Reusability and simplification are the key concepts behind image management. Delivering a single “golden” image containing the operating system and applications to multiple virtual machines allows you create new VM instances quickly and consistently.

There are two provisioning methods for image management available for the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service in Citrix Cloud:

  1. Machine Creation Services builds intelligent linked clones from a master image to provision multiple virtual desktops. It’s a disk-based approach that uses application programming interfaces (APIs) from the underlying hypervisor or cloud provider.
  2. Citrix Provisioning streams a single shared disk image to multiple individual machines rather than copying images to them. It lets you limit the number of disk images you have to manage.
Our November Ask the Cloud Experts (ACE) meetup will cover image management using Machine Creation Services and Citrix Provisioning. Register today!

Which One Should You Use?

Here are some general guidelines from our November ACE meetup presenter, Diego Acuña, Citrix Customer Success engineer:

  • If you want to host resources (workloads) in a public cloud like AWS or Azure, use Machine Creation Services. It works with major hypervisors and leading cloud platforms.
  • If you have a large server environment and are looking for optimized efficiency, Citrix Provisioning reduces storage consumption. Using image streaming vs. copying, it reduces the total number of disk images.
  • If simpler management is your goal, Machine Creation Services is already built into Citrix Cloud, while Citrix Provisioning requires additional resources and on-premises licensing.

In many cases, both image management methods are used for same environment, such as when providing a combination of dedicated and shared VMs.

Enhancing Citrix Provisioning

We’re working on improvements to the user experience and licensing of Citrix Provisioning that you’ll want to hear about. Diego will update you on this project and provide practical tips on both capabilities during his presentation.

Answering Your Cloud Questions

We’ll devote the majority of our ACE meetup to a live Q&A with our panel of Citrix experts:

  • Mayank Korpaul, Customer Success Manager
  • Mohamad EL-Safah, Senior Enterprise Architect
  • Jose Gonzalez, Escalation Engineer

We encourage you to submit questions in advance using this form.

New Cloud Information Every Month

Attending the monthly ACE meetups keeps you up to date on everything new and relevant about Citrix Cloud. Ask your own cloud questions and hear from other participants.

Ask the Cloud Experts Monthly Meetup
Date: Wednesday, November 20
Time: 10 a.m. ET
Register Now