citrix environment to their local desktops. Some users with more elevated rights are allowed to access their local. 

It's for work from anywhere, but we had it before COVID. We've had it like this for a very long time.

One of the benefits is that our clients can work from anywhere. It's all consolidated in one environment. It makes it easy for them as things easily accessible from any environment.

It provides the flexibility of being used on any device which makes the employee experience better, in terms of ease of use.

We've also set up access according to security group so it's very secure. We can lock down the environment completely.

As an end-to-end solution for implementing Zero Trust principles I would rate it a six or a seven out of 10, because it doesn't cover all aspects of Zero Trust. There are quite a few aspects you need to cover.

We've used it since 2011.

The stability is very good. In some of our environments, we are on old versions so we're busy upgrading. On the old versions, we have to do a lot of session resets. Hopefully, on the newer versions, after we've upgraded, we won't have so many instances where sessions need to be reset.

The scalability is good because, once you've set it up with the correct architecture, you can just add servers. It's very easy. You can't clone it because there's something with the SID that makes it difficult to clone. But with the latest version, you have that ability where you provision a server according to a template. It's very good.

One of the environments we deployed it in has about 180 concurrent users, and the other one has about 85 concurrent users.

If we upgrade or we set up a new environment, it takes us three months. We do have Citrix consultants who help us. We're thinking that we're maybe doing something wrong because it takes so long, but even with their help, it takes long. It's very complex to set up. If we set up an RDS farm, we can do it within three days.

Our clients have seen return on investment with Citrix in the security and through work-from-anywhere.

We use other technologies. For SD-WAN and web filtering we use TIBCO.

We use RDS in environments where people can't afford Citrix, because Citrix is very expensive. But in terms of security, the Citrix environment, and how you can set it up, is a bit more secure.

The centralized policy control and distributed enforcement is an eight out of 10. It's complex to set up.

When it comes to the security of intellectual property when remote employees are using the solution, I would also rate it at eight. You can protect your environment, but I don't know if you've got logs or things like DLP that can assist you to see what's being moved out of the environment.

Citrix plays a part in our clients' business continuation strategies. We will continue to make use of it as is, because it's much easier to manage the environment, the access, and upgrades. We install the applications only on the application servers. It's secure and makes it easy to work from anywhere, and it makes it easy to lock down the environment.

My advice would be to get a Citrix engineer to assist you with your architecture and to send your engineers on training.

ICA and HDX are the most valuable features of this product to me. These protocols allow features that most other vendors either have not implemented yet or are too bandwidth-intensive to use in the enterprise with WAN users.

Our organization was a VMView shop. Due to issues with application responsiveness / perceived performance, our users had a very negative perception of the technology and were opting for physical PCs instead of VDI. During an extended pilot with these users leveraging Citrix XenDestop, we were able to improve the perceived performance / application response time, as well as use significantly less bandwidth. This was a huge cost savings for the firm.

The biggest area for improvement is in QA testing. The last few releases of either the VDA or updates to the broker either reduced functionality or re-introduced issues that were previously addressed.

I have been using this solution for five years.

The only issue that we had was early on in our implementation with a “Black Screen”. Although we were never able to determine the root cause with Citrix Tech support and escalated engineering, updating form 5.6 to 7.6 greatly reduced this issue / impact to our users.

I rate technical support 5/10.

The initial setup was straightforward. We were able to get three farms up and running within two hours. The migration from older to newer was relatively easy as well.

Implementation was done in house. My best advice if you are migrating from another product to XenDesktop would be to deploy new VDI’s and migrate the users. This allows you to validate the stack and avoid legacy configuration and applications that might have issues. If that is not an option, researching what the VDI’s have installed, and what other remoting technologies are in use, will prove valuable and avoid some of the pitfalls that we had.

ROI I believe is close to three years.

Citrix XenDesktop is a great solution for VDI or virtual desktop environments. Its most valuable features to me are:

• Pretty good management: You can manage a full environment for VDI, you have full control of what your users do, what they can or can't install and what resources your users can use.
• Great performance: Of course, it depends on hardware and the hypervisor (Citrix XenServer and VMWare vSphere are the best). It provides great performance with NVIDIA GPU cards.
• Great performance on low bandwidth links: Citrix was born when I still used a phone modem with 33.5 Kbps, so Citrix created the ICA protocol that provides great performance when you use low links.
• Easy install: With a little bit of understanding, for a standard configuration, if you have a little knowledge of Citrix XenDesktop, you can implement a solution in a few days.

Mobility! You can access your virtual desktop with all your applications everywhere; with a smartphone, laptop, thin client and so on.

I would like to see the following improvements:

• Better monitoring tools included in the enterprise editions: At the moment, if you want better monitoring, you need to buy a third license.
• Linux virtual desktop: We have been waiting more than five years for it!
• Compatibility with public clouds: Today, Citrix doesn't have the best position with public clouds. I work for IBM and we have SoftLayer public cloud, and we want to offer DaaS (Desktop as a Service) to the public. Citrix is a great opportunity for us, but Citrix has to “speak” SoftLayer API language. Secondly, Citrix should have a public cloud offering with a license that final users can afford and not just an annual license.

I have used this solution for at least nine years.

Citrix XenDesktop can be very stable and has great scalability if a certified Citrix architect designs it. Many problems that I've seen in the past with clients were related to bad design. Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp have great stability if you take the correct path.

Citrix is very good with this, if you pay your maintenance every year. :P

I previously used the VMWare solution. It works great but only when you use LAN (at least 1 Gbps if you have many users), but in a WAN environment, I really don't like the lags and delays with that solution.

If you have a little knowledge about Citrix and what a VDI environment means, initial setup is not complex. If you want to do a good job, you must be prepared to know:

• Microsoft Windows Server (2008 R2 or 2012 R2)
• Microsoft Windows Desktop (Windows 7, 8.1 or 10)
• Active Directory
• DNS!!!!!
• Security, local policies, etc.
• DHCP
• Firewalls (local and for internet)
• Citrix NetScaler Gateway
• And so on!

I have a lot of experience with third-party consultants and of course Citrix vendors. I have Citrix Architect Certification, so I have implemented my own solutions, but for big projects, it's much better to count on Citrix itself.

It's very difficult to evaluate this because if you have a low number of users, it's much better to buy new PC's or low-resource laptops than use VDI. For many environments, it's much better to use Citrix XenApp with published applications and use a shared desktop as opposed to using XenDesktop.

If you have at least 1,000 users or use GPU or high-resource-consuming applications, Citrix XenDesktop is the best solution, but you won't see ROI for at least three years.

Many of my clients are looking for a DaaS with IBM SoftLayer.

• ICA protocol performance on a slow network
• Adaptive user constraint in a different user environment
• Load balancing and HA

• This product can reduce the cost of a user environment, but only if all components are included for a migration to a Citrix environment.
• A Citrix environment can increase the security by centralizing and controlling the user environment.
• The application deployment was also accelerated.

Citrix needs to ameliorate their administrative panel and provide a tool to
add more control in the user Citrix environment. An example is Norskale,
recently acquired by Citrix. Actually the user profile can only be modified
by third part tools or by a system tool (like : regedit, script and other).
In addition the AppCenter (XenApp 6.5 version) is not a simple tool and
need to be optimized (too long to load, too many options in different
submenus) and debugged (some columns added in user view corrupt the access
to the AppCenter).

We have used this solution for four years. We used Citrix XenApp when the product was called Presentation Server.

There were some stability issues, primarily with printers and some device drivers. It's important for an administrator to configure policies correctly to prohibit some devices from connecting.

We did not encounter any scalability issues. However, scalability is the key to user performance. The administrator needs to check performance counters to ensure the best user experience.

The technical support is adequate.

We used Microsoft RDS, but it did not have the same performance as the ICA protocol. It lacked the load balancing and high availability functionalities.

The initial setup is pretty simple, but you need to follow the manual as with any software installation.

Beware! It is expensive. You need to include all variables when you are going to migrate your users or applications to a Citrix environment. Remember to establish a global strategy.

We did not evaluate any alternatives. Other products on the market lack the same functionalities.

• Keep calm and take some time to install, configure, and optimize. Test with users as well.
• Remember to keep your users in the project loop before releasing the architecture into production!

The central administration and deployment of desktops and apps. XenDesktop gives a full desktop experience i.e. the user gets a Windows machine with a C drive and loaded with a set of applications such as mail, productivity suites and access to files.

We have 12 offices around the island, and users able to connect to the same desktop and access their apps and files from any of these locations. Road warriors get access to the insurance apps on their mobile devices of any OS.

The studio is very slow.

We've been using it since May 2010, alongside XenApp and XenServer.

From an administrative point of view, it is easy to deploy and maintain.

In the beginning yes, especially if you are running a large number of desktops.

No issues encountered, and we run 600 virtual desktops.

8/10.

10/10.

No, but we did try VMWare View as well as part of a lengthy POC. Citrix XenDesktop & XenApp came out on top.

It was a straightforward wizard-based setup.

We used a mix of a vendor and an in-house one. The vendor was excellent, and they advised on the right architecture for performance and scalability, so I would give them a 10/10.

It's reduced the PC maintenance and upgrade costs by two or three times.

Carefully make the distinction between XenApp and XenDesktop. XenApp uses a mix of Microsoft RDS and Citrix to provision the service so this increases the licensing cost, as well as the amount of administration behind it.

• VMWare View
• Kaviza Desktop (later bought by Citrix)

You should also have a look at Atlantis Computing as well. XenDesktop is deployed along Atlantis ILIO, which is phenomenal.

The infrastructure for both XenApp and XenDesktop must be carefully designed.

Carefully select the components for the architecture. Running virtual desktops or apps require careful planning and sizing. We found SSD disk to be extremely appropriate.

The central administration and deployment of desktops and apps. Also, XenApp restricts access to those applications that you, as the admin, will define. XenApp works best if there are no bandwidth limitations in your area.

We have 12 offices around the island, and users are able to connect to the same desktop and access their apps and files from any of these locations. Road warriors get access to the insurance apps on their mobile devices of any OS.

The studio is very slow.

We've been using it since May 2010, alongside XenDesktop and XenServer.

No issues encountered. From an administrative point of view, it is easy to deploy and maintain.

In the beginning yes, especially if you are running a large number of desktops.

No issues encountered, and we run 600 virtual desktops.

8/10.

10/10.

No, but we did try VMWare View as well as part of a lengthy POC. Citrix XenDesktop & XenApp came out on top.

It was a straightforward installation, a simple wizard-based one on Windows.

We used a mix of a vendor and an in-house one. The vendor was excellent, and they advised on the right architecture for performance and scalability, so I would give them a 10/10.

It's reduced the PC maintenance, and upgrade costs by two or three times.

Carefully make the distinction between XenApp and XenDesktop. XenApp uses a mix of Microsoft RDS and Citrix to provision the service so this increases the licensing cost, as well as the amount of administration behind it.

• VMWare View
• Kaviza Desktop (later bought by Citrix)

Carefully select the components for the architecture. Running virtual desktops or apps require careful planning and sizing. We found SSD disk to be extremely appropriate.

The infrastructure for both XenApp and XenDesktop must be carefully designed.

We normally use Citrix for delivering applications remotely. Our experience is with the government and companies that have branches.

XenApp made our Application environment secure and restrict the data transfer.

The most valuable features are user experience and printing capabilities.

Citrix has to support all of the hypervisors including KVM.

The technical support is not as good as it is with other vendors and it should be improved.

We have been using XenApp Citrix since 2007.

This is a very stable solution. The security updates are always being done.

Citrix is scalable. In my company over the past seven years, we have had many users. In addition, our clients using this solution have many thousands of users.

The Citrix technical support is not as easy as other vendors like F5 or VMware. Obtaining technical support is a little bit tough and it should be improved.

We had tested Ericom, 2X and find better performance with Citrix.

The initial setup is straightforward.

The length of time for deployment depends on the environment and the requirements. For example, last year we deployed this solution for an airline with 27,000 users and it took approximately three months.

Our in-house team deploys this solution for our clients.

Our ROI was 144% .

A perpetual enterprise license costs approximately $300 USD.

I have evaluated a lot of products and the latest solutions. Citrix, among all these products,  has added value because of the user experience and its printing capabilities. You can connect to any printer, and from anywhere you can print documents using a compressed channel. It is easy and the bandwidth is very low.

Citrix has its own training and certifications available, such as CCA-V, CCA-N, CCE-V,CCE-N. For anybody who is implementing this solution, I would suggest that they start with the training. That will help them with the product in learning what it is, how it is going to be implemented, what the requirements are, and so forth. The training is easy and once it is complete, implementing and using the solution will be easier for them.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

We are using this solution for enabling remote workers. 

The primary example right now is the pandemic. People can work remotely without having to use VPNs. We prefer people connecting from home to an institutional system, rather than bringing every random person's home system into our internal network via VPN.

The basic virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) feature is most valuable. We were lucky to have it in place when the pandemic hit. It is used very heavily now.

They can simplify the process of printers. Printers were quite a difficult issue. It took us a long time to iron this issue out.

We have the most simple use case where people connect from home to either a virtual machine or their physical desktop. We tried more complex solutions like Machine Creation Services, and they were more overhead than they were worth for us. I found them difficult to work with and confusing, and they were not worth the work for us.

The basic VDI is quite good. It is pretty stable and reliable. 

It is very scalable. We have 400 end users.

I have used them, and in general, I have been very happy.

Citrix is the only VDI I have used.

It was in place when I was hired. I have been involved with upgrades. Mostly, I have just been filling out the infrastructure and adding more machines. My supervisor was the one who handled the setup. 

For its administration, we have two FTEs: myself and a senior systems engineer. There are a couple of other systems administrators who spend a little bit of time working on it. It requires nonstop maintenance every day. It requires four to five hours a day.

I'm not involved with the money aspect at all, but from my perspective, we've got a very good ROI. Particularly during the pandemic, it has enabled the institution to keep working. We seamlessly transitioned to an entirely remote workspace.

We are just now approaching the end of our initial purchase, which was an excellent price for us as an academic institution. We got a very good deal to get us on board. That license is up for renewal in about a year, and we are nervously waiting to see what the pricing will be.

I know that other vendors were evaluated. I was not part of that. It was before I was hired.

It is a good solution, but it is not always a straightforward solution. Don't underestimate the complexity of a large-scale deployment of infrastructure like this.

I would rate Citrix Workspace an eight out of ten.