Citrix Workspace is a workspace solution that delivers secure access to all apps and files from a single interface. Based on the former Scalextreme product, it will not receive future updates from Citrix.
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Unidesk (Discontinued)
Score 5.7 out of 10
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Unidesk was a virtual desktop technology from the Massachusetts company of the same name, and acquired by Citrix. It has reached End of Life (EOL).
Citrix Workspace is well suited as a dashboard for the variety of software and applications that relate to the various functions of our department. It seems secure and simple to navigate, which I appreciate as someone who handles sensitive information.
Unidesk is well suited to environments where users are accustomed to using personalized and "unique" desktops where as other solutions cater only to standard or non-persistent desktop experiences. The personalization layer present in Unidesk allows users to feel as though they are using a personalized system without the complexities of managing dozens or hundreds of unique systems for users across your company. Updates to existing desktops/layers are accomplished with ease and can easily be done by lower tier support. If your deliverable is to provide a persistent desktop experience while maintaining the best density and performance of your infrastructure then Unidesk is a hard solution to beat.
I find it particularly difficult to easily save to anything other than my file database, such as my regular desktop files. The series of folder paths is very confusing in my opinion.
I cannot save pdfs to my remote system and must save them locally.
Occasionally if a desktop is left on for too long some weird things happens. For example, the desktop is no longer recognized in AD - it could be AD, removal, etc., but I have checked all these. Refreshing and restoring the VM seems to solve the problem. This happened more than once.
We have redundancy (two) connection brokers - Unidesk has trouble from time to time knowing which one to use it seems.
The rebuild takes too long when the VM is larger. Users would reboot their desktop as a normal routine and they call to reboot thinking their VD is down when it was just taking its time to rebuild the layers (anywhere from 5 to 15 mins. Mostly 15mins).
We find Citrix Workspace an easy to use, reliable and secure remote access tool. We never have issues accessing either environments (workstations, servers and virtual machines) not using deployed applications.
Access to the workspace is simple and quick, using username and password and a second factor authentication. Once logged in, you can see all the environments (servers, virtual machines, etc) and applications that are available based on the permission granted to your user. With a couple of clicks you can easily access to your remote desktop or to one of the applications.
The primary reason to choose Citrix Workspace was that it's cost-effective. Citrix Workspace also has majorly involved in this business, other alternates are one of the other products for parent companies which makes it more focused on its intent. Citrix Workspace comes with a rich set of features and provides better security and ease of use. Citrix Workspace is a market leader for this purpose.
AppVolumes seems to be a lot less mature as a product. It does have some benefits over Unidesk e.g. the fact it doesn't include the OS Layer (image management) side means I can just use it for the app layering piece if I like. I can also deploy my application layers to physical desktops BUT I have had less success compatibility wise with my applications as AppVolumes 'AppStacks'. I believe Unidesk has a better handle on the do's and don'ts, or at least may be a little more honest about them. I also don't enjoy the Console with AppVolumes and while I can use it without the image management or tied into the stack the way Unidesk is...you also lose that image management and need to couple it with another product in some scenarios. FlexApp to me is stronger than AppVolumes. FlexApp is coupled with a profile management solution called ProfileUnity which makes it a more attractive alternative (at least at the time of me posting this). However, I prefer other UEM products at this moment in time. I also value the image management and ease of a single console for all of Virt Desktop management that Unidesk provides.
During the pandemic, Citrix Workspace was vital in allowing me to continue operations by working from home. Without Citrix Workspace, I think that our company would have had a lot of trouble with all of the WFH operations.
