Citrix, Microsoft Align to Ensure Successful Rollouts of Windows Virtual Desktops

It turns out that Microsoft needs more help from Citrix than anticipated to ensure successful implementations of Windows virtual desktops.

Citrix and Microsoft on Wednesday said they have again expanded their longstanding partnership dating back to the 1990s. This pact comes just over a year after they aligned on desktop as a service (DaaS) and endpoint management. Announced at last year’s Citrix Synergy conference in Atlanta, the companies described it as an extensive partnership. It centered around the then-pending launch of Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD), Microsoft’s ambitious cloud VD-DaaS service.

Both companies now look to ensure quicker and more successful rollouts of their respective DaaS offerings.

The latest pact is a tacit acknowledgment that Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) and Citrix Workspace are better together. Some maintain Citrix Workspace or other desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) offerings are necessary to achieve the benefits of WVD.

Neither company is positioning this week’s announcement in those terms. But that’s how partners that have worked with both offerings see it. When asked, Citrix new SVP and worldwide channel chief Bronwyn Hastings said the partnership is about offering customers choice.

Citrix’s Bronwyn Hastings

“I would say that the value of Citrix’s workspaces has really been realized or elevated,” Hastings told Channel Futures. “That’s because it allows for those environments to [be in their] optimal positions.”

Native WVD Efforts Stuck at the Gate

Leading into last year’s launch of Microsoft’s WVD, company officials in public presentations frequently touted connectivity with numerous third-party solutions. But according to partners, some Microsoft sales reps have told customers that they could deploy virtual desktops with WVD alone.

“Microsoft reps were more than happy to tell you that WVD was enough and you didn’t need Citrix,” said Paul Stransel, director of Presidio’s national EUC practice.

Stransel hopes this signals a change.

“To me, what this new partnership is saying, is Citrix is committing hard to Microsoft Azure. And Microsoft, in return, will commit to not trying to convert those customers to just a straight WVD implementation.”

Many pilots in which customers tried to deploy WVD as the sole digital workspace never got out of the gate — at least not as native WVD implementations. For example, XenTegra, a managed services provider and a Microsoft and Citrix partner, has done 20 WVD pilots this year. Pete Downing, XenTegra’s chief technology and marketing officer, said customers with Citrix infrastructure needed to pair WVD with Citrix Workspace.

Among the 20 WVD implementations XenTegra deployed, 80% enhanced it with Citrix Workspace, according to Downing.

XenTegra’s Pete Downing

“If you look at Microsoft’s remote Windows desktop client, it’s way behind Citrix’s Workspace,” Downing said. ‘Yes, WVD does apps and it can do desktops. But it doesn’t provide an integrated look and feel for SaaS, web and on-prem web apps. It doesn’t do any of the workspace workflows that Citrix is pitching through their microapps.”

Even those without Citrix infrastructure required a solution to enhance WVD, Downing said. Such customers can also use Citrix Workspace, or alternatives such as VMware Horizon or various other cloud desktop service providers. Downing is in a position to know. XenTegra was Citrix’s U.S. partner of the year in 2019 and gives workshops on DaaS and WVD.

Coretek Services, another large Citrix and Microsoft partner, also found native WVD wasn’t suited to replace Citrix. Coretek conducted a significant number of Microsoft’s WVD “Lighthouse” and “Remote Workforce” implementations this year, fast-tracked when COVID struck. They included both Citrix and native WVD deployments.

“The need of Citrix HDX quickly become a core requirement when compared with native WVD and the capabilities of the current RDS client and protocol,” said Coretek CTO Brian Barnes.

The Value of Windows Virtual Desktops

Nevertheless, partners haven’t soured on WVD, despite the early deployment issues. XenTegra’s Downing insisted that Microsoft’s WVD, successfully implemented, is …