Citrix x MacStadium: macOS Virtual Desktops That Everyone (Even IT) Will Love

Citrix has announced the public tech preview availability of their new Citrix VDA for macOS. MacStadium is the proud partner delivering Mac private clouds to organizations who wish to deploy these Citrix VDAs for macOS in a hybrid cloud environment.

Corporate Speak Translation: Citrix + MacStadium = Enterprise-grade macOS VDI for your global development team. (I bet I have your attention now.)

A solution, years in the making 

Quick story time: Several years ago, a high-profile MacStadium customer was on the hunt for a macOS virtual desktop to empower their app development team overseas. As avid Citrix users, naturally, they asked if Citrix was an option for Mac. 

At the time, it wasn’t. But both the MacStadium and Citrix teams saw the value of such a solution and discussed, in-depth, what it could look like.  

Fast forward to early 2024 and the Citrix team is walking the MacStadium technical team through the private tech preview version of its new Citrix VDA for macOS.

Performant Mac workstations powered by cloud-hosted, genuine Apple hardware 

Over the past few weeks, a combined Citrix and MacStadium team has tested the Citrix VDA for macOS solution in multiple MacStadium data centers with connections near and far. (“Far” as in mainland China to Las Vegas.)  

Those tests have yielded remarkable user experiences, even with long-distance connections, described by the MacStadium team as having stable connectivity and low latency. A MacStadium team that, by the way, is uniquely qualified to evaluate the performance of such a solution given their extensive experience in this type of solution, specifically for Mac. 

The performance special sauce 

How can the solution provide stable connectivity and low latency on a 6,500+ mile (10,460+ km) connection? Citrix HDX. 

Citrix HDX (high-definition experience) technology includes Citrix’s proprietary Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) remoting protocol, which has evolved over decades' worth of innovation, research, and testing across millions of users. What does it all mean? You’re getting rich graphics, high-fidelity audio, multi-monitor usage, and more in a remote macOS workstation.  

Read more about Citrix HDX Graphics here.

An easy “yes” from IT 

And because Citrix is already used for Windows and Linux workstations across thousands of organizations worldwide, it’s never been easier to “add on Mac” for those who want or need it. 

That’s right, your IT team can now manage provide and manage the macOS workstations your team needs through their existing Citrix DaaS platform, making it infinitely easier to provide Mac virtual desktops to global developers.

Not only is it easy to get started, it’s affordable and secure. (Music to IT’s ears.) 

No more purchasing and shipping expensive Mac hardware that may never reach its destination and/or never be returned. With MacStadium and Citrix VDA for macOS, you can provide instant macOS access to a cloud-hosted workstation. Users simply connect with whatever device they already have.

With the Citrix VDA for macOS solution, that expensive Mac hardware lives in a secure data center. (Seriously, MacStadium data centers meet or exceed the security requirements of even the most demanding teams.) And your data stays with it. Instead of storing your company data on individual devices that could be lost or stolen, your data remains secure in a company-owned cloud environment. IT teams can tailor access levels based on factors such as location or device, so you can mitigate risk.  

Want to be one of the first to try Citrix VDA for macOS? 

If you're a Citrix customer, you’re in luck. We’ll work with you and your Citrix account team to participate in the public tech preview program and connect your Citrix DaaS platform to a MacStadium private cloud. 

1. Select genuine Apple hardware to create your private cloud with MacStadium. (Already have a MacStadium private cloud? Add a machine or use an existing resource.) 
2. Connect it to your existing Citrix DaaS console and manage your macOS VDI images (Citrix VDAs)  
3. macOS VDAs are deployed to your private Mac cloud to create virtual macOS desktops for your users

Talk to us about the Citrix for macOS public tech preview.