Here at Citrix, we have been leading the charge to improve the user experience for over 30 years. No matter the device, the network, or the location, we want to ensure your users get the experience they deserve. This includes delivering high-resolution graphics, models, video, and audio in real time, so your teams can collaborate from anywhere.
Delivering a great employee experience has always been critical to recruiting and engaging talented workers. With the rising popularity of hybrid work models, users expect app and desktop delivery solutions to have near real-time performance. Over the last year, we introduced features like AV1 Codec and custom Workspace URLs, and we are working to deliver more new features in 2024.
HDX
Citrix HDX is a suite of proprietary technologies that delivers a high-definition experience to users. A central component of our platform, HDX ensures users have a consistent experience across a wide array of devices and networks. HDX is designed around three technical principles: intelligent redirection, adaptive compression, and data deduplication.
HDX Direct (Tech Preview)
Latency is one of the key pieces in improving the end user experience. In general, the less latency, the less lag. Currently, Citrix Gateway Service users must be routed through the closest Point-of-Presence (POP), even if a direct connection is available. That’s where HDX Direct comes in.
This feature enables clients to establish a secure direct connection to the session host, effectively reducing extra network hops when direct communication is available. If the client can directly reach the VDA using its IP, it promptly establishes this secure connection. To enhance security, HDX Direct automatically adds (D)TLS encryption using self-signed certificates to provide network-level encryption to ensure data safety. As a result, users benefit from improved performance and reduced latency, all while maintaining highly secure connections.
HDX Transport improvements – EDT Lossy (EDT Loss tolerant mode)
In recent years, remote work has become increasingly common, with many organizations adopting a hybrid model that allows employees to work from home or other locations outside the office. As a result, real-time multimedia and unified communications (UC) software has become essential for many organizations because it enables remote workers to participate in activities that require synchronized, high-quality audio.
However, remote workers often encounter network connectivity issues that can negatively impact audio quality. These issues can include high latency, packet loss, and other network congestion issues that can result in audio lag or poor quality. That’s where EDT Lossy comes in.
EDT Lossy for Citrix Gateway Service supports unreliable network connection, loss-tolerant version of EDT – our proprietary UDP-based transport protocol. EDT Lossy helps improve real-time traffic in highly challenging networks, allowing to maintain an optimal user experience while managing the unreliable network condition tradeoff in the background. This makes it an essential feature for remote workers who rely on audio and high in-session interactivity for their work.
EDT Lossy for Citrix Gateway Service is available through “Loss tolerant mode for audio” and “Loss tolerant mode for graphics” (GA).
Teams 2.0 New Teams for VDI
In October 2023, Microsoft announced a new Teams app for Windows and Microsoft, often referred to as new Teams (and the older version as classic Teams). This new version of Teams is optimized for performance with a simpler user experience. In January, Microsoft announced support for the new Teams app for VDI.
In 2023 we rolled out support for Teams 2.0 for VDI 1.0. Now, we’re working on support and simplifying the transition to VDI 2.0. Our goal is for admins to only have to upgrade the VDI client software and the endpoint plugin. This will provide an easy transition process for admins and ensure you get to enjoy the latest and greatest in Teams features as soon as possible.
Authentication
Authentication is the first way users interact with your system. That authentication process needs to protect your environment and provide seamless access for end users. For most businesses, that means adding single sign on or multi-factor authentication to provide secure access for all users. On top of that, flexible identity management enables your users to connect to resources that are not traditionally domain-joined.
Native Conditional Authentication
For end user authentication on Citrix Cloud, you can currently only select one authentication method at a time via Citrix Workspace. Multifactor flows can be configured using Adaptive Authentication which is a NetScaler based solution for configuring complex conditions based authentication. To configure common use cases of multifactor authentication natively on Citrix Cloud (such as mergers and acquisitions), we are working on native conditional authentication.
With conditional authentication, customers will be able to select an authentication method based on conditions like the user’s domain or group. Conditional authentication will also support multi-URL Workspace configurations. This will allow admins to consolidate access as needed for their use cases. With this feature, you will also be able to add multi-IDPs of the same type, i.e. add 2 Azure AD connections. With our cloud native Conditional Authentication, it will be easier than ever to configure multiple authentication options for your users.
Entra ID SSO (Tech Preview)
Companies are moving more and more towards modern identity access management and away from traditional Active Directory. With that comes the need to be able to use single-sign on capabilities with non-AD IAM methods. To support you in that journey, we are working on implementing Entra ID SSO into your Entra joined and Entra hybrid joined VDAs.
This capability is dependent on a new authentication mechanism developed by Microsoft. We are working on the capability to use Entra ID SSO with Entra hybrid-joined and Entra ID VDAs. This feature will be compatible with single-session and multi-session hosts, as well as persistent and non-persistent hosts. Users will be able to access Entra joined virtual desktops without the need for repeated logins, saving time and effort and enhancing overall security.
End User Access
End user access is an essential part of your application delivery infrastructure. If your users can’t access their resources remotely from any device, their productivity could suffer. You probably already know that Citrix offers unmatched flexibility for your users to choose any device over any network to access their Citrix resources, but we’re looking to increase this flexibility even further with the following features.
Gateway Service for StoreFront
Citrix Gateway Service is a turn-key HDX proxy to enable users to access their resources via our Citrix Cloud hosted access tier. Previously, this capability was only available in Citrix Cloud, and on-premises StoreFront customers had to utilize NetScaler Gateway for reverse proxying.
Citrix Gateway Service for StoreFront is a cloud-based solution that will provide secure remote access to HDX resources accessed from StoreFront. With this capability, Citrix DaaS customers with Storefront will now be able to use Citrix Gateway Service for authentication, enumeration, and HDX proxy. This will enable StoreFront customers to take advantage of a Citrix managed proxy and offload the maintenance of security patching and upgrades. It will also allow these customers the ability to maintain their StoreFront customizations, with the scale of Citrix Cloud infrastructure.
Learn More
We are looking forward to bringing you these exciting developments throughout 2024. Stay up to date with our latest releases via updates.cloud.com – which now tracks on-premises releases as well! As always, you can learn more about our existing features on product documentation.
To learn more about the Citrix platform, visit our website.
Disclaimer: This publication may include references to the planned testing, release and/or availability of Cloud Software Group, Inc. products and services. The information provided in this publication is for informational purposes only, its contents are subject to change without notice, and it should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The information is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for products remains at the sole discretion of Cloud Software Group, Inc.
