XenTegra - The Citrix Session

In this episode of The Citrix Session (Episode 170), host Bill Sutton is joined by Andy Whiteside, CEO of XenTegra, Citrix experts Jeremy Myers and Todd Smith, to discuss the exciting new capabilities of Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) for macOS. Dive into how this game-changing feature enables Mac environments to be remotely accessed with the same efficiency as other platforms, perfect for developers, video professionals, and education institutions.Tune in to learn:How Citrix VDA for macOS brings Macs into the fold of remote desktop solutionsKey use cases, including developer environments, multimedia professionals, and educationIntegration with platforms like MacStadium and Amazon EC2 Mac instancesLicensing models and platform compatibilityHow this innovation highlights Citrix's continued investment in cutting-edge technologyExplore how Citrix is meeting customer demands while setting the standard for the future of remote access!

In this episode of The Citrix Session, Bill Sutton, Andy Whiteside, and the team delve into the exciting integration between Citrix DaaS and Amazon Workspaces Core. Discover how this powerful combination simplifies virtual desktop delivery, enables the use of Microsoft 365 applications, and leverages Citrix's HDX protocol for optimized user experiences. From cost-effective deployment options to automation via Terraform, the team discusses how Citrix and AWS are better together in revolutionizing cloud-based VDI solutions. Tune in to explore the latest in virtual desktop innovation!

In this episode of The Citrix Session, episode 168, host Bill Sutton from XenTegra is joined by Citrix experts Geremy Myers and Todd Smith for an engaging discussion on the latest updates and insights into Citrix solutions. Andy Whiteside also joins in, sharing his humorous take on recent Citrix topics and providing a lighthearted but informative atmosphere.Key highlights of the episode include:The latest Citrix updates that IT professionals need to know.Deep dives into provisioning services and their real-world applications.Expert tips on optimizing Citrix environments for better performance.Whether you're a seasoned Citrix user or new to the platform, this episode offers valuable perspectives and actionable takeaways to enhance your Citrix experience.Don't miss out on the practical insights shared by these industry leaders!

Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) is one of the two image management technologies available in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix DaaS.  Historically PVS has been used to deliver Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop workloads (VDA's) to servers and virtual machines from a single image over the network.  However, it can also be used without CVAD/DaaS as a standalone product, physically streaming the OS disk to an endpoint device. These endpoint devices can be “dummy terminals” with no hard drives at all, zero/thin clients, high-end compute and graphics devices, and everything in between.  This can include additional use cases for Security and locations with devices without hard drives. In this episode we discuss the history of PVS and some of its applicable use cases.  We also cover some technical aspects of PVS and the benefits enabled by the roll-forward and roll-back of images.  Host:  Bill SuttonCo-Host:  Geremy MyersCo-Host:  Todd Smith

In this episode of our podcast, Bill Sutton, Andy Whiteside, and Geremy Myers discuss the importance of resource centralization for IT advantage in incident recovery, inspired by a blog post by Adam Lotz, Director of Product Marketing at Citrix. We'll dive into the benefits and strategies of centralizing resources, explaining how this approach can streamline IT operations and enhance resilience during disruptions.Resource centralization is key for maintaining operational continuity and minimizing downtime, which can have significant financial implications. We'll explore real-world examples and practical tips for leveraging centralization to ensure your IT environment remains robust and responsive, even in the face of unexpected incidents.Ensuring business continuity through centralized resources allows IT teams to respond swiftly and effectively during disruptions. By prioritizing centralization, businesses can significantly reduce the impact of system outages and maintain seamless access to critical applications and data.

In this episode of our podcast, Bill Sutton, Andy Whiteside, and Geremy Myers explore key resiliency features in Citrix DaaS that are critical yet often overlooked, misunderstood, or misconfigured by administrators. We'll delve deep into the Local Host Cache (LHC) and Service Continuity features, discussing how they enable highly available environments capable of tolerating infrastructure outages while maintaining continuous user access to critical applications and desktops.Ensuring business continuity through a resilient environment is crucial. It allows users to access highly available resources during disruptions, such as power outages or unexpected downtime. This capability is vital as every minute of inactivity due to system outages can translate to significant financial losses. By prioritizing a highly available and resilient environment, businesses can greatly minimize the financial impact of downtime.Host:  Bill SuttonCo-host:  Andy WhitesideCo-host:  Geremy Myers

XenServer has been a part of the Citrix family since the acquisition of XenSource in 2007.  It is a solid player in the virtualization market particularly for running Citrix workloads.  With purpose built features for improving the performance of virtual desktops such as Intellicache, Read Caching, PVS-Accelerator, and GPU virtualization many organizations leverage XenServer to host and deliver their Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix DaaS workloads.Citrix recently announced that XenServer 8 is now included with their new subscription options:  Citrix for Private Cloud, Citrix Universal Hybrid Multi-Cloud, and Citrix Platform License.  In this episode we discuss XenServer generally as well as these new offerings and how they can be leveraged by customers. Host:  Bill SuttonCo-host:  Andy WhitesideCo-host:  Geremy Myers

In today’s rapidly evolving cloud computing environment, balancing operational costs, user experience, and environmental sustainability is challenging and time-consuming for IT organizations. The recent general availability (GA) of Azure Hibernation with Citrix DaaS addresses these challenges. Since its initial tech preview, over 160 customers have successfully trialed this feature, transforming the management of their Azure virtual desktop infrastructure.Technology that drives actual cloud cost reductionAzure Hibernation allows businesses to pause virtual machines (VMs) when not in use, significantly reducing compute costs. It saves the VM’s memory contents to the OS disk and deallocates the machine, stopping billing for compute resources and only charging for storage. Combined with Citrix AutoScale, this feature helps organizations manage VMs efficiently based on user demand, ensuring that resources are used only when necessary.Host: Bill SuttonCo-Host: Geremy Meyers

Building upon the robust security of Linux thin clients, Citrix is thrilled to announce the expansion of its Enterprise Browser offerings to Linux, marking a significant step in our access security platform expansion strategy. This empowers organizations to further secure access to web and SaaS applications, particularly for environments reliant on Linux thin clients, which are already locked down by design and managed by thin client vendors.This release, currently available as a private tech preview, comes packed with powerful features that are waiting for you to explore. As part of this preview, let’s dive into its advanced capabilities, particularly in the context of enhanced security for Linux thin clients:Host: Andy WhitesideCo-host: Bill SuttonCo-host: Geremy MeyersCo-host: Monica Griesemer

If you’re ready to leverage the new LTSR but are still working on your upgrade plan, don’t worry. We have quite a few resources available to help you have a successful upgrade including our plan, upgrade, succeed blog series, the latest Citrix Master Class, an FAQ blog for answers to your most pressing LTSR questions from the Citrix Master Class, and our tech paper on parallel migration. We are also incredibly excited to announce that the Citrix Workspace app 2402 LTSR for Windows is now generally available! This Citrix Workspace app LTSR for Windows includes an extended 3 years of support to help ease your client update processes.Moving fully to the cloud isn’t for everyone, and we know that. That’s why we’ve continued to invest in our on-premises solutions so you can leverage cloud capabilities on premises too. The Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2402 LTSR includes several years’ worth of features to take advantage of. Some of these features were previously only offered in the cloud, and a plethora of on-premises features have been added since the release of the last LTSR in March of 2022. Additionally, customers on our current release (CR) track can leverage this release as a regular update within their environments. So let’s take a closer look at what the 2402 LTSR can do for you.Host: Bill SuttonCo-host: Geremy Meyers

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again – if you are on the Citrix Long Term Service Release (LTSR) track, you’ve most likely been missing out on a lot of great features. But I get it; there are many valid reasons for choosing this path, including extended support. The good news is that Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2402 LTSR is now available, and you can now take advantage of all the great features and enhancements made available over the last couple of years.This post is focused exclusively on our high-definition experience (HDX) capabilities. More specifically, the key HDX features and enhancements that we’ve introduced since the last LTSR (2203) was released. If you are still using Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 1912 LTSR, you should also take a look at my other post that talks about key features released between Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 1912 LTSR and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2203 LTSR.Host: Andy WhitesideCo-host: Bill Sutton

In today’s dynamic work landscape, remote access and virtual desktop solutions have become essential for organizations striving for flexibility and productivity. Citrix has been at the forefront of empowering businesses with innovative technologies, and now, with Intel’s new roadmap of GPU offerings, users can expect even more versatility and performance in their virtual desktop experiences.Host: Andy WhitesideCo-host: Bill SuttonCo-host: Todd Smith

New year means time for new resolutions and new budgets. If your IT team has big plans to invest in new infrastructure and high-value projects this year, adopting a bring your own device (BYOD) policy can help your organization save money without compromising on functionality. BYOD programs aren’t the right choice for everyone, but if your business needs fall under any of the following, a BYOD program may be right for you:End users with locally installed applications on native endpoints who work in a hybrid or remote environmentThird-party contractors or partners who need to securely access your corporate resources from their employer’s device Employees who hold extremely mobile roles and need a device that works on the go, such as a laptop or tabletThin or fat client users who work in a hybrid or remote setting for some portion of timeCitrix technology allows employees and contractors to securely access corporate resources from any device, including personal devices. The advantage of choosing Citrix for your BYOD policy is that Citrix offers an exceptional range of features, including a high-quality user experience, simple operational management, Zero Trust security, and reduced hardware costs. Plus, Citrix can save your business over 1 million dollars annually with a BYOD program when you switch 10,000 users from a managed endpoint program to a Citrix BYOD program. Let’s take a closer look at how Citrix can ease the implementation of BYOD policies and reduce infrastructure costs.Host: Andy WhitesideCo-host: Monica Griesemer

Enterprises invest a tremendous amount in a variety of solutions to secure and deliver enterprise apps, data, and network access. With different solutions for web, SaaS, and Windows, dependencies on various infrastructure and devices, and additional complexity around internal and external access, enterprise IT environments have become increasingly fractured and costly to operate. That’s why we are taking a simpler approach by building a unified platform that gives you zero-trust access, best-in-class app and desktop virtualization, and high-performance application delivery with comprehensive security.Host: Bill SuttonCo-host: Todd SmithCo-host: Monica Griesmer

Citrix’s recent acquisition of vast limits GmbH, the German-based company behind uberAgent, marks a significant enhancement to the suite of Citrix observability solutions. This strategic move not only broadens the capabilities of Citrix’s existing solutions set, encompassing Citrix Director, Monitor, Probes, Analytics for Performance, and Analytics for Security, but also introduces a new era of end-user computing (EUC) observability. uberAgent’s capabilities aren’t just limited to Citrix. You can leverage its monitoring capabilities to observe Windows AVD and W365 Cloud PCs as well.Host: Andy WhitesideCo-host: Bill Sutton

Citrix is gearing for HIMSS 2024 with a guest blog series featuring insights and innovations from some of our key partners. This first post is written by Jason Mafera, Healthcare Field CTO at IGEL Technology.You can visit Citrix and IGEL at HIMSS booth #3212 to hear more about how the partnership is helping to redefine healthcare IT, empower providers, and enhance patient care.For healthcare providers, it’s not a matter of IF but WHEN you’ll be impacted by ransomware, which unfortunately is still finding victims and impacting care delivery. After seeing a post-pandemic drop, the rate of ransomware is accelerating again. Two groups getting attention lately are CIOp and BlackCat (ALPHV). ClOp’s MOVEit Transfer hack to date has affected 15 million people and 121 organizations. BlackCat (ALPHV), skilled at exfiltration, threatened to leak photos and sensitive data of a plastic surgeon’s patients and, according to a Check Point report, previously leaked patients’ photos and medical records after an attack against American healthcare provider LVHN earlier this year.Host: Andy WhitesideCo-host: Bill SuttonCo-host: Philip SellersCo-host: Todd Smith

Our last Long Term Service Release (LTSR) was released in 2022, and since then we’ve introduced many new features via our Current Releases (CR). That means 2 years of new features are coming to our newest LTSR. We also know a lot of customers are on our 1912 LTSR, so there are almost 4 years of new features to discover. It is especially important for 1912 customers to begin prepping for an upgrade, as 1912 goes EOL in Dec 2024. Citrix previously announced that our new LTSR will be coming early 2024, which means it’s time to start planning your upgrade!Host: Andy WhitesideCo-host: Bill SuttonCo-host: Philip Sellers

Is there a better present than new features and a new Citrix release? Citrix continues to deliver on our commitment to hybrid environments quarter after quarter with releases for both Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and our Citrix cloud platform. We’re excited to wrap up this holiday season with more releases to help improve your efficiency, security, and end user experience. With all that being said, we’re thrilled to announce the general availability of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 2311 to our customers! This release comes with site management improvements, SPA on-prem plug-in, new StoreFront UI, and more! As we promised at the beginning of the year with the launch of Destination: Hybrid, we have continued to deliver feature after feature to help drive parity between our on-premises and cloud platforms.Citrix has been focusing our innovation efforts over four main categories, and we are aligning our feature announcements along these four groups:Operational and IT EfficiencyWorkload and Device Flexibility Security and ComplianceEmployee Experience TechnologyLet’s dive into the features and capabilities we have introduced in all four categories for this quarter across cloud and on premises!Host: Andy WhitesideCo-host: Monica Griesemer

In the dynamic landscape of enterprise browsing solutions, ensuring not just security but also comprehensive admin visibility is paramount. At Citrix, we take pride in our Citrix Enterprise Browser — a robust solution that goes beyond “just” enabling secure access to your web/SaaS applications to also providing unparalleled insights for administrators. In this blog, we’ll dive into the seamless integration between the Enterprise Browser and Citrix Analytics Service (CAS) for Security, showcasing how it elevates the admin’s ability to monitor, manage, and respond to potential risks effectively.Host: Andy WhitesideCo-host: Bill SuttonCo-host: Todd SmithCo-host: Geremy Meyers

You probably use some Citrix features more than others depending on what your IT environment needs. With everything new we have added this year for better Operational and IT Efficiency, Workload and Device Flexibility, Security and Compliance, and Employee Experience Technology, you’ve probably adopted some new features too. But with so many new features, make sure you’re not missing out on existing ones that can make your environment more efficient and help you save money. These features work across cloud, hybrid, and on-premises solutions, so no matter where your environment is hosted you can take advantage of our cost saving solutions. If you’re interested in adopting any of these 5 features, make sure to check out our Citrix Product Documentation for more. Host: Andy WhitesideCo-host: Bill SuttonGuest: Monica Griesemer