Microsoft and Citrix join forces to help organizations move to the cloud

Microsoft and Citrix expand their relationship with a new partnership.

What you need to know

• Microsoft and Citrix announced a partnership that helps organizations move to the cloud.
• The partnership sees Citrix and Microsoft become preferred partners for certain services.
• This partnership builds off of a long relationship between Microsoft and Citrix

Microsoft and Citrix announced a partnership today that the companies believe will "help organizations accelerate the move to the cloud and speed adoption of digital workspaces and virtual desktops." The multi-year deal sees Microsoft choose Citrix Workspace as its preferred digital workspace solution and Citrix select Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform. The partnership includes Citrix moving existing on-premises Citrix customers to Microsoft Azure.

Microsoft and Citrix have a longstanding strategic partnership, and this newly announced partnership builds off of that. Both companies will provide tools and services to ease the transition from on-premises Citrix customers to Microsoft Azure. While this deal sees Microsoft and Citrix become preferred partners, the news post announcing the partnership specifies that customers who request alternatives will be supported.

"As organizations everywhere adapt to new ways of work, they will need to reimagine how and where work gets done," says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. He also adds that "Together with Citrix, we will apply the power of Azure to this challenge, helping our customers seamlessly and securely connect their employees to their applications, so they can be more agile and productive wherever they are."

As more people work from home, the demand for services like Azure and Citrix increases. Microsoft CVP Brad Anderson and Citrix EVP & CPO PJ Hough discuss the need for these services in a video about the partnership.

As part of the agreement, Citrix will invest in building a "Microsoft-centric Citrix Workspace." This will provide "deep integrations to optimize performance, functionality, and micro-apps for Windows Virtual Desktop and Microsoft 365, including Microsoft Teams," according to the news post.

Both Citrix and Microsoft will develop a roadmap to streamline the transition to Azure for application workloads. A combination of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, Citrix Managed Desktops, and Windows Virtual Desktops will allow complete application workloads to run on Azure and access Windows-based applications across platforms.

Citrix Workspace for delivery on Azure is available starting today. You can read more about it on Citrix's page covering the partnership.