Citrix Introduces Workspace Services
If you have a public or private cloud, you may be interested in setting up a Desktop as a Service offering for your end users. Setting up a Desktop as a Service infrastructure is often easier said than done. Citrix looks to change this by offering Citrix Workplace Services. This innovative new offering allows your cloud to supply desktops to end users regardless of the vendor of your cloud. Citrix Workspace Services was demonstrated to attendees of the Syngery 2014 conference.
How does Citrix Workspace Services work? Mitch Parker, VP and General Manager of Citrix Cloud Services mentions, “The way to think about this is there are really two levels. There is a control plane that is running in the cloud, in the world of desktops and applications running virtually, that plane can contain an administrative UI, a cloud-based broker, a storefront that users can log into, all running in a globally highly-scalable expandable platform on Azure.”
Speaking of Azure, if an administrator used Citrix Workspace Services to launch a DaaS offering, the administrator could require that Azure Active Directory accounts be used for authentication. This increases client satisfaction because single sign on could be enabled therefore users would only need to remember their Active Directory credentials in order to use Workspaces Services on Azure.
Citrix explains that Workspace Services is broader than traditional VDI services. Workspace Services focuses on the user’s experience. Citrix VEO Mark Templeton spoke at Synergy 2014 and said, “We’ve been so orientated to be focused on owner-operators of factories for computing, and we have to actually move from the factory, into the supply chain, and into retail.”
Citrix’s idea is to bring desktops closer to applications in efforts for each layer to function at its highest performance. Citrix Workspaces Services gives administrators the ability to take more control over a virtual desktop’s overall experience and Citrix believes that this will result in higher end user satisfaction.
