By
·
4 minute read
For many years Citrix have led the pack in terms of remote desktop, published applications, and the wider virtual desktop infrastructure. The Citrix ICA protocol is thin, light, and ensured a well-configured Citrix environment delivered desktops and applications that were secure, feature rich, and enabled access to company resources from any device, anywhere.
On other hand, Microsoft had always been somewhat behind in their approach with Remote Desktop Services (RDS), and, in my experience, Microsoft couldn’t provide the same levels of functionality and/or user experience that Citrix could. However, in certain use cases, RDS was a perfect fit….and much cheaper when compared to Citrix.
Then circa the mid noughties, VMware enter the marketplace with initial offering of VDI using the PCoIP protocol (licensed from Teradici). VMware Horizon/View ultimately offered a solution that some say emerged as a dominant player, surpassing both the Citrix Xen suite and Microsoft RDS because most organisations had standardised on VMware ESX as a hypervisor of choice. The technology also provided VMware resellers and MSPs with an opportunity to replace Citrix, RDS, and build out the VMware portfolio offering. Whilst the Citrix Xen suite and Microsoft RDS had their merits, VMware Horizon/View had unique strengths that made it the preferred choice for many organisations.
Now, let’s fast forward to more modern times and look at the whole picture…
Saying goodbye to one size fits all approach
Customer organisations are looking to continue their journey of cloud adoption and become a truly cloud first business. They may have migrated and re-architected their workloads from the traditional datacentre or private cloud environment(s) to a platform such as Microsoft Azure, they may have adopted the M365 suite, and they may have migrated to Citrix DaaS and be utilising AVD as part of the solution to provide their desktops within the cloud, or they may have adopted VMware Horizon or Workspace ONE technologies.
We regularly see customer public cloud environments that have failed to live up to the promise for a variety of reasons, costs are spiralling, and we become engaged to help customers optimise their environment, reduce consumption costs, increase security, and provide innovative data and app solutions that will empower their business for growth. As part of these engagements, we are always asked “Do we still need Citrix/VMware?”, “Could we just use AVD?”, “What about W365?”…
These are all great questions, and each solution has benefits and limitations as you would expect. In the modern world, the days of a “one size fits all” approach is becoming less and less effective. The way to look at each of these is by the use case which can include a multitude of things including business model, compliance, how the users work, where do they work from, what application suites do they use, how flexible do you need the solution to be, so on and so forth…
Citrix
Citrix can provide solutions across on-premises, hybrid, and public cloud. Citrix has robust HDX technology that provides a HD virtualisation experience ensuring video and sound are extremely clear. Citrix has very good management tools and a whole host of other features. However, we must take this back to the use case, do we need all these features and benefits, do other platforms currently in use provide these features and could they be leveraged, and ultimately, does Citrix provide value to the business.
With the recent acquisition of VMware by Broadcom and their subsequent announcement around product consolidation, migration to a subscription only platform (similar to moves made by Citrix), and more recently their intention to sell off the VDI division to private equity firm KKR, this has left a landscape of uncertainty for those already invested or considering an investment in VMware Horizon or Workspace One.
AVD
In my opinion, AVD is a good substitute for Citrix DaaS/ VMware Horizon and its possible to run AVD on-premises via Azure Stack HCI if required. AVD has strong integration within the Microsoft ecosystem and seamlessly integrates with M365 and Entra ID. In addition, AVD is easier to configure and deploy, although the management of the platform is not a ‘slick’ as Citrix. Citrix DaaS leverages the HDX technology as stated earlier to deliver a high-performance user experience, AVD also provides a reliable and responsive experience but may require some tweaking and optimisation in certain use cases. AVD is worth looking at unless you’re one of the niche Citrix use cases that need the full HDX features. Obviously, a full ‘Proof of Concept’ (POC) must be undertaken to prove its effectiveness in terms of cost, functionality, and operational ability.
Additionally, AVD compared to VMware Horizon offers a benefit when organisations plan their transition to the cloud, creating a cohesive strategy. AVD simplifies management by centralising desktop administration in the cloud, offering streamlined control over virtual desktops, user profiles, and applications, whilst VMware Horizon can involve complex configurations. AVD provides multi-session capabilities for Windows 10, Windows 11 and optimises resource utilisation. Cost-effectiveness and scalability are inherent to AVD, allowing organisations to pay only for the resources they use and can be easily scale based on demand, and is optimised for M365 applications ensuring a seamless user experience.
Windows 365
In comes Windows 365 (W365) or otherwise known as ‘Cloud PC’. W365 aims to provide a simplified DaaS offering. W365 provides a streamed Windows experience including apps, data, and settings through any device that is connected to the internet. When a user is assigned a license within W365, a virtual machine is automatically provisioned, configured via InTune, and is ready for use. However, as with everything there are some limitations with W365, these include running costs when compared to AVD and its configurable nature and you cannot resize a VM without changing the license allocated.
To summarise, they all have a use case, it’s about understanding what the right technology fit is for the business goals and ambitions. It may be that you are a start-up company looking to adopt W365 to ensure easy budgeting and scalability in the early days. But, as you become a certain size, may look to adopt AVD as it makes more sense for the business.
We at Forge are helping customers navigate the complex technology landscape, ensuring that their business is enabled for growth, secure by design, and most of all, the technology is optimised and delivers value. If you would like to know more, please get in touch with us.