Citrix

What is Citrix?

Citrix is an enterprise software company founded in 1989. Citrix is best known for providing technologies for virtualization, remote application delivery and cloud computing.

Millions of end users access remote desktops and applications via Citrix branded products such as Citrix Workspace App, an application employees use to access company resources, with many referring to the products as just “Citrix”. As a result support calls about application issues are often phrased as “Citrix is slow” or similar, although a stack of multiple Citrix and third-party products are usually involved in application delivery.

What is Citrix used for?

Citrix creates virtualization software and associated technologies that are widely used by businesses and organizations of all sizes to enable remote work capabilities, where user access to applications and desktop resources is available virtually.

Businesses and their employees use Citrix to recreate the conveniences of the workplace in out-of-office settings, ensuring that remote users can maximize productivity by continuing to use their digital workspace tools uninterrupted.

Some of the key use cases for Citrix technology include:

Key Use Cases for Citrix

Some of the key use cases for Citrix technology include:

Virtual Application Delivery: Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (formerly XenApp for app delivery) allow organizations to virtualize applications and deliver them to end-users on demand. This enables users to access their applications remotely from any device, making it easier to work from home, on the go, or from branch offices.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI): Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (formerly XenDesktop for desktop delivery) go beyond virtualizing applications by providing full virtual desktops to users. These virtual desktops run in the data center and are accessed remotely, offering a consistent and secure computing environment regardless of the user's device.
Remote Work and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): Citrix technology is instrumental in enabling remote work scenarios. With Citrix solutions, employees can access their work environments and applications securely from personal devices, facilitating the BYOD trend.
Cloud Adoption: Citrix technology supports cloud computing initiatives, enabling organizations to run applications and desktops in public, private, or hybrid cloud environments. This flexibility facilitates scalability and cost optimization.
Endpoint Management and Security: Citrix Endpoint Management (formerly XenMobile) helps organizations manage and secure mobile devices, applications, and data. It offers features like mobile device management (MDM), mobile application management (MAM), and secure remote access to corporate resources.
Secure Application Access with NetScaler: Citrix NetScaler (formerly Citrix ADC) provides secure access to applications, desktops, and services through advanced load balancing, application delivery, and security capabilities. NetScaler acts as a secure gateway for users accessing Citrix environments and web applications.

For many organizations, Citrix technologies play an essential role in supporting remote work, improving user experiences, and ensuring efficient application delivery in modern IT environments.

Key Citrix Products

Some of the key products and solutions offered by Citrix include:

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (formerly known as XenApp and XenDesktop): This product allows businesses to virtualize applications and desktops, enabling users to access them remotely from various devices and platforms.
Citrix Workspace: Citrix Workspace is a service that provides secure access to virtual apps, desktops, web and SaaS apps from a web browser or Citrix Workspace app. Citrix Workspace is a cloud service managed by Citrix. Equivalent functionality for on-premises environments can be provided by StoreFront.
NetScaler (formerly Citrix ADC): This is a load balancing and application delivery solution that optimizes the performance, security, and availability of applications, ensuring a smooth user experience.
XenServer (formerly Citrix Hypervisor): A hypervisor used as a server virtualization platform that enables businesses to create and manage virtual machines, providing a scalable and flexible infrastructure.
Citrix Endpoint Management (formerly XenMobile): This solution helps organizations manage and secure mobile devices, applications, and data across different operating systems and device types.
Citrix Cloud: Citrix Cloud is a platform that hosts and administers Citrix cloud services. It connects to your resources through connectors on any cloud or infrastructure you choose (on-premises, public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud).

What is the role of IT monitoring in a Citrix deployment?

Citrix workloads are some of the most performance sensitive workloads in enterprise IT networks today. Even a small glitch anywhere in the infrastructure can result in screen freezes, slow logons, session disconnects and such. IT operations teams need to be able to monitor the Citrix delivery chain end-to-end in order to avoid “Citrix is slow” complaints from users.

Traditional system and network monitoring tools do not have the expertise to monitor Citrix technologies and protocols well. This is why Citrix customers have to explore specialized solutions for monitoring Citrix.

Effective Citrix monitoring provides visibility into user sessions, login performance, HDX latency, virtual desktops, application delivery, infrastructure health, and network performance. Organizations commonly use specialized Citrix monitoring tools to quickly identify root causes and improve digital employee experience (DEX).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Common uses of Citrix technologies include:

Remote working – Employees can connect to their work computer or virtual desktop from home or while traveling.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) – Instead of running applications on a local PC, the applications run on centralized servers and are delivered to the user's device.
Application delivery – Companies can provide access to business applications (such as SAP, Oracle, or internal tools) without installing them on every computer.
Secure access – Data can remain in the company's data center or cloud environment, reducing the risk of sensitive information being stored on personal devices.
Device flexibility – Users can access their work environment from Windows, Mac, Linux, tablets, or smartphones.

Citrix Workspace is a service that provides secure access to virtual apps, desktops, web and SaaS apps from a web browser or Citrix Workspace app.

Citrix Workspace app is software that you can install on your device (Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, or ChromeOS) to securely connect to your organization's Citrix resources. It serves as the client application for accessing virtual desktops, business applications, files, and web/SaaS applications from a single interface.

Citrix Receiver was the older client application from Citrix that allowed users to connect to virtual desktops and applications hosted on Citrix servers. It was the software users installed on their devices to access company resources remotely.

Citrix replaced Citrix Receiver with Citrix Workspace app. Citrix Workspace app includes all the functionality of Receiver plus additional features and integrations.

Citrix monitoring helps keep employees productive by ensuring they can access the applications and desktops they need without delays or disruptions. It enables IT teams to quickly identify and resolve performance issues, reduce downtime, and maintain a reliable user experience.