Name: Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)
Brand: Citrix
Rating: 4.2 (128 reviews)

it_user8922

Architect at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Aug 23, 2013

Comparison of VMware View 5.2 VS Citrix XenDesktop 5.6

Recently I attended the VMware Partner Exchange 2013 and there was a session called “Technical Battleground – View VS XenDesktop”. In this post I will try and cover the differences that VMware showcased during their session and I am going to add an additional column for my comments and thoughts on this comparison.

The following table shows the feature comparison between View and XenDesktop:

VMware View 5.2	XenDesktop 5.6 (XD)	My Comments
Uses only VMware Hypervisor. Use the power of vSphere 5.1 with capabilities such as Fault tolerance, VMotion and Site Recovery Manager	No tight integration with Hypervisor and flexible with XenServer, vSphere and Hyper-V	I seriously feel it’s better to have multiple hypervisor support. That way you have the choice to: stick with the current hypervisor the company runs and manages; use lower cost alternative hypervisors; or use a hybrid hypervisor model
Content based Read Cache (CBRC) feature available on vSphere using RAM cache	IntelliCache feature available on XenServer using Local Storage caching	This feature is only available for pooled desktop delivery method. CBRC and IntelliCache have their own share of pros and cons. However, CBRC will be faster because it’s based out of RAM. This feature is very vSphere specific
View Composer Array Integration – Offloading the creation of linked clones to the storage array	Not Available (**Can be made available using vSphere + XD 5.6 but not sure if Citrix will support it)	This feature is more related to storage array functioning with the hypervisor. VMware (vSphere) and a few other storage vendors (EMC and NetApp) have coded specific drivers to offload the creation of linked clones process from the hypervisor level to storage array. Very limited vendors and new arrays would have such capabilities
Sparse Virtual Disk – space reclaiming (deleted files) on the virtual machines	Not Available (**Can be made available at the storage array level provided any OEM supports and has tested features with XD )	Using this feature you can surely save some expensive storage space by deleting unwanted old files.
vShield security & hypervisor offload		Offloading Antivirus architecture capabilities is available with all leading hypervisors today such as Hyper-V, XenServer and vSphere. Vendors such as MacAfee Move and TrendMicro Deep Security provide hypervisor level security
Single console to manage the entire View environment using View Management Manage	Multiple consoles such as Desktop Studio, Provisioning Services,	Current versions of XD 5.6 for sure has many consoles to manage. But Citrix has overcome the problem in the next version (Excalibur) where there is a single console to manage desktop and application delivery
Cheaper View licensing cost		Yes the list price for View is cheaper than the XenDesktop license for all variants such as enterprise and platinum etc. However, one has to evaluate various use cases before making the choice of the products E.g. The Citrix Provisioning services can reduce the storage cost by 30% VS Machine Creation Services
VMware Compared a 10,000 desktop reference architecture published on the Citrix website and claimed they are: - 42% less Storage than XD - 19% few servers than XD		No detail was given as to which Citrix XD architecture they were comparing View to.
Virtual 3D Graphics over WAN and LAN	Similar capabilities of 3D GPU sharing using OpenGL available with XenDesktop	VMware said there was no 3D GPU sharing/virtualization within XD. However it is available within XD
A website that gives detailed information about VMware’s competition www.whychooseview.com	Citrix Flexcast & Project Accelerator websites where you can get more information http://project.citrix.com/	VMware is the only vendor which has public information on competition on their website compared against Citrix, Dell etc. A detailed comparison of VDI products is carried out by ProjectVRC in their VDI Smackdown

In this study, VMware compared View 5.2 (which is only 2 month old) with XenDesktop 5.6 (which is 1.2+ years old). In most of the cases, the highlighted feature is not part of View itself, but a VMware vSphere hypervisor capability instead. Almost 80% of the vSphere hypervisor features can be extended to XD, but it will become a very expensive solution.

How this study will change in the months to come: Citrix has announced the Excalibur version which is in technical preview since Citrix Synergy 2012 and will include both XenApp, XenDesktop, Provisioning Services and Profile Management capabilities and will be served as a single product just like the Horizon suite from VMware.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user366051Infrastructure Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

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Jan 6, 2016

consumption would be per machine memory (3*2GB=6 GB)

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it_user8223

IT Administrator at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Jul 31, 2013

XenDesktop 5

Citrix XenDesktop is a great product. My experience is with the 5.x version, and have been introduced to XD7 which looks awesome and I cannot wait to have it running in production for the new features it offers.
XD5 works well, take a VM and install the Citrix virtual desktop agent, and then add the machine to your Director server through the Desktop Studio console. Assign an user to the machine and they are able to access (Yes, I am leaving out a bunch of steps such as setting up the web interface for remote logins but this review is for XenDesktop and not the related stuff).
Performance is exceptional even across low bandwidth connections. The connection is secure, and you have options to block USB drives and even the clipboard if you want to restrict users.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user4401Developer at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees

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Mar 18, 2014

I used XenDesktop 5.6 and I agree with you, it's a great product. From my point of view, the main pros are: thin provisioning capabilities, client USB support, advanced high definition video and audio capabilities and support for vSphere, Hyper-V and XenServer hypervisors. As cons, I would like to say that XenDesktop has management console difficult to use, many prerequisites and columns in the Desktop Studio are too small.

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it_user4695

VP of IT with 51-200 employees

Mar 1, 2013

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Performance over VPN was an issue but now it's much better

Valuable Features:

Before we were on a VPN model for remote usage into our data center, the performance issues with large datasets moving cross country really proved to be an issue with remote users. This product really moved the needle in solving for this.

Room for Improvement:

Not every application is certified with this solution.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user2529

Manager of Data Center at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Nov 29, 2012

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Good product, but competition is gaining...

Valuable Features:

Good product, our POC proved that Xendesktop required lower bandwidth per machine than competitors.

Room for Improvement:

Costs for one, we settled on VMware hypervisor with Citrix Xendesktop running underneath, additional costs were incurred because of this hybrid solution, another consideration would be the significant disk space required for what is called "write cache". It was unplanned and caused a considerable headache.

Other Advice:

Since the POC, VMview has significantly improved thier bandwidth requirements. I wonder if a complete VMware solution may be a viable replacement at some point.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user4401Developer at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees

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Apr 4, 2014

Can you tell me the additional costs that were incurred because of the hybrid solution?

sumodirjo

Senior Site Infrastructure Engineer at a integrator with 51-200 employees

Aug 8, 2012

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Complete Virtual Desktop Infrastructure solution you can try for free

Valuable Features:

You can try XenDesktop as alternative to VMware view. The Express edition allow you to use up to 10 machines / users. I use XenDesktop as a Proof of Concept when our lab plans to move to Virtual Desktop. I try to connect from a client on windows machine connecting to remote windows desktop, playing movie is smooth, connecting USB device on your client will show on your virtual desktop.

Room for Improvement:

Steep learning curve. You need to configure Active Directory and Desktop Delivery Console (DDC). You will also have to configure XenServer(s) as your VM host. You cannot install XenDesktop on your server; you need a dedicated machine to install XenServer. Connecting from a desktop is easy you just have to install a client. But if you want to be able to boot directly from client to your Virtual Desktop, you need to spend more time to configure it.

Other Advice:

Good alternative to VMware view, free for 10 users, you can use it as test pilot

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user1266

Network Manager at a local government with 51-200 employees

Jul 23, 2012

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Great VDI solution. Saves organization money

Valuable Features:

I love the extended features of this product. You can easily manage profiles and create desktops in minutes. You can also use your desktops on mobile devices pretty much anywhere. One feature that we use extensively is the WAN optimization. Our data backups are offsite, so moving data and virtual machines could kill our bandwidth, but this feature prevents that. XenDesktop 5 is lightyears ahead of XenDesktop 4. It is much easier to use, and the management interface is intuitive.

Room for Improvement:

Sometimes creating good Active Directory policies can be confusing. Also, there is a lot of work in optimizing desktops so that they don't unnecessarily reduce server performance.

Other Advice:

High initial cost, but over time it allows a much longer desktop refresh cycle. Our organization is using fat terminals instead of buying thin clients. Once those machines break, we can begin replacing with thin clients.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

reviewer1546923

Controller at a translation and localization position with 51-200 employees

Mar 19, 2023

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Secure, stable, but is expensive

Pros and Cons

"The most valuable feature is how secure the solution is."

"The initial setup has room for improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for our remote employees to access their information.

How has it helped my organization?

The solution helps us with our ERP.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is how secure the solution is.

What needs improvement?

The cost of the solution is high and has room for improvement.

The initial setup has room for improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I give the scalability a nine out of ten.

We have around 40 people using the solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is complex. We used five people for the deployment.

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is expensive and I give the cost a four out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

reviewer2396823

Field Engineer at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees

May 26, 2024

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Allows external users to connect to the external LAN and grant access to enterprise

What is our primary use case?

Citrix DaaS allows external users to connect to the external LAN. You can take complete control of this desktop. Additionally, you can manage company, grant others access to enterprise, and take control as needed.

What needs improvement?

The support could be enhanced.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Citrix DaaS as a partner.

How are customer service and support?

Citrix has good support, but the response is very slow.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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Product Categories

Application Virtualization Remote Access Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Buyer's Guide

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