Citrix supports identity choice with Okta integration

Workforce productivity and employee experience suffer because of IT complexity. Workers have to deal with low-value activities like switching between apps, logging in multiple times with different credentials, and searching aimlessly for information scattered across multiple locations.

Citrix Workspace is leading the pack to reduce the friction created by app, data, and identity sprawl to become the go-to place when employees need to get work done without having to login every time they switch applications. Every organization is at a different point in their digital transformation, and Citrix believes providing our customers with choice and supporting a broad ecosystem are part of our responsibility.

Identity: A Critical Ecosystem

One of the critical ecosystems Citrix supports is identity. Citrix has enabled choice in this category by empowering our customers to bring the identity — or identities — they’ve validated and invested in as the best choice for their business. By providing our customers with choice in identity providers, they can deliver a secure, unified, single sign-on experience to Workspace designed to provide a best-in-class experience for their end users.

We began to support identity choice for our customers last year, when we introduced support for Microsoft Azure Active Directory and on-premises Active Directory. Now we’re continuing that strategy with the announcement that our customers will be able to use Okta as their identity provider for Citrix Workspace. This will help our joint customers deliver a secure, unified, single sign-on experience to a comprehensive digital workspace that organizes, guides, and automates work across all devices and networks. This will also help both end users and their employers stay secure with multi-factor authentication into Citrix Workspace, as defined by Okta policies.

What’s Ahead with Okta

Going forward, we’ll continue to partner with Okta and others to deliver joint solutions to our customers. We’re aiming at enumerating apps single signed-on with Okta within Citrix Workspace, giving end users a unified view and single point of access to all of their SaaS, web, and virtual apps and desktops. This simplifies end-user access to key resources because everything they need to work and stay productive is in one place. This solution will help our customers drive productivity for their end users while enhancing their security posture. Future enhancements also include empowering our customers to add more granular security controls over SaaS applications delivered through Okta, like watermarking, disabling copy and paste, restricting printing, and more.

We’ll also work on integrating newer capabilities providing additional app protection capabilities over Okta apps in Citrix Workspace by continuously protecting against the threats from a keylogger and screenshot malware stealing information from any SaaS, web or virtual apps. This also helps our customers who are sensitive towards PCI compliance. Additionally, customers can be confident that their users are securely accessing their Workspace with multi-factor authentication from Okta and one-time, time-based passwords.

Citrix Casting now available for iOS, Android, Windows and Mac

If you are using or testing the Citrix Ready Workspace Hub or its predecessor, the HDX Ready Pi, you now have exciting new features to evaluate. Citrix Casting provides a number of configurations that enable new use cases with significant advantages over a traditional PC or thin client.

From an iPhone or Android Smartphone

Authenticate on mobile with biometric authentication, then point the phone to the QR code on a Workspace Hub. Receiver/Workspace launches a session instantly. This can be considered roaming, but note that authentication is only required on the phone, not a full session. You can use the phone to make calls and more with no impact, and the Workspace Hub has all the capability of a thin client, including peripheral and multimonitor support. This feature is ideal for any shared workstation scenario where employees roam often inside a workplace and would benefit from fast access with no hassles.

From an iPad or Android Tablet

Authenticate and launch a local Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) session and use while mobile. Then, when near a Workspace Hub, you can point the camera at the QR code on a Workspace Hub and the video is redirected (cast) to display on the Hub. You can also the full-size keyboard/mouse on the hub, which provides a better experience when at a workstation. When a user leaves, a simple two-finger swipe down redirects the video back to the tablet to go mobile again. This feature is ideal when a user needs CVAD to be mobile and provides an optimal experience when stationary.

From a Windows Laptop (including Surface) or a Mac

Citrix Casting is now a feature of the Workspace app and enables instant video casting to any nearby Workspace Hub. This feature allows mirroring from a Mac with no Apple TV required! From a Windows laptop, users can cast in mirror mode or use multi-monitor mode, enabling the Workspace Hub to act as an extending monitor with no separate WiFi dock required. Laptops with Bluetooth enabled allow the beacon from the Hub to identify itself and show which Hubs are nearby. Simply click and cast. This new casting feature is ideal for shared workstations where many users may want to also use their laptop. It also works great in conference rooms with instant sharing to a large display connected to a Workspace Hub. No more dongle hell!

This set of features highlights the unique capabilities of the Workspace Hub, while also keeping the ability to use it a standard thin client or PC replacement. The devices come with a basic device-management capability and can also be centrally managed by Citrix Endpoint Management. Depending on the use case, there are also configurations that leverage beacon proximity as an alternative to the QR code and walkaway session disconnection. To enable Citrix Casting go to the Workspace App settings and turn on. Note you will need to be on the same network for casting across devices.