Last week the first part of the ‘Build, connect and extend to the cloud with
Citrix Workspace Cloud’ blog was published. You can find it here. Make sure you have read it before continuing this blog post. 

Now it’s time to dig into some details.

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CWC from a technical perspective 

A traditional Citrix environment has several Citrix related core components within the IT infrastructure. So, besides the workloads, functionality to employees, we have a XenDesktop/XenApp controller, Licensing server, XenMobile Server, ShareFile StorageZone Controller, StoreFront servers, NetScaler and of course a SQL instance, at least for your XenApp/XenDesktop site configuration.

Let’s take a XenApp/XenDesktop environment as an example. An on-premises environment has all these different components installed, which you have to maintain. With CWC most of the core components are delivered “as a service”. The Delivery Controller, Licensing, StoreFront, and SQL are brought to you as a service. The images below illustrate the difference between a traditional on-premises and a CWC environment. The CWC components are ‘in the cloud’.

This is an example for a XenApp/XenDesktop environment. As you can imagine the XenMobile Server (appliance) and the ShareFile Control Plane are deployed into CWC as well.

In this first blog I’ll share my thoughts on Citrix Workspace Cloud (CWC). What exactly is it and what is being solved with CWC? Why and when is it beneficial to organizations? These are the questions I answer in this blog series ‘Build, connect and extend to the cloud with Citrix Workspace Cloud’.

This first part is all about what is being solved with CWC. It’s about the hybrid cloud options with Citrix Workspace Cloud Services. Part 2 of the CWC blog is about the technical perspective. In the near future I’ll go into some details regarding the various CWC services. For now, enjoy reading.

Towards the Hybrid Cloud

Nowadays, many organizations are struggling with all kinds of questions about cloud. If they have a clear understanding about what ‘the cloud’ has to offer (e.g. public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid), they face the question which part of their IT infrastructure is cloud ready. Where to start? Which parts of the IT infrastructure can be moved towards a cloud solution? In some cases, it’s ‘simply’ a strategic (management) decision to enter the world of cloud. Whether it’s a strategic goal or not, organizations still need to explore which parts of their IT infrastructure will suit a cloud solution. Simply migrate an entire IT infrastructure at once isn’t a realistic option. A good start, for example, is Exchange Online (part of Microsoft Office 365). No longer a full blown on-premises Exchange environment is required. Simple sign up, swipe your card and you are good to go. So, before you sign op for any cloud solution at all, get a very good understanding of an IT infrastructure and the relations between the various components.