Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) Reviews

We are located in three cities in Norway and we use this system for our virtual applications. We have an ordering system, a CRM system, an email system, and more. In fact, it is used for anything that is suitable for a virtual app. Some special programs, like AutoCAD, need to be run locally, but these are the exceptions.

The most valuable feature is the automatic software upgrades because they take place on only three or four servers, rather than on 50 or 60 machines.

The administration, security, and flexibility are very good.

We would like to be able to provide VDI, a full desktop, to each of our users.

I have been using XenApp since 2009.

This solution is pretty stable, I would say.

Scalability depends on the hardware, but it is easy to scale.

We have between 60 and 80 users who are managers and engineers. In addition, we have external customers that we support. These companies have between 10 and 50 users.

Although we do most of the technical support with our own IT department, we have been in touch with the vendor several times. They are good in terms of response time and we are satisfied with their work.

We did not use another solution prior to this one. We are only using Citrix and Microsoft in our infrastructure.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward, but of course, there are some complex things to do as well. It took us a couple of days to deploy.

We have four IT consultants who support this solution.

We deployed this solution using our in-house team.

We did evaluate other solutions, but we found that Citrix was so interesting that we chose it.

What we would like to do in the future is to have a VDI solution where we can give each user a desktop, but we aren't there yet. At this time, we are using this only with published applications.

This solution is easy to manage, but we want to see what happens when we create a hybrid solution with Office 365. We will be moving to a cloud-based solution in perhaps two years from now.

This is a good solution and if it is suitable for the environment then I would recommend it.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

We use this solution to solve issues related to bandwidth when Oracle forms are used remotely. Also, upgrading or adding any other user application is extremely easy. Oracle E-business Suite is a resource intensive application and database system, which is customized in order to fulfill the government's needs.

This solution has improved user productivity all over Egypt serving the Government financial system. The bandwidth used by the applications was dramatically reduced from 60K to 8K per user. This reduction in bandwidth had reduced the connection cost for the whole project.

The most valuable feature is that users can work remotely from any location. The shadow feature is extraordinary and helps a lot when supporting remote users. The business support team uses this feature to connect to the user session when they are working and can provide instruction on performing complicated tasks.

Direct connection of USB devices on the terminals to be used by streamed applications is very important for printing and the usage of token authentication, but the current version does not support this one hundred percent. It is necessary to support this transparently so that any USB device can be used.

This solution is extremely stable.

Scalability is easy and straightforward.

I did not use another solution prior to this one.

The setup is straightforward, although trimming the application streaming is crucial to make the best use of bandwidth.

We used a vendor team and they were excellent.

I suggest using the concurrent user licensing scheme.

Remote Terminal was evaluated in addition to this solution.

My advice is to use Citrix XenApp on Windows VMs, based on VMware Hypervisor.

Reducing traffic capacity is needed for more than 13000 remote end-users who are working on Oracle E-Business Suite with about 1600 concurrent remote users working simultaneously all over Egypt. These users connect through 3G mobile modems from different service providers.

It increased the no. of users and reduced traffic and data connection cost in addition to increased user productivity.

Application streaming and shadow feature helped end-user online support and training. It also increased user productivity. Since this application has its own traffic encryption proprietary technique, it increased data connection security.

Eliminating the need of Windows terminal server because it increases the cost for each user as each PC that needs to connect must have its own terminal service license.

Extremely stable.

It is flexible and very easily scalable.

Good customer service and excellent technical support.

Previously, I used direct user connection, but it was not secure enough and used a lot of bandwidth.

If you follow the vendor instructions, the setup is straightforward. But it might be a little bit complex in the tuning phase.

Our own in-house team made the full implementation and operation as well.

The setup cost is not much. Although trimming the application settings is somehow tricky and has a lot of effect on performance, it is done only once. For a large number of users, use the concurrent users' license model.

A direct connection was evaluated.

We primarily use it for user data access and for a virtual desk top.

It allows our users to connect back up to a central location for our data center to do away with individual desktop controls.

The monitoring and management is in need of improvement.

The stability has improved through the course of the last three upgrades.

The scalability is fine. We have about 400 users, who are supported by six staff members.  We use the product company-wide throughout 40 different locations, and we currently do not have plans to increase the scale of use. 

It was relatively straightforward. The deployment actually took three months. We used an integrator, and it was a bit challenging because our environment was a little bit more unique than the integrator was used to. 

I think it is a little high priced.

I have been using this solution for quite a long time. We have seen it evolve over the years. We primarily use this solution for virtual desktops and virtual applications.

We use the entire Citrix Suite. This XenDesktop solution helps with applications or desktops. It tunnels data into the system and the internal network. Employees can access the network anywhere. They can save files, print files, and access the network from home or the office in a secure environment.

We are looking for speed and agility in an environment. We want to see that the SAN storage can be policed and can detect a network latency. 

It is pretty stable. We have five of us on staff to maintain the stability of the environment of the solution. 

It is scalable. We have about a hundred desktops and we have about 1,100 people that access it externally.

The tech support is pretty good. My only complaint is that if you are calling in a ticket, you need to know who is answering the call. The overseas support is more delayed. If you ask for a US representative, they are quicker to respond to the ticket. 

The setup was easy due to our extensive use of Citrix products. If a rookie was installing it, I would suggest looking at the website and the Citrix whitepapers.  

Our deployment took about a year because we wanted to vet it correctly. The vetting process took about four and a half months to deal with the bugs. We slowly ramped the system up into a working phase. This was to ease our network into the system without a lot of issues. Our test users really helped iron out the issues before deployment.

The ROI for us has been that when we had Hurricane Harvey last year, XenDesktop came in very handy for us. Even though people had electricity in Texas, many networks were down. Our offices could still get into our network and do work that was needed. It is an excellent virtual office that works anywhere, anytime, and anyplace. It is worth our investment.

It is quite expensive, but so are the competitors on the market but, you get what you pay for.

We looked at VMware Horizon View which compliments nicely with VMware products. Since our team was all familiar with Citrix it made the most sense. It makes our job much easier to use a product our team understands and has prior experience using.

My advice is to really vet the system a bit before choosing a solution. Always make sure you have a budget for it.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the solution work well in your lab?
• Does it work well in your office?
• Do you have a good network infrastructure? 
• Will it support your needs?

I use XenDesktop to manage virtual desktops. I can manage home office's projects using it. I also use it to create work space for different users.

XenDesktop has helped our users to work remotely with a better user experience.

I love all its features. It lets me do almost anything.

The video conferencing feature needs to be improved.

Application publishing through the Citrix. We have been using Citrix XenApp to  deliver the business application to remote locations of our company. We highly  reduce our bandwidth through the XenApp application publishing.

It has improved delivering applications to remote locations with its lower bandwidth utilization. It gives better performance to the user though the lowest bandwidth.

Citrix Xenapp application publishing is a valuable feature that we highly utilize in our organization.

XenApp has helped many of my customers with remote access of applications, access on different platforms.

ICA/HDX optimization policies.

Dependency on server virtualization after v7.x is an issue which I encountered in small environments.

No issues with stability.

No issues with scalability.

Seven out of 10.

I used different application virtualization solutions, but I found XenApp to be the best of them.

Straightforward for up to version 6. After version 7 it became complex.

It is a bit costly, but enterprise class features come with a cost.

Thinspace, Propalms, VMware horizon, GO-Global.

Plan wisely for sizing, product is stable if sizing is correct. Try to use standard application for virtualization, non-standard application can lead to memory leakage which can hamper your sizing considerations.