June 15, 2020

Virtual Apps and Desktops in 2020

My colleagues Mayank Singh and Rob Beekmans, both Architects in Technical Marketing, packed a ton of good information into this video If you want to see what's new with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, Citrix Managed Desktops, and Citrix SD-WAN in 2020 (so far) and have 91 minutes, I recommend watching the whole thing. Here are a few demos and sections that I want to provide shortcuts to.
 


 
Microsoft Teams Optimization Browser Content Redirection (BCR)
  • Browser Content Redirection renders whitelisted webpages on the endpoint and seamlessly feeds it back into the session.  Offloading video rendering to endpoints provides both a great user experience as well as reduces backend VDA resources.
  • Supported VDA browsers: Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Edge (new Chromium). Edge is in Tech Preview.
  • Overview and configuration starts here https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=2925
  • Configuration and demo video of watching YouTube without and with BCR https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=3250
  • Learn more in Citrix Docs
FSLogix and Office 365
  • FSLogix will only save data for a single session. It does not support accessing multiple sessions and consolidating to its profile container. Use Citrix User Profile Manager to write back profile data to FSLogix when accessing more than one session at a time https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=1985

Machine Creation Services (MCS)
  • What is it and how does it work? https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=656
  • Machine Creation Services Input-Output (MCSIO). Deeper dive into MCS workings. It was revamped in version 1903 for on-prem hypervisors and Azure. Allows for placement of the master and caching disk on different storage. This allows you to use HDD (vs SSD) which scales higher (more users per machine) and provides better response time for users https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=1239
  • Publishing an app or desktop using Citrix Managed Desktop (Citrix TechZone) and MCS.  Keep in mind Managed Desktops has a simplified web wizard vs Studio https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=754
  • Azure on-demand provisioning using MCS. It creates machines on power-on which means you only pay for what you use. Overview and demo using Apps and Desktop Service https://youtu.be/UcEmqQjdQUY?t=1073
Citrix App Layering
Business Continuity


I hope this furthers your understanding of what's new in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.  Stay tuned for a bunch of exciting announcements in the second half of 2020.