What Citrix DaaS Has to Offer, and an Alternative with Parallels RAS

Citrix DaaS (previously called Virtual Apps and Desktops and before that as Citrix Managed Desktops) is a Desktop as a Service (DaaS) offering. It leverages the use of Azure Virtual Desktop on Microsoft Azure.

Azure Virtual Desktop (formerly Windows Virtual Desktop) is a full desktop and application virtualization environment that supports Windows 10 and 11 Enterprise, Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows Server 2012, and up. As Citrix fully manages DaaS, customers pay Citrix a certain amount per user per month to access Azure Virtual Desktop on Azure using any supported device.

Read on to gain a better understanding of DaaS Citrix and why Parallels RAS is a great Citrix alternative.

DaaS Definition and Functionality

DaaS allows delivery of virtual desktops and applications to end users over the internet, with the infrastructure, network resources, and storage all based on the cloud and often managed solely by the DaaS provider. Thus, DaaS does away with the need to acquire, assemble and configure the hardware for your own datacenter.

In contrast, traditional virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is delivered via on-premises datacenters and internal IT staff handle everything within those datacenters, including the hardware.

DaaS is characterized by multi-tenancy, or multiple organizations sharing the resources provided by the DaaS provider. Virtual desktops are sent over the internet to users via web browsers and remote desktop clients, among other software. Like in VDI, desktops can be persistent or non-persistent; the former means that desktop settings are permanent, while the latter means that settings are reset at each bootup.

For the most part, DaaS providers manage everything—from the infrastructure down to storage—for their customers, although some organizations may choose to manage the infrastructure on their own.

As for customers, they only have to pay a fixed monthly fee for access to virtual desktops and applications, aside from managing the desktop and application images on their VMs. The pay-as-you-go model means that you can scale your DaaS infrastructure up or down at any time.

With DaaS, customers enjoy convenient desktop delivery and support, less downtime, cost savings, and more flexible and secure infrastructure. These benefits make DaaS a particularly attractive option for organizations looking to adopt VDI.

Citrix DaaS Offerings

Known formerly as Citrix Managed Desktops, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) Standard is the Citrix DaaS product offered on the Citrix Cloud platform. It allows delivery of virtual desktops and apps from Windows VMs to any device via Citrix-managed images. These images are already installed with the Citrix Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA), the tool that allows communications between machines and the Citrix Cloud.

Either Citrix itself or a Citrix service provider can take care of managing desktops and applications using the service’s advanced monitoring and help-desk management features. Citrix or the service provider can also manage the Azure compute, storage and networking infrastructure if a customer so desires. Customers with their own Azure subscriptions retain the option of managing the infrastructure on their own, especially useful if their IT staff have the requisite expertise. Citrix DaaS also comes with Citrix Remote PC Access, which allows remote access to a PC located in the office or anywhere.

Once your assigned desktop is up and running, you can use the Citrix HTML5 client to browse to a Citrix Workspace URL, where you can start your desktop or applications. You can also install the Citrix Workspace application on any supported device to access your desktops and applications.

Citrix DaaS Terminology

Some of the important terms used in Citrix DaaS are discussed below:

Catalogs: groups of VMs and applications provisioned within the DaaS, or physical machines made accessible for Citrix Remote PC users. For desktops, the catalog lists the machines accessible to users. It also lists the multi-session machines that host applications.
Master images: images that are used as templates for creating VMs. Citrix provides the images of the various Windows OSs that are supported in Citrix DaaS. These images already include a copy of the aforementioned Citrix VDA, as well as troubleshooting tools in case issues, come up during image creation.
Azure subscriptions: Master images can be built or imported into either Citrix-managed or customer-managed Azure subscriptions. To receive a Citrix-managed Azure subscription, you must also order a Citrix Azure Consumption Fund upon subscription to Citrix DaaS.
Network connections: If you are using a Citrix-managed Azure subscription, you can use no connectivity, Azure VNet peering, or Citrix SD-WAN to connect desktops and applications with locations and resources on your network. There is no need to create a connection when using your own Azure subscription. In this case, just link your Azure subscription to Citrix DaaS.
Domain-joined and non-domain-joined: Citrix DaaS services and features vary depending on whether your machines belong to a domain or not.

Citrix DaaS vs. Amazon Workspaces

While Citrix DaaS eases the transition to an Azure Virtual Desktop environment, how does it compare to similar offerings on the market? Let’s see how it stacks up with Amazon Workspaces.

Cost: Citrix DaaS offers payment terms per user, with the shortest at one month. With Amazon Workspaces, you can pay by the hour, making it seem cheaper than Citrix DaaS. Careful resource planning and a thorough comparison should help you determine which of the two is better cost-wise.
Scalability: The fewest number of Citrix DaaS seats you can get is 25. You may get the exact (lower) number you need if you get a Citrix provider instead since they are allowed to share the minimum of 25 seats across several customers. On the other hand, Amazon Workspaces offers a minimum of one seat and has seven pricing tiers.
Ease of Use: Amazon Workspaces has consistently ranked higher than its competitors, in terms of user-friendliness and ease of administration.

Citrix DaaS Managed Components and Services

Databases: The cloud service stores configuration logging, monitoring, and site configuration data.
Licensing: Provides use data and manages licenses.
Delivery Managers: Citrix DaaS offers the ability to authenticate users, load balance desktops and apps, and broker or prioritize connections from the cloud.
Screen interface: The Monitor interface enables IT support and help desk personnel to keep an eye on an environment, fix problems before they get out of hand, and provide end-user assistance.
Cloud connector: The communication link between the elements in the Citrix Cloud and the elements at the resource site is known as a Cloud Connector. The Cloud Connector serves as a stand-in for the Citrix Cloud Delivery Controller at the resource location.

Deploy Virtual Workspaces with Parallels RAS and Azure Virtual Desktop

Parallels® Remote Application Server (RAS) supports deployment to any of the popular public cloud providers, including Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS). It extends and simplifies the capabilities of Azure Virtual Desktop by integrating and managing workloads and resources from a centralized console.

Using Parallels RAS, you can:

Simplify the deployment and management of virtual desktops and applications across your organization.
Provide end users with seamless and transparent access to all Azure Virtual Desktop VMs and other resources.
Enhance productivity with more than 130 automated image optimizations.
Support for FSLogix Profile Container and various multi-factor authentication (MFA) providers are among the platform’s other strengths.

Check out how easy it is to use Parallels RAS with Azure Virtual Desktop by downloading the trial.

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