Earlier this year at Citrix Synergy, we talked about our continued efforts to transform how people work in the modern era by delivering a comprehensive solution that’s designed to help the modern worker be more productive, while also maintaining security. Part of that involves working in tandem with Microsoft in optimizing delivery of Microsoft Teams for virtual environments, a solution that’s the fastest growing business app in Microsoft’s history.

We’re happy to announce that starting today, customers can deliver a full native Microsoft Teams experience for Citrix users. With built-in tools within Microsoft Teams, people can work more efficiently and stay connected wherever they are, on any device, through centralized delivery optimized by Citrix. Not only are you giving your employees a solution that helps them be more productive, IT teams get the added benefits of centralized management. And because information such as data and chat logs stay in a cloud environment and are not stored on native devices, you’re ensuring better control over sensitive information.

Today’s GA marks a milestone we have been marching towards steadily since early days of the Microsoft TAP Program. As a product manager, I have had a year loaded with preparation, communication, and anticipation for this moment, all to bring a solution that meets our customer’s needs. The customer demand for Microsoft Teams is high, to the point that Microsoft Teams has reshaped the way we handle multimedia in HDX. A new generation of HDX redirection technologies has been designed to facilitate rapid delivery of features and improvements, allowing us to build upon the foundations of our successful RealTime Optimization Pack for Skype for Business.

In this blog, I want to go over the new optimization solution for Teams and lay down some premises that will help you determine the best path for your organization when it comes to Teams. I’ll also preview our upcoming webinar, Transform the Employee Experience with Microsoft Teams and Citrix. Let’s dive right in!

Skype Real Time Optimization Compared to Microsoft Teams Optimization

First, I want to highlight that we are bundling all the HDX optimization code, by default, into Workspace app for Windows (versions 1907 or higher) and VDA (versions 1906.2 or higher). There will be no more plug-ins like we had with the Real Time Optimization Pack (RTME and RTC).

We took this opportunity to expand the feature set from RTOP. Long awaited features like recording support (thanks to Microsoft Stream) or screensharing optimization are now part of HDX, and we will continue to add more with every quarterly release.

That means customers on Citrix Current Releases will get new features for Teams. So, as a best practice, you’ll need to interact with your Unified Communications group in a different way than before because there is no more decoupling like in the RTOP days, when you could keep your Workspace app and VDA at one version and RTOP at another. Now you’ll have to work in unison if there is an upgrade required.

You can, of course, park your Citrix environment in the upcoming LTSR 1912 release and enjoy the HDX optimization for Microsoft Teams. Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 1912 and Citrix Workspace app 1912 will include optimization for Microsoft Teams and will be packed with a wide set of features.

Because LTSR by nature is an immutable release, it won’t receive new features like Current Releases do. However, because of how we’ve architected optimization for Teams (with the VDA being a transparent pipe between Teams and Workspace app), customers on CVAD LTSR 1912 could still receive most of the feature updates if they’re on the Current Releases of Citrix Workspace app. Look out for a future blog post, where I’ll go into the details and what it means for customers considering LTSR 1912.

Updates on Documentation

Finally, a word on documentation. We’ve updated our product documentation site to include a comprehensive section on Teams, describing all the architecture and requirements. I recommend you read it because you’ll need this information to work with your networking team. Remember that Teams is a cloud-based service in Office 365, so your branch office will need internet access to reach the conference servers or transport relays in the Office 365 cloud.

CTX253754 is the main troubleshooting article. I wrote that myself, with the IT admin ninja in mind. I know that you guys prefer to try to solve things on your own, so all the info required is compiled there. If the CTX article does not cover your problem and you end up opening a case, know that I scan those in Salesforce each week and will continue to update the article with new information. Bookmark it!

And be sure to check out our upcoming webinar, Transform the Employee Experience with Microsoft Teams and Citrix, on Thursday, December 19. There are two sessions to choose from, and you can register here.

That’s all for now. From all of us on the engineering teams at Citrix and Microsoft, we hope you enjoy the product and get it rolled out soon!