XenApp and XenDesktop

Secure

XenApp and XenDesktop offer a secure-by-design solution that allows you to tailor your environment to your security needs.

One security concern IT faces with mobile workers is lost or stolen data. By hosting applications and desktops, XenApp and XenDesktop securely separate sensitive data and intellectual property from end-point devices by keeping all data in a data center. When policies are enabled to allow data transfer, all data is encrypted.

The XenDesktop and XenApp data centers also make incident response easier with a centralized monitoring and management service. Director allows IT to monitor and analyze data that is being accessed around the network, and Studio allows IT to patch and remedy most vulnerabilities in the data center instead of fixing the problems locally on each end-user device.

XenApp and XenDesktop also simplify audits and regulatory compliance because investigators can use a centralized audit trail to determine who accessed what applications and data. Director gathers historical data regarding updates to the system and user data usage by accessing Configuration Logging and OData API.

Delegated Administration allows you to set up administrator roles to control access to XenDesktop and XenApp at a granular level. This allows flexibility in your organization to give certain administrators full access to tasks, operations, and scopes while other administrators have limited access.

XenApp and XenDesktop give administrators granular control over users by applying policies at different levels of the network - from the local level to the Organizational Unit level. This control of policies determines if a user, device, or groups of users and devices can connect, print, copy/paste, or map local drives, which could minimize security concerns with third-party contingency workers. Administrators can also use the Desktop Lock feature so end users can only use the virtual desktop while preventing any access to the local operating system of the end-user device.

Administrators can increase security on XenApp or XenDesktop by configuring the Site to use the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol of the Controller or between end users and Virtual Delivery Agents (VDA). The protocol can also be enabled on a Site to provide server authentication, data stream encryption, and message integrity checks for a TCP/IP connection.

XenApp and XenDesktop also support multifactor authentication for Windows or a specific application. Multifactor authentication could also be used to manage all resources delivered by XenApp and XenDesktop. These methods include:

  • Tokens
  • Smart cards
  • RADIUS
  • Kerberos
  • Biometrics

XenDesktop can be integrated with many third-party security solutions, ranging from identity management to antivirus software. A list of supported products can be found at https://www.citrix.com/ready.

Select releases of XenApp and XenDesktop are certified for Common Criteria standard. For a list of those standards, go to https://www.commoncriteriaportal.org/cc/.

Secure

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