Citrix expands Remote PC Access availability
Citrix on Wednesday announced it's expanding the availability of its Remote PC Access, responding to the high number of workers across sectors looking for secure ways to work remotely through the COVID-19 pandemic. The offering is now available as part of Citrix Desktop Service and Citrix Desktop Essentials.
"Providing employees with access to their desktops from remote locations used to be a nice thing to do," Citrix said in its release. "Today, it's a requirement to keep employees productive and businesses operating during the COVID-19 crisis."
Remote PC Access lets IT teams quickly provide workers with full virtual desktop experience by installing a VDA (Virtual Delivery Agent). This allows users to securely access Windows or Linux PCs from anywhere, from nearly any device, without having to use a VPN. It also enables security measures like multi-factor authentication.
VPNs can be problematic for IT teams that are trying to quickly extend secure remote access to large numbers of people. A recent Citrix-commissioned survey of US workers showed that VPN-based remote work strategies can lead to "slow performance" and "lack of access to all the apps needed to get work done."
Now that Remote PC Access is available via Citrix Virtual Desktops Service, IT teams can deliver the product to physical desktops as well as virtual desktop infrastructure located on premise or in any public cloud. Meanwhile, the Citrix Virtual Desktops Essentials Service is a month-to-month service available on Azure Marketplace, so IT teams can deliver Remote PC Access to Azure-hosted virtual desktops.
Remote Access PC is already included in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Advanced/Premium, as well as Citrix Workspace Premium Plus.
Last month, Citrix reported a significant increase in first quarter deployments of its Workspace Suite as more people were forced to work remotely.
Meanwhile, other companies are similarly looking to capitalize on the increased need for secure remote work deployments. Google, for intance, recently rolled out the BeyondCorp Remote Access tool for browser-based apps.