Citrix Workspace is making a big splash this summer with a bunch of new features added in June.
When it comes to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, our teams are continuously innovating. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Current Release 1906 officially launched and continues to deliver improvements and innovations. Users can get their hands on the latest virtualization features in this release. Some of the highlights include:
- Optimization for Microsoft Teams — We are excited to announce Citrix Optimization for Microsoft Teams to offer a fully native, fully featured Microsoft Teams experience within Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.
- Additional High Definition User Experience (HDX) Enhancements — Support for Windows Local Security Authority (LSA), default configuration improvements, and time zone redirection are some of our favorite new HDX enhancements.
- Session Recording Role Based Access Control — With role-based access control on playback in 1906, admins can create viewing policies for recorded user sessions. They can apply specific viewing rules on each policy for who can view the recordings and what exactly they can view.
- StoreFront Integrations — This release brought the ability to integrate Citrix Analytics for security with your on-prem StoreFront and a tech preview for integrating access control into your on-prem StoreFront.
Take a look at the What’s New in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 1906 blog for more detailed information on the features of the release.
Identity for Citrix Workspace Enhancements (Tech Preview)
Citrix supports choice for its customers, and identity is one of the most significant ecosystems where our customers can implement a strategy that works for them. To support customer choice and the transition to the cloud, we’ve released Citrix Gateway as an Identity Provider (IdP) for Citrix Workspace.
For years, Citrix customers embraced Citrix Gateway as a way to provide authentication, authorization, and accounting for users accessing Citrix resources. While customers everywhere are making the move to Citrix Workspace to enjoy the benefits of the cloud, many would still like to leverage the investments that were previously made in their on-premises Citrix Gateway. With the release of Citrix Gateway as an Identity Provider (IdP) for Citrix Workspace, customers can choose to migrate to the cloud while taking advantage of their on-premises Gateway.
As announced at Citrix Synergy in May, customers will also be able to use Okta as their identity provider for Citrix Workspace. This will help our joint customers deliver a secure, unified, single sign-on experience to a comprehensive digital workspace that organizes, guides, and automates work across all devices and networks. This will also help both end users and their employers stay secure with multi-factor authentication into Citrix Workspace, as defined by Okta policies.
Click here for a deeper dive.
New Support for On-Premises StoreFront
If your organization uses on-premises StoreFront, you can now configure StoreFront to connect to Citrix Analytics. Configuration is performed using a configuration file imported from Citrix Analytics. After the configuration is successful, the Citrix Workspace app sends user events to Citrix Analytics for generating actionable insights into user behaviors. The insights help you to detect any anomalous user behaviors and proactively handle security threats in your organization. Note you’ll need to be using Delivery Controller version 7.16 and later. Learn more.
Create Custom Risk Indicators for Citrix Analytics
While Citrix Analytics includes built-in risk indicators, you may want to create a few of your own. Choose events from Apps and Desktops, Access or Content Collaboration, Severity Level, Name and Description.
Workspace Platform License Usage Page
Have you been wanting to have insight into your license usage in the same way that you can with the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service but you’re on the on-prem release and cannot move to the cloud service in the near future? With the new license server released in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 1906, you can get similar reports with your on-prem deployment! When you update your license server and register it with Citrix Cloud, you will be able to enjoy reports like below. Detailed information can be found here.
XenServer 7.1 LTSR Achieves Common Criteria Certification
We are happy to announce that Citrix XenServer 7.1 LTSR CU 2 has achieved Common Criteria Certification. Whether you are in the government sector or other regulated industries, take advantage of our hypervisor and know that we have received this highly sought-after certification.
New Features for Citrix Endpoint Management
Our Citrix Endpoint Management solution and the associated mobile productivity apps are constantly being updated with exciting new features. There were a number of feature updates with the latest release of Citrix mobile productivity apps (19.6.5). Here are some of the highlights:
- Secure Mail (Android):
- Drag and drop Calendar events: Users can change the time of an existing calendar event by dragging and dropping the event. Change duration by using the pinching action to expand or shrink the event block.
- Support for responsive emails: Secure Mail for Android has been optimized to deliver responsive email. Previously, email content with large tables or images were rendered incorrectly. This feature delivers email content is more readable on all supported devices irrespective of the email format and size.
- Contact picture in Secure Mail: Users can view image of the contact when adding recipients in emails or meeting invites. The image of the contact is displayed next to the name. In case of multiple people with the same name, the image helps identifying the correct recipient when you add recipients in emails or meeting invites.
- Widget for Calendar agenda: In Secure Mail for Android, the Calendar agenda is available as a widget. From this widget, users can view the upcoming events in the Calendar for a week. This feature allows you to create a Calendar event, view an existing event and edit the details.
Additional documentation including a list of new features and known issues and fixed issues are available. Please also check out this Knowledge Center article, which addresses the issues of not being able to create an account or finding a connection error, and check out this blog for more details.
Updated CEM MDX Toolkit for Mobile Application Management
- Encryption management: With the encryption management feature, you can now use modern device platform security while also ensuring devices remain in a sufficient state to use platform security effectively. A set of security criteria is identified to which a device must adhere to be considered compliant for encryption management. You are then able to identify noncompliant devices and restrict access to apps on devices that are non-compliant with these criteria. This feature eliminates local data encryption redundancy, enhances performance, and improves application compatibility with MDX. For more information on how to get started with encryption management, visit docs.citrix.com.
- Support for 64-bit apps for Google Play: Beginning on August 1, Google Play will require that apps support 64-bit architectures. This version of the MDX Toolkit supports the wrapping of 64-bit versions of apps. To assess if your app is prepared for 64-bit devices and for instructions on building apps with 64-bit libraries, see the Google Developers documentation on Google Play.
- Updated crypto libraries: The MDX Toolkit 19.6.5 includes updated crypto libraries. These libraries are updated periodically to keep up with the latest security trends and to help fix security vulnerabilities. We also deprecated older ciphers. This update improves security because the update enforces the environment to use the latest and most secure ciphers. Not updating the ciphers, however, may result in an error when users update to apps that you wrap with the MDX Toolkit 19.6.5.
- Support for Chrome 74 for devices running Android: This release includes micro VPN support on devices running Android that have upgraded to Chrome version 74.
- Support for Apktool version 2.4: This release includes support for apps using Apktool version 2.4.
Android Enterprise – Important Updates
Android Q will continue deprecating Android Device Admin APIs over the next several releases. If you’re currently using Device Admin features we encourage you to put a migration plan in place that will get you to Android Enterprise management prior to release of Android Q. Moving forward, Android Enterprise will be the default/recommended method for managing Android device types using the Citrix Endpoint Management service.
Google has put together a comprehensive Android Enterprise Migration Bluebook, which can help you with any required migration planning prior to the release of Android Q.
Some of the Android Device APIs which will no longer work with Android Q include DISABLE_CAMERA, DISABLE_KEYGUARD_FEATURES, EXPIRE_PASSWORD AND LIMIT_PASSWORD.
I hope you’re staying cool this summer and doing some splashing of your own! We’ll be back next month for another What’s New with Workspace update.
