Results of the Latest Networking SIG User Share Webinar on Citrix Cloud Workspaces in Azure

by Christiaan Brinkhoff, CTP

This blog article on the Networking SIG section holds a list of questions and the poll results that are asked during our latest CUGC User Share webinar of Thursday (December 07, 2017). The subject of the webinar was “Building Citrix Cloud Workspaces in Microsoft Azure.” And because it’s a very popular topic, we decided to dedicate a complete article on it.

If you missed the webinar, it’s recorded! Please check it out now here.

Poll questions results from the CUGC webinar

Poll Question 1: Do you already use and/or implemented one of the following Citrix Cloud Workspaces at customers?

XenApp Essentials – 0%

XenDesktop Essentials – 2%

XenApp and XenDesktop Service – 14%

No, still using Citrix on-premise – 84%

Question 2: So, if you have not yet adopted a workspace solution why?

Is it cost? – 28%

Compliance? – 17%

No cloud strategy? – 32%

Don’t know enough about workspaces? – 23%

Live Q&A from the CUGC webinar

1. How about giving Director access to the Tier 1 support? Is that attainable using Citrix Cloud?  

Yes, it is possible. You can provide helpdesk users access to the different Citrix Cloud workspaces catalog(s), just as on-premise.

2. How do you add Storefront, Provisioning Server and licensing server to smart checks so it’s part of the site? 

Go via the blueprint catalog -> Click in the custom check…add to Smart Check -> Then it will appear in the perform checks option within smart check 

Note: Citrix are doing a lot of changes so custom checks might be going under development etc. depending on the time you log in. Gareth have logged in certain days and custom checks are added, replaced, removed…..Basically due to ongoing development.

3. Could you please let us know if there is something on the road map for dual factor authentication?

Yes, it is! Citrix is currently working on MFA integration for the NetScaler Gateway Service. Will be released soon, very soon…

4. Is it possible to have free training Lab or is it possible to get a VM where we can setup our lab for testing?

The following Citrix Cloud Enablement training course is very informative when you want to learn and get some hands-on experience. Note: It’s only available for partners.

https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2017/10/13/new-citrix-cloud-simulation-for-citrix-partners/

If you aren’t a CSP or CSA; there is also a possibility to request a trial on Citrix Cloud. Please walk through the article on Christiaan’s blog to get on the right track.

Please use the following FREE training course to get more confident about Microsoft Azure:

https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/managing-infrastructure-microsoft-azure-getting-started?twoid=a1423914-05df-4f78-925c-1b1050072319

5. With the Azure CTX solution, how does it complies with FISMA and PCI?

From the Azure website “Azure Virtual Machines is certified for FISMA, FedRAMP, HIPAA, PCI DSS Level 1, and other key compliance programs. This certification makes it easier for your own Azure applications to meet compliance requirements and for your business to address a wide range of domestic and international regulatory requirements.”

Please check out the following Microsoft Docs article, on the compliance section.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-in/azure/security/security-virtual-machines-overview?view=azuremgmtresourcemanager-fluent-1.0.0

6. I struggle seeing advantage in having VDAs in the cloud as having so many legacy apps and backend servers on-premise. what’s your opinion in this?

The Operating Systems that are currently can be purchased from the Azure marketplace are:

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
  • Windows Server 2012
  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Windows Server 2016 

However, you could use Server 2008 and even the old 2003. Please check out the following articles for doing that:

https://support.microsoft.com/nl-nl/help/3206074
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/windows-server-2003

But my advice would be to start on a newer OS platform when migrating to Azure. The new Azure Migrate Service definitely could help you with that. Please check out one of Christiaan’s latest articles doing this:

7. What was the link for the free azure training from pluralsight.com?

https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/managing-infrastructure-microsoft-azure-getting-started?twoid=a1423914-05df-4f78-925c-1b1050072319

On behalf of all the CTA presenters, thanks again for attending!

See you hopefully soon at another FREE CUGC event! 

Cheers,

Christiaan, Carsten and Gareth 

Leave a Reply