Desktops and applications with Essentials

Cloud Worker

The ability to run Citrix workloads in a public cloud is not new. The 7.x versions already provided terminal servers and virtual desktops in the cloud. However, all administrative activities and monitoring had to be handled in the cloud, and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) usually was still relatively expensive. Now that costs have fallen to significantly lower levels and the provider handles the administrative tasks, a detailed look at the Citrix Cloud is worthwhile.

XenDesktop Essentials and XenApp Essentials (collectively, Citrix Essentials hereafter) manage and deliver Windows 10 virtual desktops and deliver Windows applications and shared hosted desktops from Microsoft Azure to users on any device. The applications appear to run locally on the user's computer. The XenApp and XenDesktop Service, on the other hand, provides applications and desktops independent of a device's operating system and interface, with IT control of virtual machines, applications, and security.

Citrix Essentials differs from all previous cloud solutions in that it provides and operates the complete infrastructure, the delivery controller (including the required SQL Server database instance), Citrix StoreFront as the access point, and NetScaler Service. All services are, of course, fail-safe. Complete provisioning of the components is automated through the Citrix Cloud. The provider also installs updates for both Windows and Citrix, which is a prerequisite for operation, because the customer has no administrative access to these components.

Differences

If you compare the main differences between Citrix Essentials and the respective on-premises versions, you quickly realize that the range of functions is very limited. However, this is not necessarily a disadvantage, because often a reduced range of functions is completely sufficient for a specific purpose.

To define the purpose, it is crucial to

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