Over the past few months, you may have heard about some significant changes to Citrix. Most notably, Citrix Systems went private in September of 2022 and became a business unit of Cloud Software Group.

Now, naturally you’re asking yourself, “What does this mean for me?” And honestly, that’s a fair question. After all, tech companies are restructuring and merging at a regular occurrence these days, and it often doesn’t alter much from a customer perspective.

However, in this case, Citrix going private means many positive, tangible changes are coming to our customers. With this new structure, the Citrix business unit of Cloud Software Group now has the flexibility and autonomy to focus on our core strength: providing an enterprise platform for app and desktop delivery. And that doesn’t just mean Windows apps. We’re evolving the platform itself to support and secure the growing number of enterprise web and SaaS apps critical to your business.

Host:  Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Bill Sutton
Co-host: Geremy Meyers
Co-host: Todd Smith

As we reflect on the ever-changing requirements facing enterprise IT, it is clear that flexibility and readiness to transform are key drivers for success. Citrix recently made its own transformation, becoming a business unit of Cloud Software Group. Throughout this process, the Citrix teams took a hard look at the current portfolio of offerings to determine how to better serve the needs of your business.

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Bill Sutton
Co-host: Geremy Meyers
Co-host: Todd Smith

Customization is personal, and for enterprises it is a reflection of identity. We have been amazed by the stories of Citrix customers and partners and the lengths they’ve gone to personalize their Storefront or Workspace user interface. They love that they can tailor their workspace experience to align it with their organization’s needs. In fact, customization-related requests are among the most-asked-for enhancements for our teams at Citrix.

We’ve been listening, and thanks to your feedback and requests, we have now launched the App Personalization service for all our customers and partners. This enables you to extend your customization to Citrix clients for a truly end-to-end, personalized experience. Also, we have new enhanced capabilities so you can do even more with your in-app experience.

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Bill Sutton
Co-host: Geremy Meyers
Co-host: Todd Smith

We are continuing to evolve and add capabilities to our Connector Appliance. In case you missed it, I recently published a blog post taking a closer look at the fundamentals. To summarize, the continued development of the Connector Appliance is part of an ongoing effort to reduce the on-prem footprint needed to run Citrix and related infrastructure. This effort includes minimizing and unifying the number of connectors needed. In this blog post, I wanted to look closer at where you can host the Connector Appliance and what that means for you.

The Connector Appliance is a virtual appliance that, behind the scenes, runs a custom Linux-based operating system that customers can host in the way it best suits them. With that in mind, in combination with making the Connector Appliance fit more use cases, we have also looked to increase the options available for where you can host Connector Appliances.

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Bill Sutton
Co-host: Todd Smith
Co-host: Geremy Meyers

The traditional 9-to-5 job looks a lot different today, and for many, there’s less sitting at a desk in an office building. Although some executives and employees in sales and customer success have always needed flexibility, many companies have adopted mobile and hybrid work styles for most if not all of their workforce.

What’s behind the change? The pandemic, the influx of a new generation in the workforce, and more employees who need to work on the go and stay productive, no matter where they are.

Users now expect to be able to access corporate applications on the move and at their desk, all while having access to an external monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, and audio devices. They also require a device powerful enough to deliver the performance necessary for accessing corporate applications, with a large display to perform business-critical work.

In recent years, tablet devices such as iPads have become more prevalent in the enterprise because of their convenience and larger screens. Apple’s newest tablets offer displays that are nearly 13-inches, and they are much lighter compared to laptops. They also come equipped with a powerful processor and memory to deliver high performance.

When combined with Citrix Workspace app, users can access their Windows-based apps and desktops on the device, providing enterprise capabilities with a great user experience. With external monitor, keyboard and mouse supported; users can truly transform their iPads with Citrix Workspace app into a full-scale workstation. Read more about it here.

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Geremy Meyers 

Organizations running VDI must always keep front of mind multiple moving parts including many backend systems, dependencies on different services, coordination with multiple teams, and multi-fold expectations from stakeholders. Managing these elements can take away from the primary goal of organizations to create seamless and high-performance hybrid-work environments. How can we make our businesses as productive and efficient as possible? A purpose-built, DaaS architecture that fits the needs of business and technology could be the answer.

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-Host: Bill Sutton
Co-Host: Geremy Meyers

We recently had a great Citrix Technology Professional (CTP) session where we shared the go-forward plans for Citrix and talked about our vision, strategy, and priorities. The CTPs were happy to connect with the new leadership team headed by Citrix General Manager Sridhar Mullapudi, as well as Citrix veterans Calvin Hsu, Jitendra Deshpande, Bob Schaeffer, Milind Mohile, Sameer Mehta, myself, and others. Citrix is now a business unit within Cloud Software Group (CSG) and has plans to invest, innovate, and grow. You can learn more about CSG and its business units at https://www.cloud.com/.

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Bill Sutton
Co-host: Todd Smith
Guest: Chris Fleck

In Citrix Consulting Services, most of our engagements involve Microsoft technologies. But Linux virtual desktops have proved to be an interesting use case for many of our customers.

It’s an ideal solution for developers, high-graphics users, and others. One interesting scenario I worked on recently involved a non-domain joined (NDJ) Linux VDA, which provides IT departments with the ability to deliver a Linux Desktop in a segregated, secure environment where Active Directory integration is not possible.

By: David Pisa

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Bill Sutton
Co-host: Geremy Meyers
Co-host: Todd Smith

In the evolving world of hybrid work, Citrix is focused on delivering technologies that support organizations with streamlined maintenance and enhanced security, while ensuring users stay productive with high-performing access to corporate resources. Whether you decide to adopt on-premises virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) or modernize your infrastructure with desktop as a service (DaaS), Citrix solutions can support your business however you choose to deploy.

Citrix DaaS and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops deliver new features and enhancements that make it easier than ever for organizations to create agile work environments with apps and desktops delivered securely anywhere, on any device.

Please use the following links to help you quickly navigate between sections in this announcement:

• Now Available: Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 2209 Current Release
• Citrix DaaS cloud partner updates
• Citrix DaaS enhancements
• Workspace Environment Management (WEM) enhancements

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-Host: Bill Sutton
Co-Host: Todd Smith
Co-Host: Geremy Meyers

We are excited to announce the public preview of Citrix HDX Plus for Windows 365 is now available, bringing unique Citrix capabilities to Cloud PCs worldwide.

Citrix HDX Plus for Windows 365 enables your organization to extend hybrid work scenarios on Cloud PCs to your most challenging use cases. With Citrix HDX Plus for Windows 365, your organization will benefit from:

• The best possible high-definition experience across any network and application. This includes broad telephony and unified communication tool support, optimized multimedia performance, and adaptive throughput for amazing experiences on low bandwidth/high latency connections.
• Seamless integration with third-party identity solutions, providing diverse authentication and authorization support.
• Support for the industry’s broadest array of devices and peripherals to guarantee an exceptional experience on any endpoint.
• Additional layers of security to applications and data through granular policy controls, protecting corporate data from exfiltration.

Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-Host: Bill Sutton
Co-Host: Geremy Meyers
Co-Host: Todd Smith
Guest: Adam Lotz