Historically, Citrix admins and security teams have had to do much of the investigative security work themselves. Sure, their environments may leverage end-to-end encryption and the latest security patches and recommendations, but those measures alone don’t guarantee an environment is truly secured — especially from insider threats. This often left IT teams trying to piece together data from disparate systems and third-party party tools, a time-consuming endeavor that at best only shows a small picture of what security-related activities were actually occurring in an environment.

What if there was a solution that helped to improve any company’s security posture while freeing up time for admins? Something that allowed them to take a proactive approach to security as opposed to a mostly reactive one? Fortunately, such a solution exists today for Citrix Workspace. That solution is Citrix Analytics for Security.


New to security analytics? Learn the essentials in our comprehensive guide: Digital workspaces 2.0—Security and performance analytics.


Citrix Analytics for Security is a cloud-delivered security platform that helps protect corporate assets and minimize risk. It continually assesses user behavior in the digital workspace across these offerings:

  • Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service
  • Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (on-premises or cloud)
  • Citrix Secure Workspace Access
  • Citrix Content Collaboration
  • Citrix Gateway
  • Citrix Endpoint Management
  • Citrix Secure Browser

Defined policies allow admins to take action when certain conditions occur including sending email alerts, recording sessions, or blocking access altogether. Machine learning algorithms intelligently classify every user in the environment with a high, medium, or low risk score that is constantly updated.

Admins can drill down for more information on risky users as needed to see the risk timeline. Below, we see a risky user where configured policies have automatically activated to record their virtual app and desktop sessions, add them to a watchlist, and notify them of their observed risky actions.

Citrix Analytics collects a wealth of data points across the Citrix portfolio, many of which are unique and exclusive to Citrix. One powerful feature is the ability to build queries and spot trends from the data. Below, we see users that have downloaded large files in a specific time window. (Click the image to view larger.)

Custom risk indicators allow admins to easily see when specific events occur. Here we are creating one for Citrix Content Collaboration to note when users download files from outside the United States.

In this blog post, we’ve barely scratched the surface on what Citrix Analytics for Security can do. And while talking about product features is one thing, hearing how it helps real-world customers is more compelling. Kaizen Approach is a security consulting organization that helps both government and commercial customers take a vigilant approach to safeguarding data and company assets. Simply put, they know security.

“Citrix Analytics for Security is my current favorite product,” says Melissa McCoy, Chief Technology Officer at Kaizen Approach.

McCoy and her team make extensive use of the cloud-based offering, including the geo-fencing capabilities to block access from unauthorized locations. Even given the pandemic travel climate, Citrix Analytics blocked an employee from accessing data in ShareFile when they took a vacation outside the U.S. Exactly what was expected per corporate policy, and with a full audit trail on-hand to refer to.

McCoy and Kaizen Approach have also had discussions with Citrix product teams about product enhancements that they deemed useful. The enhancements were implemented in the product shortly afterwards.

“I was actually able to sit and talk with the developers and tell them what was important, what I was looking for, and they made those changes for me and I’m very grateful,” McCoy says. “This is really becoming an important product for us.”

Read more about Kaizen Approach’s story.

During our recent online Citrix Summit Series, Citrix Analytics for Security and other security offerings, announcements, and partnerships took center stage. All the content from the Security Summit is available on demand, and I encourage you to check it out.

Security is a critical fabric that must be woven into every company’s IT strategy, regardless of industry, size, or any other factors. Citrix Analytics for Security allows customers to take a proactive approach to security across their complete digital workspace. It’s a value-add solution that quickly proves its ROI. Kick off a demo or run a free trial from Citrix Cloud today. See what security insights and safeguards Citrix Analytics for Security can deliver in your environment.