At the end of September, we delivered our “What’s new and next with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops” webinar update for Q3 2019. Thanks to everyone who attended. For those who missed it (or who would like to view it again), the recording is available on demand.

During the webinar, we discussed recent feature additions and improvements across our on-premises and cloud releases and gave an update on our upcoming Long-Term Service Release (LTSR).

We received lots of great questions from our audience during the sessions. Here’s a recap of key portions of the webinar and the Q&A for your reference:

Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop General Availability

For deployment options with the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service, we talked a bit about the Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop platform (formerly Windows Virtual Desktop). Microsoft announced worldwide availability of this new platform on September 30. See our Day 1 Support blog for details.

Long Term Service Release (LTSR)

Citrix offers LTSRs for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix Hypervisor. We announced during the webinar that we are targeting the upcoming Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops LTSR for late Q4 2019. Keep an eye out for more blog content and Citrix Education resources to help you prepare for the next LTSR. Please also check the Citrix LTSR FAQs for answers to more questions. Here’s what was asked during the webinar:

Do you recommended that we move to the 1909 Current Release (CR) now before the 1912 LTSR, then upgrade from 1909 to the 2019 Q4 LTSR?
We encourage customers on an LTSR path to start deploying 1909 CR into their test/pre-production environments today. The Q4 1912 LTSR will essentially be a hardened version of our 1909 CR code, so testing now will get you prepared ahead of the release.

In terms of upgrades, we are working to support two scenarios for the 1912 upgrade:

  • Customers on 7.15 LTSR Cumulative Update 4 and higher
  • Customers on 1906 or 1909 CR

Learn more about upgrading and migrating Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.

What is the best practice for moving a VDA image from the CR to the LTSR?
Per the recommendations above, you can simply update the CR VDA to the LTSR VDA. You could also rebuild the image instead of updating if you were moving to a new OS.

Will 1912 LTSR only be available for Server 2016 OS?
The 1912 LTSR will continue to support Windows Server 2012 R2 for Citrix management infrastructure, in addition to Server 2016.

With multiple supported LTSR versions (7.6, 7.15, and soon 1912), will there continue to be updates for all of them?
Yes. We will continue to publish Cumulative Updates for all LTSR versions that are within their supported lifespan.

Do LTSR Cumulative Updates include feature enhancements?
No. Cumulative Updates (CUs) do not typically contain feature enhancements. LTSR Cumulative Updates are intended to contain security updates, OS compatibility updates, and bug fixes for customer-reported issues.

Will there be a corresponding LTSR version of the Citrix Workspace app upon the release of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 1912?
We recommend that you stay up to date with the CRs of the Citrix Workspace app clients. We’re targeting a release of a tech preview of the Citrix Workspace app LTSR to align with the LTSR release. The new Citrix Workspace app for Windows LTSR will be generally available in early 2020.

General Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Questions

Citrix Analytics

How are scoring thresholds determined for the upcoming Citrix Analytics for Performance?
In Citrix Analytics for Performance, user experience scores are based on an aggregation of categories ranging from connection and reconnection status to ICA RITT and logon duration. You can sign up for a tech preview and learn more about this functionality in our Citrix Analytics for Performance blog or in this video:

Does Citrix Analytics require Citrix Cloud?
Citrix Analytics offerings are services hosted in Citrix Cloud. However, customers with on-premises Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environments can leverage this functionality by simply connecting their environments. Learn more here.

Deployment Options

Are all new Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops features available in both on-prem and cloud-service deployments?
We strive for feature parity between release vehicles whenever possible. Even for new service offerings, such as Citrix Workspace, most are available to connect to on-premises environments, giving you the predictability of an on-prem CR or LTSR release with the feature update benefits of our Cloud platform. Our release feature matrix gives you a good overview of differences in capabilities.

What does the future look like for on-prem deployments?
Citrix is committed to supporting both cloud and on-premises customers. Our upcoming 1912 LTSR is eligible for up to 10 years of support. Over the last year, we have delivered CRs for on-prem customers quarterly, and we have lots more coming. Citrix Cloud services do give us the ability to add value and innovation more quickly — and many of our services will also offer a path to connect on-prem environments, giving Citrix admins the best of both worlds.

HDX Enhancements

When will the Microsoft Teams desktop client be officially supported in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops?
Citrix and Microsoft have been working together on optimization of the Microsoft Teams desktop client. The 1909 CR has Teams desktop optimization built-in, and we are currently anticipating the Microsoft release with necessary updates to ship in mid-Q4 2019.

Is Citrix Secure Browser service available in FedCloud or GovCloud?
Today, Citrix Secure Browser is only available in commercial clouds, but we would consider expanding. It is important to remember that this service is completely isolated from a customer’s network so that browsing is 100 percent isolated and sessions are destroyed after use.

What is the new User Personalization Layer for the Citrix App Layering technology?
User Personalization Layers is an upcoming feature built on our existing app layering technology, which is targeted to provide a persistent experience to users logging into non-persistent desktops. Admins will be able to deploy UPL via new policies in Studio. When users log into their machines, a writeable user layer will be attached on the fly, giving them access to their installed apps and data. Look for a blog post with more details on User Personalization Layers in Q4.

Do you support Cisco soft phones, IP communicator, or Jabber?
We have customers using Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops to deploy a full end-user experience, including soft phone communications. Take a look at our support articles on IP Communicator, Cisco Jabber, and Jabber Softphone for VDI for more information on each technology’s integration with Citrix.

Do you have deployment guides for smart card integrations on commonly used devices such as Yubikey?
Check out these resources on smart card deployment, including Yubikey:  Pass-through Auth with Smart Cards and Smart Card configuration for Citrix Environments.

Does Citrix have any major enhancements coming for AWS integration with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service?
We announced our intent to support VMcloud on AWS during Citrix Synergy. This will enable admins with more advanced app and desktop management, cloud-scale elasticity, image portability across hybrid cloud, and more. We are targeting support for late this year.

Miss the webinar? View the on-demand recording for the all the inside scoops. Also, be on the lookout for our monthly “What’s New” blog post on all things new with Citrix Workspace, including Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.

For Citrix Investors

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