Getting the most out of the NetScaler entitlement in Citrix Universal HMC
Citrix changes to product packaging have recently introduced the Universal Hybrid Multi Cloud licence subscription, and while some organisations (even Citrix partners) have struggled to see the value, we’ve been helping IT teams cut through the FUD to unlock the true potential of this mighty licence bundle, picking up some common conversation topics along the way that we thought we’d share…
What does Citrix Universal HMC offer?
Historically, Citrix offered a range of different commercial models for its Virtual Apps and Desktop products and services. This resulted in many product versions and editions with varying functionality plus a range of caveats and add-on SKUs to build a complete solution.
These complexities made it complicated to purchase software entitlement and often created budget boundaries to high value product feature utilisation based on cost – in other words, we often found there was a desire to have full feature functionality, but the cost was prohibitive, so functionality was dictated by budget.
Introduced in March 2024, the Citrix Universal HMC subscription has replaced all traditional CVAD (XenApp & Desktops) and DaaS offerings with a single SKU that allows organisations to run Citrix in a traditional customer managed environment, in Citrix Cloud as a service or in a hybrid state across the two with the same licence.
In addition, customers no longer have to balance desired functionality with available budget as all Citrix UHMC licences are Premium Edition, providing full feature functionality for all use cases.
Citrix has also significantly increased the value of UHMC with the inclusion of unlimited NetScaler ADC entitlement included in the same licence bundle. This allows organisations to deploy virtual NetScaler ADC appliances anywhere in the customer managed infrastructure, without additional costs or licence complexities. Organisations looking to maximise the value of Citrix UHMC can use this entitlement to deploy more NetScaler instances across the estate than may have previously been affordable. In line with the ‘VDI’ entitlement in UHMC, all NetScaler instances are full feature Premium Edition, further enhancing the value and the potential ways the ADC could be utilised beyond the delivery of apps and desktops.
Consolidating effort, reducing complexity with NetScaler.
Alternatively, organisations that have more than one ADC vendor in their architecture can replace 3rd party solutions with the NetScaler entitlement, to provide functional and operational parity across all service delivery locations. This in turn removes the need for 3rd party ADC support or subscription renewals, reducing technical overlap while saving budget and further increasing the value of Citrix UHMC.
Finally, Universal HMC also includes entitlement for Citrix Endpoint Management for mobile device control and XenServer, to provide high value hypervisor capabilities within the same licence bundle, particularly relevant for organisations with challenging VMWare renewal costs.
Citrix Universal HMC is therefore more than just VDI, it provides industry leading functionality and performance with best of breed capabilities to deliver a complete platform for secure, performant hybrid cloud delivery.
Understanding the value of NetScaler in UHMC Unlimited NetScaler instances included in UHMC
Citrix Universal HMC includes unlimited NetScaler instance entitlement with up to 1,00Gb of throughput available to deploy anywhere in the hybrid multi cloud infrastructure. This represents a significant value add as it provides a number of technical and commercial benefits over traditional service delivery models.
What does NetScaler do?
OK, this is a big topic but in summary, NetScaler is a software based load application delivery control solution packed with industry leading capabilities to improve the availability, performance, security, scalability and efficiency of digital service delivery infrastructure. Yes it does load balancing but it goes way beyond that basic capability with over 4,000 individual features to tackle the most complex service delivery challenges.
Being software based, NetScaler has a common code base for all deployment scenarios, significantly reducing deployment and operational complexity in hybrid cloud delivery models. Having a single code base allows all NetScaler instances to be managed from a single console, reducing administration complexity and cost.
NetScaler uses a single pass architecture model, so it’s extremely fast compared to competitor offerings, making it the preferred solution for thousands of customers, and boasting an estimated 75% of global internet users passing through the platform every day.
It’s extremely versatile and can run anywhere from bare metal to the container, enabling NetScaler to replace the existing ADC solutions in any point in the hybrid multi cloud footprint. If 3rd party production solutions are replaced, operational efficiency will improve, and budget planned for support or subscription renewal can be reallocated to enhance overall service RoI.
Typical production environment without NetScaler
Through design or organic growth, many organisations have adopted an n+1 approach to application delivery control, with a range of vendor solutions chosen for workload or location specific requirements.
It’s therefore quite common to find organisations that have NetScaler in front of Citrix, also use vendors like f5 for load balancing, use cloud native load balancing and traffic management in Azure or AWS, have DevOps projects with HA proxy in containers, or other vendors like Fortinet and Kemp providing ‘point product’ solutions for individual apps or services.
Having multiple vendor solutions across the hybrid cloud infrastructure increases service cost and complexity at the same time as reducing agility and operational efficiency. Multiple vendors result in multiple admin consoles, often leading to internal team knowledge challenges or 3rd party tools requiring further investment in time and budget to provide some form of centralised management and service observability – abbreviated as O11y in the diagram below.
With unlimited NetScaler entitlement included within the Universal HMC subscription, there’s no licence cost to increase the utilisation of more NetScaler instances across the estate. If any of those 3rd party vendor ADC solutions have a budget assigned to their support, subscription renewal or any other ongoing cost, that solution can be replaced with what’s effectively ‘free’ NetScaler appliances, and the allocated budget either considered a saving, or put towards the cost of the Universal HMC subscription business case.
NetScaler deployment flexibility
NetScaler’s common code base can run in any deployment scenario, anywhere in the hybrid multi cloud delivery infrastructure from the container to the global cloud ingress point. Replacing n+1 ADC vendor solutions with NetScaler provides feature and operational parity in all locations, standardisation for simplified infrastructure administration and automation, plus unrivalled observability capabilities without the need for 3rd party tools or services.
Historically, deploying NetScaler ‘everywhere’ was beyond the budget of most organisations, despite the technical and operational advantages. With Universal HMC, Citrix has removed the cost implication of deploying NetScaler at scale, providing unrivalled value in the process.
Citrix Universal HMC NetScaler Value Accelerator Workshop
Citrix Universal HMC includes entitlement to run an unlimited number of full feature NetScaler Premium Edition appliances in virtual form factor, anywhere in the infrastructure. The challenge facing many organisations is understanding how and where to use NetScaler, making it difficult to unlock the full potential value of the NetScaler licence included in UHMC.
The cloudDNA UHMC NetScaler Value Accelerator Workshop is designed to help organisations map NetScaler’s huge range of capabilities against a wide range of service objectives, to help reduce time to value, and boost UHMC RoI.
While every environment is unique, our UHMC NetScaler Value Accelerator workshops have already helped organisations of all sizes and complexities save £100,000s in IT expenditure while systematically making all aspects of digital service delivery better.
Sound good?
Get in touch to learn more about how NetScaler can improve Citrix RoI. Call 0330 010 3443 or mail [email protected].
