Citrix XenDesktop Essentials enables organisations to host Windows 10 virtual machines in the Microsoft Azure Cloud.
The licensing change was announced by Microsoft towards the end of 2015 and XenDesktop is, at the moment, the only solution that makes this technically possible (although I believe VMware now have a certified product too).
Citrix XenDesktop is purchased via the Azure Marketplace – and is only available to customers with a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. As this licensing program has a minimum entry of point of 500 users/devices, this means SMB organisations are unable to take advantage of hosted desktop offerings.
However, Citrix have now announced that XenDesktop Essentials will soon be available via the Microsoft CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) program too. This licensing model has no minimum entry requirements, is very flexible and aimed at SMBs looking to embrace Microsoft Cloud technologies – such as Office 365 & Azure- particularly via partner services. For businesses, and partners offering these services, this upcoming change should make the move to Azure hosted VDI (if that’s what people want) – that much easier.
I wonder if this heralds any further changes to availability of Azure Marketplace offerings?
Cloudy with a chance of Licensing 