Citrix® makes Windows® client-server applications accessible from a click in a site while preserving their familiar desktop look and feel. It provides “traditional” software vendors with a means to "lease" their solutions as a service without having to rewrite their code for the Web. On the client side, it frees you from the hassle of maintaining a Windows® Server and apps. This is great, but how so?
Citrix is great, espescially if your workforce does not use PC's and still must use applications designed for Windows®.
Citrix® makes Windows® client-server apps easily accessible from PC’s, Macs, Linux desktops, Chromebooks® and mobile devices.
Citrix is so successful in the cloud that Microsoft® has abandoned its own version of the product in its Azure cloud platform (RemoteApps).
But there are caveats. Citrix® is not cheap. It frees you from many Windows® server annoyances, but it does not free you from its cost. Your applications will still need to run on a Windows® server with Terminal Services, so they will still have issues. Instead of solving them locally, you will pay somebody to solve them remotely.
You will need somebody locally to help users handle the added layer of complexity introduced by Citrix on the client side: slow or failing session startups, connection issues, insufficient server memory, printing issues, difficult access to files in remote machines, issues with unusual monitor aspect ratios and screen/font magnifications, plug-in issues, server/client version discrepancies, updates, passwords, data backups, etc.
Third-party hosted application virtualization is convenient but it makes less sense if your software can run on anything other than Windows® Server. (If your applications can run on Linux, Unix or Mac, you may be better off running them yourself or leasing them as web apps, or both*)
Furthermore, with outsourced application virtualization, your data is in somebody else's hands which is never an ideal negotiating position.
Read the small print. Due diligence is “de rigueur” before you sign (price escalation clause, backups and data access, redundancy, performance metrics, support, etc…).
* See Armagedon.