Time flies, and during the last year Citrix has released multiple new features for On-Prem environments based on customers feedback and how technology is evolving using advanced features such as automation, zero trust security access, new user experience and homogeneous administration.
As a supplement to the material presented at our CUGC XL Great Plains on Oct 4 in Omaha, NE, in this blog post, I’m going to summarize why Citrix On-Prem is New and Cool.
Let’s focus on three main pillars of this On-Prem new release: enhanced User Experience, Citrix Administration and Security.
Pillar 1: USER EXPERIENCE
Everybody knows that time is money or can save lives, and being on the phone trying to resolve easy issues could take hours. As a result, Citrix ITSM service + ServiceNow has so many benefits for end users, including:
Reducing problem resolution and resources procurement by utilizing the Self-service / Virtual agent from 30-45min to less than 5 min.
Request access Desktops and Applications (automatic approval), VM power management, Profile reset and troubleshooting.
Cost optimization. Success stories show that customers can save thousands of dollars based on the correct resource planning based on the Data generated from the ServiceNow and Citrix Statistics feature.
Quick access to knowledge base
The above video shows how Session Reset works from an end user experience using the Citrix ITSM + ServiceNow using the Virtual Agent.
In addition, here is the Architecture Diagram for your reference, which summarizes integration in 3 easy steps:
Install the ITSM connector on your ServiceNow instance. You can download it from the ServiceNow store.
Create a Citrix Cloud account and Install the Cloud Connector software on a dedicated Windows server. This is going to be the agent to make the connection between your on-prem environment and the Citrix ITSM service (site aggregation).
Connect you ServiceNow Instance to ITSM service.
You can also find great resources in Citrix documentation, podcasts, and don’t forget to watch the
where we discussed ITSM administration, configuration and user experience.
Pillar 2: CITRIX ADMINISTRATION
The new WebStudio console comes with new features for your On-prem environment that only were available for Citrix Cloud (DaaS). With that, we bring all the technology to CVADs too.
I’m going to show you two of the new advanced cool features: Backup and Restore and Autoscale.
Backup and Restore
With this feature you can back up and restore the current state of your on-prem Citrix Site. Think of this as a snapshot that creates configuration files (.yaml files) that you can manually edit and use for either restore your site or make some changes to it.
This feature is based on the Automated Configuration Tool, which is a PowerShell SDK that is installed on your environment to connect to your site and run the backup and restore.
The flexibility of this tool allows you to restore granular components by specifying either a single app, delivery group, machine catalog and so forth.
The step-by-step configuration guide is available in the Citrix TechZone.
Autoscale
This Power Management feature historically is used for cost management in hybrid environments, no matter if you have all your workload in your own Datacenter or hybrid with any cloud provider.
Autoscale allows you to create policies to schedule VM power management based on date or user load, also if this is during peak hours on a special event. In addition to that, it evaluates the session state and allows you to determine actions based on disconnection and log off times, triggering the VMs to be either suspended or powered off.
As a summary, you have the following options with Autoscale for On-Prem:
Scheduled-based and load-based setting for power management
Dynamic session timeouts
Autoscale tagged machines
User Logoff notifications
The above video explains how Autoscale works and you can get more detail of the configuration by referring to the Citrix Documentation.
Pillar 3: SECURITY
Great news, Secure Private Access (SPA) for On-Prem environments is now GA!
Secure Private access is part of the ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) solution that will use your existing Netscaler and Storefront integration to provide access to Web and SaaS applications with enhanced Security Policies trough Workspace App and the use of Citrix Enterprise Browser as centralized-managed browser.
In addition, the Secure Private Access solution for on-premises provides the following benefits:
No changes required to the existing architecture or deployments to use this solution.
Enables single sign-on to the apps and reduces the dependency on the traditional VPNs.
Enable contextual security controls based on the context (user group, device, network location)
In the following video, you can watch 3 use cases and the user experience of SPA On-Prem:
How to configure SPA on your On-Prem environment? We can summarize the deployment in four steps:
Publish the apps
Publish the policies for the apps
Enable routing of traffic through NetScaler Gateway
Configure authorization policies
For a step-by-step configuration guide, please refer to the following documentation.
As you can see, On-Prem has a lot of new features that allows you to maximize the Administration of your environment use of all the advanced technology through the new WebStudio console, provide an enhanced and secure user experience through Secured Private Access (SPA) and reduce cost and wait times with the use of AI through Citrix ITSM service + ServiceNow integration.
Stay tuned for more information about new features and don’t forget to register for the next CUGC events!
Recent CUGC blog posts:
Time flies, and during the last year Citrix has released multiple new features for On-Prem environments based on customers feedback and how technology is evolving using advanced features such as automation, zero trust security access, new user experience and homogeneous administration. As a supplement to the material presented at our CUGC XL Great Plains on Oct 4 in Omaha, NE, in this blog post, I’m going to summarize why Citrix On-Prem is New and Cool. Let’s focus on three main pillars of this On-Prem new release: enhanced User Experience, Citrix Administration and Security. Pillar 1: USER EXPERIENCE Everybody knows that time is money or can save lives, and being on the phone trying to resolve easy issues could take hours. As a result, Citrix ITSM service + ServiceNow has so many benefits for end users, including: Reducing problem resolution and resources procurement by utilizing the Self-service / Virtual agent from 30-45min to less than 5 min. Request access Desktops and Applications (automatic approval), VM power management, Profile reset and troubleshooting. Cost optimization. Success stories show that customers can save thousands of dollars based on the correct resource planning based on the Data generated from the ServiceNow and Citrix Statistics feature. Quick access to knowledge base The above video shows how Session Reset works from an end user experience using the Citrix ITSM + ServiceNow using the Virtual Agent. In addition, here is the Architecture Diagram for your reference, which summarizes integration in 3 easy steps: Install the ITSM connector on your ServiceNow instance. You can download it from the ServiceNow store. Create a Citrix Cloud account and Install the Cloud Connector software on a dedicated Windows server. This is going to be the agent to make the connection between your on-prem environment and the Citrix ITSM service (site aggregation). Connect you ServiceNow Instance to ITSM service. You can also find great resources in Citrix documentation, podcasts, and don’t forget to watch the where we discussed ITSM administration, configuration and user experience. Pillar 2: CITRIX ADMINISTRATION The new WebStudio console comes with new features for your On-prem environment that only were available for Citrix Cloud (DaaS). With that, we bring all the technology to CVADs too. I’m going to show you two of the new advanced cool features: Backup and Restore and Autoscale. Backup and Restore With this feature you can back up and restore the current state of your on-prem Citrix Site. Think of this as a snapshot that creates configuration files (.yaml files) that you can manually edit and use for either restore your site or make some changes to it. This feature is based on the Automated Configuration Tool, which is a PowerShell SDK that is installed on your environment to connect to your site and run the backup and restore. The flexibility of this tool allows you to restore granular components by specifying either a single app, delivery group, machine catalog and so forth. The step-by-step configuration guide is available in the Citrix TechZone. Autoscale This Power Management feature historically is used for cost management in hybrid environments, no matter if you have all your workload in your own Datacenter or hybrid with any cloud provider. Autoscale allows you to create policies to schedule VM power management based on date or user load, also if this is during peak hours on a special event. In addition to that, it evaluates the session state and allows you to determine actions based on disconnection and log off times, triggering the VMs to be either suspended or powered off. As a summary, you have the following options with Autoscale for On-Prem: Scheduled-based and load-based setting for power management Dynamic session timeouts Autoscale tagged machines User Logoff notifications The above video explains how Autoscale works and you can get more detail of the configuration by referring to the Citrix Documentation. Pillar 3: SECURITY Great news, Secure Private Access (SPA) for On-Prem environments is now GA! Secure Private access is part of the ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) solution that will use your existing Netscaler and Storefront integration to provide access to Web and SaaS applications with enhanced Security Policies trough Workspace App and the use of Citrix Enterprise Browser as centralized-managed browser. In addition, the Secure Private Access solution for on-premises provides the following benefits: No changes required to the existing architecture or deployments to use this solution. Enables single sign-on to the apps and reduces the dependency on the traditional VPNs. Enable contextual security controls based on the context (user group, device, network location) In the following video, you can watch 3 use cases and the user experience of SPA On-Prem: How to configure SPA on your On-Prem environment? We can summarize the deployment in four steps: Publish the apps Publish the policies for the apps Enable routing of traffic through NetScaler Gateway Configure authorization policies For a step-by-step configuration guide, please refer to the following documentation. As you can see, On-Prem has a lot of new features that allows you to maximize the Administration of your environment use of all the advanced technology through the new WebStudio console, provide an enhanced and secure user experience through Secured Private Access (SPA) and reduce cost and wait times with the use of AI through Citrix ITSM service + ServiceNow integration. Stay tuned for more information about new features and don’t forget to register for the next CUGC events! Recent CUGC blog posts: