When are AVD and Citrix better together?

78 percent of CEOs agree that remote collaboration is here to stay.

This underlines the importance of establishing an effective Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) for your modern organisation.

When it comes to choosing which solution is best, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) — previously known as Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) — is a compelling option. With its range of features, such as its multi-session capability, it delivers a secure, scalable and cost-efficient platform.

Citrix operates in a close partnership with Microsoft to deliver added functionality and on-prem capabilities. For some businesses, the combination of these technologies is the best choice to build a modern digital workspace.

Existing investment in hardware

The first example of when a hybrid environment makes sense is if you’ve already significantly invested in hardware. This could be a new data centre or a few high-end PCs. Importantly, because you’ve spent the money, it’s often best to utilise what you’ve already got.

Northumbia University have both Citrix and AVD to do just this. They use Citrix Remote PC Access to use their existing hardware investments, and AVD for a scalable cloud VDI.

According to the university’s Client Software Manager, Alan Blakey:

‘Physical locations like PC labs close at, say, 5pm, but now, with Citrix Remote PC Access, students can remotely login to physical workstation PCs 24/7.’

Compliance with regulations

Another reason to create a hybrid working environment is to maintain greater control over your data so you can meet regulatory compliance. Sectors such as Healthcare and Finance have particularly stringent rules, such as HIPAA and FCA regulations.

We’re not saying you can’t maintain regulatory compliance in these sectors by going to the cloud. But organisations can find it easier to maintain control (and sleep at night) when their more sensitive data is onsite. For times like these, again, a Citrix and AVD combination is ideal.

Legacy applications and infrastructure

A staggering 78 percent of government departments spend the large majority of their IT budget on operating and maintaining legacy systems.

So, as appealing as a cloud-only environment is, an all-encompassing ‘lift and shift’ is not always on the cards. We know, in our experience, it's often more complicated than that. As you can imagine, the main issue is it can end up being prohibitively expensive due to sunk costs.

A hybrid solution using Citrix and AVD is the answer. Then, you can do as much as possible in AVD to save money, whilst your legacy IT can run through Citrix.

Additional Citrix benefits

Another reason to consider combining Citrix with AVD is the further advantages Citrix brings to the table. These include:

• Optimisation for Teams and Skype. Citrix helps bring more reliability and a smother connection to Microsoft's tools.
• Enhanced security processes. Make it easier to meet all compliance and regulatory needs with MFA and other safety features.
• Improved scalability. With Autoscale, you'll balance costs and user experience by automatically managing Azure workloads.

Sometimes, AVD and Citrix are better together

The modern worker needs to be able to access company systems from their device, and from any location. Fortunately, AVD enables this. It’s a cost-efficient and highly scalable solution that's seeing rapid adoption.

However, AVD won’t help you if you’ve got on-prem systems that can’t (or shouldn’t) go to the cloud. Then, you’ll need to accompany it with a solution, like Citrix, to get the job done.

If you’d like to talk with our expert team to learn more about AVD and Citrix (and find out what’s right for your organisation), reach out for a chat today.