It’s hard to believe that 2022 is already coming to an end. As we reflect on this past year, we see 2022 as a time of development, growth, and innovation. With so much happening with Citrix DaaS and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops over the past 12 months, we wanted to recap some of the biggest announcements that we made throughout the year.

We continue to work to meet organizations where they are in their DaaS and VDI journeys. Whether you deploy on premises, from the cloud, or in a hybrid scenario, we have been adding new features and capabilities to both IT-managed Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops s and cloud-based Citrix DaaS that streamline and enhance both the admin and user experiences.

With so much delivered in 2022, it was hard to pick just a few items to highlight. So here are 11 of our favorite on-prem and cloud innovations from this year:

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2203 LTSR

At the beginning of 2022, we delivered the much-awaited Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2203 Long Term Service Release (LTSR). The LTSR offers all the features from the past two years with timeline predictability for upgrades with extended support and maintenance. The Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 2203 LTSR includes features like Microsoft Teams Optimization, adaptive audio, enhanced PVS capabilities, the ability to provision cloud workloads with hybrid rights, and much more. You can even leverage the LTSR VDA in combination with your Citrix DaaS deployments to get the flexibility of the cloud along with the LTSR’s predictability.

HDX Optimization for Microsoft Teams Improvements

The Citrix HDX Optimization for Microsoft Teams has become critical to organizations that have adopted hybrid work. Our optimization for Microsoft Teams is now being leveraged by over 3 million users and growing! Citrix Optimization for Microsoft Teams is included in the 2203 LTSR, but our innovation has not stopped there. Over the course of this year, we added features like background blur and background effects to make the virtual Teams experience look and behave like a native Teams experience, and we have also added the ability to run optimized Teams on Citrix Workspace app for HTML5.

New Session Recording Service

Customers have leveraged Citrix Session Recording for years to monitor and audit activity in their environments while remaining compliant and secure. Earlier this year, we released Citrix Session Recording service, which offers a native cloud console to simplify the set-up, deployment, and management of Session Recording environments and playback recordings. We also introduced dynamic recording capabilities for on-prem and cloud deployments to give admins the option to record specific events or to start recordings upon specific user actions to save on storage space and playback time.

Introducing Citrix Secure Private Access

Citrix continues to bring comprehensive solutions for zero trust network access (ZTNA). The introduction of Citrix Secure Private Access is a huge step in offering enhanced security for web and SaaS apps alongside virtualized Windows and Linux apps. Citrix Secure Private Access is cloud-based and provides secure access to IT-managed applications, Citrix Enterprise Browser, Adaptive Authentication, app protection, and adaptive security controls, including remote browser isolation, to protect against data loss threats. All these features and capabilities are critical to help mitigate threats from bad actors and to prevent viruses and malware from infiltrating your environments.

Adaptive Authentication

We introduced Adaptive Authentication earlier this year to allow admins to implement uniform zero trust-based identity and access management policies across apps leveraging Citrix DaaS and Citrix Secure Private Access. Adaptive Authentication helps organizations streamline user authentication events when faced with multi-factor authentication needs, mergers and acquisitions, and multiple IdP scenarios. With support for conditional authentication, Adaptive Authentication can challenge users with different authentication methods based on device, location, and more.

Enhancements to the Citrix ITSM Adapter Service for ServiceNow

We have strengthened our technical partnership with ServiceNow to serve your enterprise needs with automation through the Citrix ITSM Adapter service. Over the course of this year, we have added management enhancements to allow for access to multiple Citrix cloud accounts from a single instance, a new dashboard for monitoring Application Delivery Management (ADM) events, and enhanced workflows to improve admin experience. We have also now added integration with the ServiceNow virtual agent to lessen helpdesk calls by allowing users to automatically request the apps and desktops they need.

Expanded Capabilities for Service Continuity

Over the course of this year, we have continued to expand platform support for service continuity and introduce capabilities and guides to ease admin deployments. We introduced support for Android and Linux. We also introduced support for Citrix Workspace for Web (Chrome/Edge) leveraging Citrix Workspace app for Windows and Mac to ensure that users have connectivity to their needed resources, even when the unexpected occurs.

Azure AD and Non-Domain Joined Support

Another big step in adding flexibility to Citrix DaaS was support for Azure AD joined and non-domain joined desktops. Organizations now can choose the identity platform for their virtual apps and desktops workloads. And with the connector-less capabilities of Rendezvous V2, you can forgo the Cloud Connector in Azure AD joined and non-domain joined deployments, simplifying the solution and reducing admins’ management footprint. Take a closer look at these new capabilities and more in our announcement blog.

Citrix + Google Cloud Enhancements

As the Citrix and Google Cloud partnership grows, we continue to add features and capabilities for our joint customers. We introduced two new Citrix DaaS editions for Google Cloud, new PVS support, and US and Europe-based Citrix DaaS control planes hosted in Google Cloud. With Gateway service PoPs now available across the U.S. and EMEA, we are continuing to provide the best possible user experience to Citrix and Google users. Take a look at all of these announcements and more from this year’s Citrix at Google Cloud Next session in this video.

Citrix + AWS Announcements

Citrix’s innovation has spanned across all major hyperscalers, including AWS. This year, we added the ability to deploy Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops across AWS local zones to keep data close to admins and improve user experience. We also released Citrix DaaS Standard on the AWS Marketplace. Organizations now have to opportunity to purchase licenses directly through the marketplace to expand deployments in AWS with ease.

HDX Plus for Windows 365 Public Preview

To round out our recap of the top announcements, I wanted to showcase this great collaboration with Microsoft. We work to add value to Microsoft offerings and delivered a preview of Citrix HDX Plus for Windows 365 to add enhanced security, user experience, and hybrid cloud capabilities to your deployments. The video below showcases everything we’ll offer with the upcoming HDX Plus for Windows 365.

Looking Ahead to 2023

There were so many features and innovations over the course of 2022 that it was hard to just pick a few to highlight. But our work doesn’t stop here. We are committed to listening to our customers and helping you to make your Citrix environment fit every need and use case. With new security enhancements, HDX innovations, and hybrid cloud capabilities on the horizon, be on the lookout for much more to come in 2023! And if you are ready to start implementing these technologies, reach out to us today, and we’ll help you find the solution that works best for you!

Disclaimer: The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion and are subject to change without notice or consultation. The information provided is for informational purposes only and is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions or incorporated into any contract.