What is Citrix and How does it work? - Mercury Solutions

Working in the office with the installed hardware and the software is no more a rule today.
 

Providing workplace flexibility is the go to create an impact regarding employee engagement and productivity.
 

Recently, Wakefield Research conducted a survey comprising of 1,300 business employees from the US for the cloud connectivity company Citrix. The results suggested that the companies that are able to combine cloud applications and facilitate their employees to work from anywhere as per their timings boost the morale and productivity.
 

It is accommodative in such a way that it is becoming the deciding factor for the success of a company.
 

Though all the companies have not taken this opportunity, the workforce flexibility indeed is witnessed in several organizations.
 

Evidently,
 

• About 20% of the office professionals are virtually collaborating with each other.
• Most of the employees witness their colleagues working outside the company.
• Several employees have got the freedom to set their own work schedule.
• There are employees who have co-workers whom they have never met in person.
• People are turning down the offers in want of flexible work hours.
• And more.

What is the driving technology behind this amazingly changing scenario?

The above survey also suggested that the adoption of Cloud technology is the answer for this dramatic and drastic changes.  

Who is Working On this Cloud Technology?

And, Citrix is one of the companies that is transforming the businesses and IT work.

With the help of networking, cloud, and the virtualization technologies, Citrix is empowering the mobile workstyles and cloud services.

Nikhil Bagalkotkar, Presales Head – Virtualization, Citrix India, in conversation with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN) says “ Citrix’s has been vocal about its resolve to support the private and public sector in their bid to transform digitally. With a range of innovative solutions, Citrix is enabling entities to shift to a reality of simplified processes. Our presence in the Indian market over the years has made us aware of businesses’ hesitation regarding disruptive technologies. We intend on utilizing this knowledge to address their concerns and provide transformative solutions in Cloud, Mobility, and Virtualization”.

According to Adolfo Rodriguez, VP, Product, Citrix, “In today’s work-from anywhere world, enterprises must deliver employees an easy-to-use solution that answers the need for productivity, mobility, and security,”

Taking forward, Let us know How does Citrix Work?

From User Point of View:

• The user may have just one application /Citrix remote access which provides a virtual desktop in a Window. Henceforth, there is no need of having PC with n number of set applications.
• This virtual desktop reminds you as if you are working with another computer having its start button, set of applications, defaults, and permission.
• The user may connect to the Citrix session from home, on the go through a laptop.
• The user can run it on Mac once connected to the Citrix server.
• It can be used as dial up just as the normal computer at the desk.
• The programs can be installed on Citrix server and used by multiple computers. There is no need of installing programs in each computer independently.

In a nutshell, Citrix is a virtual computing environment. The applications run on a remote server but look as if it is running on the computer in front of you. It is becoming more common in corporate settings for running software such as the database applications.

Technical Overview of Citrix Workspace:

The Workspace Environment Management comprises of Resource management and profile management. It helps to deliver the best performance, desktop login, and application response times for XenApp and XenDesktop deployments.

Resource Management: In order to deliver better user experience, the Workspace Environment Management monitors and analyzes user and application behavior in real time. Accordingly, it adjusts the CPU, RAM, I/O in the user workspace environment.

Profile Management: The multi-threaded agent applies the changes to the user environment as required and ensures desktop access to the users. Generally, login scripts, preferences, Windows Group Policy Object objects were used.

Architecture:

Image Source: https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/workspace-environment-management/current-release.html

Infrastructure Services: It is installed on a Windows server. It synchronizes the back-end components like the Active Directory, SQL Server with the front-end components such as the administration console and the agent.
 

Administration console: It is installed on a Windows client or on the server operating system. It is connected with the infrastructure services. It is used to create and assign resources, manage the policies, and, the authorized users
 

Agent: It is responsible for enforcing the settings you configure by using the administration console. The agents could be deployed on VDAs or the physical Windows devices. Further, it is installed on a Windows client and the Windows server as well.
 

SQL Server Database: The settings are stored in the SQL server database that could be hosted on the SQL server on availability group.

Microsoft Active Directory Server: The WEM gains access to the Active directory so as to push the settings for the users.
 

CONCLUSION:
 

Citrix stands as the most popular and complete solution for management of apps, data, and the services related to any device over the network and the secure delivery.
 

The main features include:

• Windows app security and delivery
• High performance virtual desktops
• Mobile app & device security
• Mobile productivity apps – mail, web
• On-premises secure data sync & share
• Unified app store
• Secure mobile gateway
   

In a nutshell, Citrix enhances employee productivity, delivers a high-performance user experience, and empowers the entire workforce.