Citrix and Microsoft recently announced a new collaboration. At the recent Microsoft Ignite event, the two companies announced that Citrix is becoming a Microsoft Direct Cloud Service provider. This means that customers can buy Citrix Workspace cloud solutions using Microsoft 365 licensing that includes Azure capacity, all within the Azure Marketplace.
Essentially, this allows customers to save time between the purchase and production since you won’t have to complete multiple transactions to use these solutions together. The combined solutions will also be available through Citrix Solutions Advisors and service providers for both Citrix and Microsoft. Here’s more information about the joint services that will be available.
Citrix and Microsoft offering Desktop as a Service
The first cloud service that will be delivered as a joint effort between Citrix and Microsoft as part of this collaboration is a Desktop as a Service (DaaS) product, which is integrated with Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop. Basically, customers can purchase and provision their virtual desktop directly within Azure and do so in just a few hours.
Technology integrations
Citrix has also been named as a preferred partner for Azure Virtual WAN. So Citrix Networking will offer deep integrations for organizations that want to automate onboarding or network scaling for new locations. For example, Citrix SD-WAN can help a new branch office employ a bring-your-own-network approach to deploy a high-quality WAN service instead of relying on the outdated telco provisioning model.
Additionally, Citrix SD-WAN will support the Microsoft Office 365 Connectivity Principles, allowing customers to automatically egress to the closest Office 365 cloud service when connecting over the internet.
Citrix also announced support for Azure DNS Private Zones. So its Application Delivery Controller solution will be able to quickly look up apps and resources within Azure.
Cloud Alliance Initiative
Finally, Citrix and Microsoft are working together with a select group of partners to form the Cloud Alliance initiative. This program offers specialized enablement, incentives, and resources for the partners that wish to participate. For customers, this is meant to ensure that you get the best practices in cloud solutions from trusted partners.
