To quote Agent Smith from the Matrix, "You hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability!" This is what plays on my mind when I hear the phrase hybrid multicloud. I truly believe for the foreseeable future that the hybrid multicloud will be inevitable for most organizations as they begin and progress through their cloud journey.
A hybrid multicloud means exactly what you might imagine it does. It is an IT infrastructure that uses a mix of on-prem, as well as public or private clouds from multiple providers. For some, it might sound like overkill. For others, it’s a necessity to operate their business. In my opinion, it’s only a matter of time before a hybrid multicloud environment becomes as essential as the lights themselves – yes, those same lights that IT professionals have been known to keep on.
But how is hybrid multicloud relevant to an operation like yours today? You might ask any variation of that same question, especially if you’re still in the category of organizations who can’t see a need for such a solution. Here’s where it comes in handy.
It has reached the point where I’m personally seeing more and more cases where moving an application backend into a cloud environment is causing all sorts of havoc, and frustrating end-users. I’ve also seen the opposite of that, however. Moving the client compute into the cloud while leaving the backend application hosted in an on-premise data centre often causes the same problems. It sounds like a problem with a simple solution - move the application to reside in the same environment that the client is computing from, right? Doing just such a thing will most definitely solve the problem, but at what administrative cost? And what does the end-user experience of something like that look like? The cost question is a rhetorical one, of course; we know it’s going to be at an extremely high level that goes beyond any semblance of practicability for the business. As for the user experience? Let me paint you a picture.
Nowadays, we have users running applications locally on their workstations, remotely via web apps, maybe even as hosted apps or desktops. This solves the problem of optimizing app location as the workload now runs in the most optimal location, providing the best experience for the end-user in most situations but introduces complexities no user will appreciate. Imagine logging into a VDI to get to you to a corporate CRM thin client application, then logging into another portal to grant access to another application.... and multiply this experience for each uniquely hosted application. How long before users have had enough, if they haven’t already?
This is exactly the kind of scenario where a true hybrid multicloud solution like Citrix Workspace adds incredible value. Workspace is able to host the client compute wherever it makes the most sense to host it, while centralizing access to these applications from a single access portal like the Citrix Gateway Service in the Citrix Cloud. Access is managed and given via a single sign-on authentication model that makes it easy for end-users and administrators alike.
Those in the Microsoft ecosystem can see a lot of pay off from Citrix and Microsoft having worked together for over a quarter of a century. Citrix is the only solution to truly offer a single pane of glass when dealing with the hybrid multicloud, with broad support for on-prem hypervisors and the capability to leverage resources from public clouds like Azure. Integrating Citrix into your Azure Virtual Desktop environment extends its functionality to support your own unique operational and business requirements. Cost-optimizing features in hybrid multicloud setups such as vertical load balancing and machine creation services enable you to host and power your applications in the cloud without incurring more expenses than are absolutely required. In fact, you can reduce costs by up to 70% over three years when compared to a legacy, on-prem Citrix and Microsoft deployment.
Vertical load balancing allows sessions to be loaded up on a single host before powering on another machine to support the additional users. This consolidates incoming user sessions to virtual delivery agents (VDAs) that are already in use, thereby reducing the number of VDAs that must be powered on and kept ready for additional sessions. Machine Creation Services completely removes unused virtual machines in Azure and spins them back up when needed, to make sure that you’re running on a right-size infrastructure – no more, no less.
With the industry leaning towards a highly-optimized philosophy of resource provisioning – never too big but ready to scale up as and when needed – it’s solutions like these, made possible by the hybrid multicloud, that make the widespread adoption of this type of infrastructure only a matter of time.
As Morpheus stated in Matrix Revolutions, “I have imagined this moment for a long time. Is it real?” Hybrid multicloud is on the horizon for organizations like yours, and solutions like Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop cloud service might just be the ticket to make that happen.