DaaS (Desktop as a Service) comparison & reviews

Summary
Rank
3rd 2nd 1st
Score
0%
0%
User Reviews
Question?
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Analysis expand by Ajay Walia Karan Chawla
 		by Ajay Walia
Select All
General expand
0%
0%
0%
  • Fully Supported
  • Limitation
  • Not Supported
  • Information Only
Pros
  • + 1) Windows 10 Multi session 2) three free years of extended security updates for Windows 7 3) Bundled Licenses, Integration with existing tools like AAD,Office,FSLogix and Azure
  • + Offers extensive use cases along with multiple options
  • + Easier enterprise integration options
  • + Protocol has good multimedia & peripheral support
  • + Premium onboarding services offered along with Migration toolset
  • + Open Architecture
  • + Widely accepted protocol
  • + Flexible Use Cases
  • + Extensive Partner Eco-system
Cons
  • - 1) 1st iteration of product Yet to prove in Enterprise grade real world implementations 2) Whole management and provisioning interface has basic functionality many tasks are only possible via Powershell 3) License does not include Azure resource consumption cost
  • - Limited integration with public clouds & hypervisors due to close knit architecture
  • - Orchestration relies on 3rd party SDKs
  • - Lacks REST API support
  • - Orchestration is comparatively limited
  • - Still catching up on Cloud native features adoption
  Content  
  •  
Content Creator
WhatMatrix - Ajay Walia
WhatMatrix - Ajay Walia
WhatMatrix - Ajay Walia
  Vendor  
  •  
Vendor Overview
  •  
Vendor Overview
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services
VMware is based in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 1998, VMware provides business mobility, cloud and virtualization software and services, and was the first to successfully virtualize the x86 architecture commercially.
21700 employees as of 2017, Revenue of USD 8 Billion as of 2016 with more than 5L customers globally.
Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) aims to power a world where people, organizations and things are securely connected and accessible to make the extraordinary possible. We help customers reimagine the future of work by providing the most comprehensive secure digital workspace that unifies the apps, data and services people need to be productive, and simplifies IT’s ability to adopt and manage complex cloud environments. With 2017 annual revenue of $2.82 billion, Citrix solutions are in use by more than 400,000 organizations including 99 percent of the Fortune 100 and 98 percent of the Fortune 500.
  Product  
  •  
Product Overview
Windows Virtual Desktop is a desktop and app virtualization service that runs on the cloud.
VMware Horizon Cloud is a cloud-hosted virtual desktop and application solution that delivers to any platform anywhere from one control pane. It gives remote and mobile employees all-around access to enterprise resources such as databases, files, and documents.
Citrix Cloud is a platform that hosts and administers Citrix services. It connects to your resources through the Citrix Cloud Connector on any cloud or infrastructure you choose (on-premises, public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud). It allows you to create, manage, and deploy workspaces with apps and data to your end-users from a single console.
  History  
  •  
Cloud Native
Born in Cloud
Born in Cloud
Redesigned for Cloud
  Reach  
  •  
Market Presence
Global across regions
Global across Verticals
Global across Verticals
NEW
Cloud Architecture expand
0%
0%
0%
  Deployment Options  
  •  
Cloud
WVD Service Hosted on Azure
Horizon Cloud on Azure
Horizon on VMware Cloud on AWS
Horizon Cloud Hosted
Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops Essentials on Azure
  •  
Hybrid
All Cloud no On Prem availibility
Horizon Cloud
Citrix Cloud
  Cloud Worker hosting platforms  
  •  
Azure Government
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
AWS GovCloud
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Azure public IaaS
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
AWS public IaaS
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
GCP public IaaS
No
No
Yes
  •  
Any other public IaaS
No
IBM Softlayer (VMware Horizon Cloud Hosted)
Oracle cloud, IBM Bluemix(Softlayer)
  On-Premise Worker hosting platforms  
  •  
Integration with Microsoft Hyper-v
No
No
Yes
  •  
Integration with Citrix Hypervisor (formerly Xenserver)
No
No
Yes
  •  
Integration with VMware vSphere
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Integration with Nutanix AHV
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Integration with any other HCI/Hypervisor
No
no
Yes
  Geographic Availability  
  •  
Control Plane locations
Global across regions
Yes
Americas, European Union, Asia Pacific & Japan
Enterprise Integration expand
0%
0%
0%
  Network Integration  
  •  
VPN connection
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Trunked Connection
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Virtual Network Peering
Yes
Yes
Yes
  SaaS application Integration  
  •  
Pre-integrated SaaS catalog
No
Salesforce, SNOW, Workday and other popular
Applications with SAML 2.0 and OAUTH authentication mechanisms can be used for SSO
Yes
  Enterprise Services Co-hosting  
  •  
Utility Server hosting
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Enterprise File Services integration  
  •  
Windows File Services integration
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage - Box
No
No
No
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage – DropBox
No
No
No
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage – gDrive
No
No
No
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage – OneDrive
Yes
No
No
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage – Citrix Content Collaboration Service
No
No
Yes
  Enterprise File Services  
  •  
Native integration with any other Cloud Storage
No
No
None
  Enterprise Policy Management Framework Integration  
  •  
GPO/GPP support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  ITSM Integration  
  •  
Integration with ITSM tool
No
Yes
Yes
Service Features expand
0%
0%
0%
  Capacity Management  
  •  
Auto scaling
Yes
Partially Available
No
  •  
Auto shutdown
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Auto decommission
Yes
No
No
  •  
REST API to setup capacity management
No
Yes
No
  •  
Capacity management setup from GUI
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
GUI to setup instances based on schedule(s)
No
Yes
No
  Business Continuity  
  •  
Upgrades and Updates
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Disaster Recovery
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Data Backup/Restore
No
No
Needs configuration
  Bundled Offerings  
  •  
Compute Tiers flexibility
Yes
Yes
Flexible
  Instance Types  
  •  
Instance type supported in Azure
Yes
Support for majorly used instance types
Any
  •  
Instance type supported in AWS
No
no
Any
  •  
Bare metal Instances supported?
No
No
Yes
Guest OS Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Windows Client OS  
  •  
Microsoft Windows 10
Yes
Yes
1607 and newer
  •  
Microsoft Windows 8 /8.1
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Microsoft Windows 7
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Windows Server OS  
  •  
Microsoft Windows Server 2016
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Microsoft Windows Server 2012/2012R2
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Microsoft Windows 2019
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Linux OS  
  •  
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
No
No
Yes
  •  
Linux Ubuntu
No
Partially Available
Yes
  •  
SUSE Linux Enterprise
No
Partially Available
Yes
  •  
Linux CentOS
No
Partially Available
Yes
End-point Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Fat OS platforms  
  •  
Native Client for Windows 7/8/10 (version)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native Client for Mac OSX (version)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native Client for Linux (version)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Mobile OS platforms  
  •  
Native Client for Android (version)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native Client for iOS (version)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native Client for ChromeOS (version)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Thin OS platforms  
  •  
Zero Client Support (Dell/HP/IGEL)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Thin Client Support (Dell/HP/IGEL)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Raspberry Pi Support (version)
No
Yes
Yes
  Browser platforms  
  •  
Internet Explorer
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Microsoft Edge
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Mozilla Firefox
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Google Chrome
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Safari
Yes
Yes
Yes
Service Protocol expand
0%
0%
0%
  Native Protocol  
  •  
Basic Remoting Protocol name
RDP 8.0
PCoIP
ICA
  •  
HD Protocol name
RemoteFX
Blast Extreme
HDX
  Browser Protocol  
  •  
Browser Protocol name
HTML5
Blast Extreme
ICA
  TCP/UDP support  
  •  
TCP support on Native clients
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
TCP support on HTML5 Browser clients
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
UDP support on Native clients
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
UDP support on HTML5 Browser clients
No
No
No
  Encoding  
  •  
Support H.264
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Support H.265
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Use NVENC
No
Yes
Yes
  Advanced features  
  •  
QoS within Protocol
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Build to lossless
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
3D support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Support grayscale only
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Watermarking included into protocol
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Protocol automatically adapts based on network conditions
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Connection Resiliency
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Browser Experience  
  •  
GPU support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Multi-monitor support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Resolution
About 3840 × 2160 px (4K)
Yes
Yes
  Multimedia Redirection support  
  •  
HTML5 video support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Windows Media Redirection
With Remote FX
Yes
Yes
  Multimedia support  
  •  
Server-side rendering multimedia delivery
With Remote FX
Yes
Yes
  Bandwidth/resource management  
  •  
Ability to prioritize Printing, client drives, USB, Audio, Video Traffic/ Bandwidth
With Remote FX
Yes
Yes
  •  
Supports multistream UDP/TCP
No
Yes
Yes
Authentication expand
0%
0%
0%
  3rd Party IDP support  
  •  
Native support for AzureAD
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native support for Ping Identity
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native support for OKTA
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native support for Google Auth
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native support for VMware Identity Manager
No
Yes
Partially Available
  •  
Support oAuth based Identity Providers
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Support SAML based Identity Providers
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Commercial Identity support  
  •  
Non Commercial Identity support
No
No
No
  Directory Services support  
  •  
Native support for Directory Services
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Cloud Directory  
  •  
Offers Cloud directory services
Yes
Yes
No
  Contextual Access Policies  
  •  
Restrict access/Functionality based on time/location/device
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Role Based Access  
  •  
Granular control
Yes
Yes
Yes
Image Lifecycle Management expand
0%
0%
0%
  Image Preparation  
  •  
Ability to customize base/golden Image
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Ability to Import Enterprise Image
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Update Management  
  •  
Application/Desktop remoting agent update
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Compliance updates
Partially Available
Partially Available
Customer Managed
  •  
Shadow pool
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Backup/Restore/Rollback options
No
Yes
Yes
User Interface expand
0%
0%
0%
  Unified Console  
  •  
Unified Workplace for App, Desktops, SaaS, Mobile
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Categorization  
  •  
Application grouping
No
Yes
Yes
  Alerts & Notifications  
  •  
Maintenance Alerts
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Notifications about upgrades
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Website Experience  
  •  
Survey invitations
No
no
No
  •  
Customize web interface
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Custom logout Redirect
By Script you could send an e-mail
Yes
Yes
Service Offerings expand
0%
0%
0%
  Options  
  •  
Stateful
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Stateless
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Use Cases  
  •  
Remote Windows Desktop Experience
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Remote Windows Application Experience
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Remote Windows Server based VDI Experience
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Remote Linux Desktop Experience
No
Partially Available
Yes
  •  
Secure Browser
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Launch applications via Web interface
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Launch applications as embedded app in Web Interface
Yes
Yes
Partially Available
  •  
Integrate services/webapps in web interface
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Publish Content
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Support Outlook 2016 cached mode
Yes
partially Available
Yes
  •  
Support Windows Search
Yes
Partially Available
Yes
Data & End-user experience expand
0%
0%
0%
  User Profile  
  •  
Built-in User Profile Management
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Selective Profile management
Yes with FSLogix
Yes
Yes
  •  
Ability to clear “user profile data”
Yes with FSLogix
Yes
Yes
  •  
Profile restore options
Yes with FSLogix
Yes
No
  •  
User Profile sync with FAT Client scenario
Yes with FSLogix
Yes
Yes
  •  
Integration with third-party profile solutions
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
User profile can be containerized
Yes with FSLogix
Yes
Yes
  •  
Option to store Archive of profiles
Yes
Yes
No
  Redirection  
  •  
Open local file-types using Remote apps
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Generic USB Redirection
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Supported type of Ports
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV)  
  •  
Webcam support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Speaker & Microphone support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Unified Communication Hairpinning effect
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Microsoft SFB & Teams
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Display  
  •  
Multi-monitor support
Yes
Partially Available
Yes
  •  
Dual-monitor support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
4K monitor support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Uncommon Input Devices  
  •  
3D Space mouse
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Pen/stylus
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Touch Support  
  •  
Touch Screen support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Touch optimization
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Gesture Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Data Access  
  •  
Clipboard Access
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Ability to upload/download files from native client
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Ability to upload/download files from browser
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Miscellaneous  
  •  
Show ‘tips’ at session start
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Client time zone Redirection
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native integration into Chromebook system Tray
No
Yes
Yes
  Feedback  
  •  
End user is able to provide feedback
No
No
No
  Performance Indicators  
  •  
Connection check page build-in web interface (check supported client, different datacentres, network bandwidth, latency)
No
No
No
  •  
Display network conditions (bandwidth)
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Display network conditions (latency)
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Display network conditions (distance)
No
Partially Available
Yes
  •  
Display session time
No
No
Yes
  •  
Check system availability
No
No
No
  •  
Display advanced session stats
No
Yes
Yes
  Self-Service capabilities  
  •  
Application Provisioning
No
partially Available
Yes
  •  
Upgrade/Downgrade Compute power
Yes
No
No
  •  
Allow users to reboot their Instances
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Users able to reset their desktop
No
Yes
Partially Available
  •  
User able to Install Applications
Yes
Yes
Yes
Administration expand
0%
0%
0%
  Ease of Config  
  •  
Deployment Complexity
Not Complex
Fairly easy & Quick
Fairly easy & Quick
  Role Based Access  
  •  
Delegation of control
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Access to multiple tenants via ‘SuperAdmin’
Yes
partially Available
No
  Visibility  
  •  
Analytics across multiple tenants
Yes
no
No
  •  
Update Management
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Portability  
  •  
Copy master image across multiple tenants
Yes
no
No
  •  
Copy tenant policy configuration across multiple tenants
No
Partially Available
No
  Publishing  
  •  
Automatic detection of new installed applications to easy onboard these apps
No
Yes
Yes
  Auditing  
  •  
Auditing and security logging of admin actions
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Troubleshooting Tools  
  •  
Diagnostic tools
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Remote Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Log Availability  
  •  
Syslog integration
Yes via Log Analytics
Yes
Yes
  •  
Historical data is available via GUI
Yes via Log Analytics
Yes
Yes
  •  
History of logs
Yes via Log Analytics
Yes
Yes
  Reporting  
  •  
Pre-defined and Customizable Reports
Custom Only via Log Analytics
Yes
Yes
  •  
Real-time Alerting
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Web based Reporting
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Scripting  
  •  
Scripting support and command-line interface
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
SDKs
No
Partially available
Yes
  Automation  
  •  
User Provisioning
Yes
Yes
Yes
Security & Compliance expand
0%
0%
0%
  Data Protection  
  •  
Encryption Standards
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Compliance Standard  
  •  
SOC2
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
FEDRAMP / FEDRAMP Ready
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
GDPR
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
PCI
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
HIPAA
Yes
Yes
Yes
Monitoring & Analytics expand
0%
0%
0%
  Application/Desktop Instance Monitoring  
  •  
Availability
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Performance
Yes
yes
No
  Service  
  •  
Metrices available for QOS
No
Yes
Partially Available
  User Experience Monitoring  
  •  
Session Performance
Custom via Log Analytics
Yes
Yes
  •  
Application level monitoring
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Productive time
No
No
No
  Usage Analytics  
  •  
License Usage (hourly/daily/monthly/yearly)
Custom via Powershell
Yes
Yes
  •  
Sessions (hourly/daily/monthly/yearly)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Peak usage & Peak time analysis
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Cost Control Recommendations
No
No
No
  •  
Region based analysis
Yes
Partially Available
Yes
  •  
Usage analysis
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Risk Analytics  
  •  
Abnormal behaviour detection
No
Yes
Yes
Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Service Level  
  •  
SLA
99.5
0.999
0.995
  •  
Service credits
No
Yes
Not Applicable to Control Plane but can be done via Cloud provider chargeback mechanism for Workers.
  Support  
  •  
Availability hours & Level
24x7
24/7/365
24/7/365
  •  
Languages supported
Multi Lingual
5 Languages. Click for more details
  •  
Support capabilities offered
Yes
https://www.vmware.com/products/horizon-cloud-virtual-desktops.html . Partners tab.
Also offers Bronze/Silver On-boarding services.
PSO services.
https://www.citrix.co.in/support/citrix-customer-success-services/
  •  
Migration toolset
No
Yes
Yes
  Documentation  
  •  
Support forum
Yes
https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/overview
https://discussions.citrix.com/
  •  
Developer Network
No
https://code.vmware.com/
https://developer.cloud.com/
  •  
Knowledge Base
Yes
communities.vmware.com
https://support.citrix.com/
  •  
Reference Architecture, Support documentation, Best Practice Guidance
Yes
https://techzone.vmware.com/
https://techzone.vmware.com/sites/default/files/vmware-horizon-cloud-hosted-infrastructure-deployment-considerations.pdf
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/overview/architecture.html
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-virtual-apps-desktops-service/citrix-virtual-apps-and-desktops-service.pdf

https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2018/03/26/citrix-workloads-on-different-clouds-ctp-best-practices-for-a-successful-deployment/
License & Billing expand
0%
0%
0%
  Full Solution Licensing [Control Plane (PaaS) + Workers (VMs)]  
  •  
Concurrent user subscription
No
Yes
SKU for Trade-up customers only
  •  
Named user subscription
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Any minimum commitment
No minimum needed
Yes
Minimum 25 users with minimum 1 year term-based subscription
  Control Plane (PaaS) only  
  •  
Named user subscription
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Any minimum commitment
No minimum needed
Yes
Minimum 25 users with minimum 1 year term-based subscription
  BYOL  
  •  
BYO-Azure subscription
Yes
Yes
Minimum 25 users with minimum 1 year term-based subscription
  •  
BYO-AWS subscription
No
No
Yes
  •  
Use vendor – Azure CSP subscription
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Use vendor – AWS CSP subscription
No
yes
No
  •  
BYO-RDS CAL
Only for Windows 2008R2/2012R2/2016/2019
Yes
Yes
  •  
BYO-EA (for vDesktops)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Use vendor – RDS SAL CSP
Only for Windows 2008R2/2012R2/2016/2019
no
Yes
  Metering models  
  •  
Full Stack Metered usage subscription model
Yes
No
No, doesnt meter usage of IaaS components
  •  
Control plane Metered usage subscription model
Yes
No
No, doesnt meter usage of IaaS components
  Metering  
  •  
Metering parameter
All
yes
Per user/month
  •  
Services measurement
Yes
Usage of Compute, License, Network use & utility servers
License usage only
  Miscellaneous  
  •  
Crediting system
No
No
No
  Pricing  
  •  
Control plane + Worker Pricing
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/pricing/calculator/?service=virtual-desktop#virtual-desktop4f3e3aec-e445-40c4-aa0c-9076bffe4742
https://vcloud.vmware.com/service-offering/pricing-calculator/horizoncloud#/horizon_cloud_pricing
https://tco.vmware.com/horizon/
TCO - https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2017/09/25/xenapp-essentials-delivering-apps-from-the-cloud-whats-the-total-cost-of-ownership/
Subscriptions : https://www.citrix.com/products/citrix-workspace/
Citrix Virtual App and Desktop service - https://www.citrix.co.in/global-partners/microsoft/windows-10-azure.html)

Matrix Score

  •  
  •  
  • Nutanix
  • Vmware
  • Citrix
  •  
  • 3 rd
  • 2 nd
  • 1 st
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