Citrix Service Providers (CSP) will play an essential role in adding value to both Microsoft’s new Windows Virtual Desktop solution and Citrix’s related new cloud-based Desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) offering.

The first day of Microsoft Ignite 2018 has been full of many exciting announcements, but as a Citrix Service Provider, you may have a few questions about what they really mean to your business.

If you haven’t already heard what they are, you should first familiarize yourself with Microsoft’s new Windows Virtual Desktop offering and Citrix’s new Desktop-as-a-Service offering (DaaS).

We’ve prepared a full FAQ for CSPs on these announcements, and while many of the details will not be available until 2019, here are the top 3 things you need to know now.

1. Citrix enhances Microsoft functionality — always has and always will.

Available only on Azure, Windows Virtual Desktop is a new cloud-hosted service that virtualizes and delivers business applications and desktops on Azure including a new multi-user Windows 10 experience optimized for Office 365 ProPlus, Windows 7 virtualization rights on Azure, and deep integration with Microsoft 365 security and management.

This new solution stems from Microsoft’s desire to aggressively compete against other cloud platforms in the market today, and Microsoft views Citrix as a key partner in this initiative. It’s not a secret that Citrix works closely with Microsoft in the development of many future offerings, so just as Citrix provides unbeatable value on top of Remote Desktop Services (RDS) today, Citrix will also enhance Windows Virtual Desktop in many essential ways.

As a leading Microsoft ISV partner, Citrix’s renowned flexibility will help Windows Virtual Desktop (Azure-only) scale to on-premises and hybrid cloud scenarios. In addition, Citrix will offer our signature value-adding features to Windows Virtual Desktop, such as advanced management (Citrix App Layering, Workplace Environment Management, User Profile Management), monitoring (HDX Insight), security (Citrix Analytics), and scalability needed by most partners and customers.

2. Citrix is not competing directly against you

In fact, CSPs will be our preferred route to market for the new Citrix Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) offering. Citrix believes the highest value of managed services is in the delivery of apps, workloads, and networking done in a secure environment. By taking the burden of complex technology out of the equation, you, our CSP partners, will be able to focus on the highest value-adds to end customers.

While the Citrix DaaS offering may not be suitable for all service providers in the program, it will allow a choice to deliver incremental portions of the Citrix stack. As always, we believe partners are the best, most efficient route to market. This offering will be part of our evolution to provide you, the partner, with more value and less complexity.

Though Citrix DaaS will be an end-to-end solution, we believe the value of our CSPs’ offerings will be the ability to tailor the desktop image to match more specific business needs. This is why Citrix will be enabling Bring-Your-Own License (and image options). Partners will be able to use either the base Windows 10 image that includes Office 365 bit pre-installed, or partners will be able to bring their own images with Office 365.

3. Citrix DaaS will help you offer a faster, differentiated service

With capacity and infrastructure managed by Citrix, CSPs will be able to focus on high-margin, value-added customizations to the basic DaaS offering. Spend less time managing infrastructure and basic operations and instead invest more time developing replicable, vertical solutions and managing business-critical applications.

We also know that Citrix probably isn’t your only service offering and sometimes a new solution can take months to configure for your business. New CSPs or CSPs transitioning from on-prem services will benefit from a much quicker time to sale with simplified onboarding and deployment. Even the paperwork will be simpler — the DaaS offering will be sold as one SKU from Citrix for everything (service + license + cloud IaaS).

In sum, this new subscription service will be designed and engineered with simplicity in mind, so the opportunity for CSPs to verticalize the offering without upfront investment and still provide application management will be endless.

For those attending Microsoft Ignite and interested in a live demo of Citrix DaaS offering, visit the Citrix booth (number 414) at Microsoft Ignite.

Attend Citrix Summit 2019 to learn more

More details on the Citrix DaaS offering will be released at Citrix Summit 2019, January 7-9 in Orlando, FL. We will have a CSP-specific track of 10+ sessions in addition to hands-on labs, technical sessions, and of course, fun networking events. Take advantage of our Super Early Bird pricing before September 30, 2018 and secure your spot for only $495.

Contact your partner account manager

Still have questions? Contact your Citrix Service Provider account manager for further information or csp@citrix.com to be connected with your Partner Account Manager.

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