Azure Virtual Desktops are a comprehensive desktop and app virtualization service running in the cloud.
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Citrix Virtual Apps Essentials (discontinued)
Score 9.4 out of 10
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Citrix Virtual Apps Essentials was a tool to deliver Windows applications and shared hosted desktops from Microsoft Azure to any user on any device. It is discontinued.
I would recommend citrix essentials to smaller companies or to anyone who does not need the most up to date, easiest client interface, or ability to have constant real time updates. In our market, the product is not our first choice, but it does suit the needs of other smaller, more managed shops.
You can publish as many host pools as you need to accommodate your diverse workloads
Brings your own image for production workloads or test from the Azure Gallery
Reduces costs with pooled, multi-session resources.
With the new Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session capability exclusive to Windows Virtual Desktop and Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) role on Windows Server, you can greatly reduce the number of virtual machines and operating system (OS) overhead while still providing the same resources to your users.
It is flexible to log in, once you know how to do it, and then add and subtract applications in Google Chrome as the browser connected to Citrix Essentials.
We appreciate that we can have another complicated password plus the multi-factor authentication and this was relatively easy for IT to set up for us.
The price point was very reasonable since our IT group is currently a user and quickly deployed it to our finance department.
For us Parallels RAS is still more a "onpremise" solution, with Azure Virtual Desktop we can really leverage the power of the cloud. We can spin up additional hosts if the load is too high and spin down hosts in the night to cut costs. Not being bound to onpremise hardware makes this extremely flexible. Seeing as most of our customers already have a M365 license that includes Azure Virtual Desktop licensing it doesn't cost us additional CAL's for Parallels RAS
Frankly, there were limited alternative products besides Citrix Essentials, and maybe we just need to learn more. We did not have the time to process complex Request for Proposals, obtain RFP responses, do a short-list, reference checks and a final selection with oral presentations, so IT helped Finance with moving forward and we appreciated their technical advice, speed, and guidance.