As we mark the one-year anniversary of the launch of Citrix® Managed Desktops, we have seen many customers embrace the simplicity and speed that desktops as a service (DaaS) offers their business. Citrix Managed Desktops has provided customers the flexibility to deliver Windows apps and desktops on demand and has been a welcome service during these challenging times with COVID-19. Because of the simplicity and flexibility that desktops as a service offers, we are evolving our Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops™ family to help bring desktops-as-a-service options to all our customers.

What does this mean exactly? It means that we are bringing the DaaS features of Citrix Managed Desktops to all our Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service customers. Since that is a lot of information, we just dropped on you, lets break it all down and understand what this all exactly means.

A “New” Member of the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Family

Because we’re merging Citrix Managed Desktops’ capabilities into the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops family, we decided to give it a name to match: Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure. It is a full-fledged member of the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops cloud service portfolio.

Bringing Remote PC Access and More!

In addition to a new name, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure offers even more value. You still receive the great desktops-as-a-service features, like simplicity, turnkey operations, and single billing for everything. We are also adding new features and subscription offerings that will make it even easier for you to customize the way you deploy apps and desktops, like Remote PC Access. Remote PC Access enables organizations to easily allow their employees to access corporate resources remotely in a secure manner. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard service makes this secure access possible by giving users access to their physical office PCs. This service is now available as a tech preview and requires no additional activation or add-ons.

We are also expanding our Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard features and services. Not only do we offer a simple way to deliver and manage Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) services, including multisession Windows 10 and Windows 7, but now we also offer Linux apps and desktops. With these deployment options, as well as Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016, and 2019 workloads, you have the most robust options to custom deliver the right workload to each of your employees from the Azure cloud.

Bringing Concurrent Licensing to Desktops as a Service

We are also offering different ways to subscribe to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard. We still offer both yearly term subscriptions and month-to-month no commit options, but now we are offering concurrent licensing options alongside our current user/device licensing for the most flexibility. With concurrent licensing, customers can pool their licenses and re-use as needed. This is ideal for customers that have shift workers (healthcare, finance, manufacturing, school computer lab, etc.) and can’t dedicate a license per user.

We now also provide existing customers transition pricing to take their on-prem Citrix Virtual Apps or Citrix Virtual Desktops Standard deployment to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard service and receive all the benefits of deploying both apps and desktops with the convenience of DaaS. With Citrix’s desktops-as-a-service model, we make it easy to manage and deploy Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) multisession Windows 10 and Windows 7 along with Windows Server workloads and Linux apps and desktops side by side, making it easy to manage and monitor and further simplifying your virtual deployments.

Simplified Transition Path to the Cloud

Citrix is also launching new transition pricing to help existing on-prem customers planning to upgrade their environments to the desktop as a service delivered from Citrix Cloud and Azure. Customers who are using the on-prem Citrix Virtual Apps Standard or Citrix Virtual Desktops Standard licenses today can easily transition their licenses to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure service by leveraging special transition pricing. Customers can take advantage of new capabilities such as simplified deployment experience, Windows 10 multisession, Remote PC Access, while continuing to take advantage of all the benefits of HDX that you have known for years.

What about DaaS Service Coming to Other Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Products?

Customers today have expressed interest in desktops-as-a-service use cases for temporary deployments such as seasonal workers, contractors, mergers and acquisitions, as well as business continuity for remote work for unexpected events like storms and more. Citrix is happy to announce that we are bringing Citrix Managed Desktops’ simple UI to the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service family. Today, customers that have Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Premium cloud service edition can now access the DaaS UI via the Quick Deploy feature, located in your Manage tab under Quick Deploy.

With this new feature, customers can now leverage this service to quickly deploy apps and desktops as needed on Azure or even take a quick test drive of the Citrix value-add benefits to Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD). Spin up desktops and apps on demand and leverage Azure cloud as needed. This service requires that you leverage your current Azure account for compute.

Customers Are Embracing Citrix DaaS

Customers of all sizes are leveraging Citrix desktops as a service today with Microsoft Azure to meet their business needs. Lucid Technologies had been looking to create a remote-first workplace environment to respond to business disruptions like fire, flood, and natural disasters. When the COVID-19 pandemic stuck in early 2020, the need was accelerated like never before.

“We never envisioned that a pandemic would cripple our IT consulting business the way it did in early 2020,“ says Jeff Vincent, chief executive officer at Lucid.

After evaluating Citrix and VMware, Citrix emerged as the clear winner.

“We were looking for a remote-first workplace environment that had business continuity baked right in, and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure met that need,” Vincent says.

We invite you to try Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure today and discover the fastest, simplest way to deliver virtual apps and desktops from the cloud.

For Citrix Investors

This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Those statements involve a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including risks associated with the impact of the global economy and uncertainty in the IT spending environment, revenue growth and recognition of revenue, products and services, their development and distribution, product demand and pipeline, economic and competitive factors, the Company’s key strategic relationships, acquisition and related integration risks as well as other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Citrix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein. The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion and is subject to change without notice or consultation. The information provided is for informational purposes only and is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions or incorporated into any contract.