The cloud revolution is unfolding daily as enterprises across the world are moving workloads to the cloud at an unprecedented pace. One of the major reasons? Running workloads in the cloud yields large economic and operational gains.

But, even though more workloads are being hosted in the cloud, users still need the same application experience they’re used to. The move to cloud means the once-sufficient bandwidth and service levels are no longer enough for accessing cloud-based workloads because going directly to the cloud via the internet is now necessary. Users expect cloud services to always be up and running.

This means the quality and availability of last-mile connectivity from offices to the cloud have become critical. If connectivity fails, it can lead to millions of dollars of productivity and revenue losses. The scenario could be even more grim for office locations with a single WAN link.

Mitigating the last mile as a single point of failure can greatly reduce the risk of downtime while ensuring a high-quality and consistent end-user experience.

Citrix SD-WAN enables the use of multiple ISP connections, including cable, DSL, business broadband, and 4G/LTE, greatly reducing the risk of outages. If at least one ISP is still up, the traffic will automatically steer over the available WAN link to Azure. This can ensure near-24/7 connectivity, even in remote areas. Citrix SD-WAN’s multi-link connectivity is now available for Azure Virtual WAN, ensuring seamless and easy-to-manage connectivity to resources deployed in Azure.

As part of its longtime partnership with Microsoft, Citrix was one of two launch partners for the Azure Virtual WAN service in 2018. Since then, we expanded functionality, enabling branch offices to connect to multiple Azure VWAN hubs.

Today, we’re one of the first SD-WAN vendors to support multi-link path selection for Azure Virtual WAN. Ease of use was the guiding philosophy, and the entire setup is automated using REST APIs. The guided workflow lets you choose multiple WAN links available for a site and populates site settings in Azure Virtual WAN. A few minutes after you choose your links and your site settings are populated, the device is connected, without any additional interaction from the user.

Before, you could only connect to Azure via Virtual WAN using a single link. (Multi-link support has been available for Citrix SD-WAN VPX on Azure since 9.3 for customers desiring full Virtual Path functionality.) Now, we seamlessly distribute traffic to the Azure VWAN hub gateway over two links. This supports multiple ISPs, greatly reducing the risk of outages. If at least one ISP is still up, the traffic will automatically steer over the available WAN link. Access to your business-critical cloud applications is always available.

In addition to the multi-link Azure path selection feature, another important feature delivered as part of this integration is the ability for Azure to know which type of Citrix SD-WAN appliance is running at the branch (in other words, whether it’s a 110, 210 or a virtual appliance). This further simplifies troubleshooting and monitoring because you won’t need to context switch between the Azure Virtual WAN UI and Citrix SD-WAN Orchestrator.

“It’s really good to see multiple link path selection integration by Citrix, enabling always-on connectivity to Azure Virtual WAN,” said Microsoft Product Manager Reshmi Yandapalli. “As industries look to expand their cloud footprint, they need ease of use, ease of connectivity and ease of management end to end – at the branch and in the cloud.

Learn how, together, Citrix SD-WAN and Microsoft can deliver an exceptional experience for all your applications and desktops. Are you ready to try it out? Request a free trial of Citrix SD-WAN. And, if you haven’t tried Azure Virtual WAN yet, all you need is an Azure subscription to get started at portal.azure.com.