Citrix Performance Management Report 2014

CITRIX PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT
Spotlight Report

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the 2014 Citrix Performance Management Report!
With revenues of close to $3 billion, close to 300,000 customers and over 10,000 partners, Citrix Systems, Inc.
(Citrix) is the market leader in securely delivering applications, desktops, data and services to any device, anywhere,
any time. Over the last decade, Citrix technologies have advanced significantly. From being a provider of remote
access solutions, the Citrix portfolio of solutions has dramatically expanded to include Citrix XenApp, XenDesktop,
XenServer, XenMobile, Sharefile, etc. The use cases of Citrix technologies have also expanded. Flexwork and
telework, bring your own device, mobile workspaces, PC refresh alternatives and remote partner access, etc. are
just some of the ways that organizations are using Citrix technologies.
The key role that Citrix technologies play makes performance management of these technologies and their
supporting infrastructure critically important. In many cases, these technologies can be successfully deployed
only if the user experience is satisfactory.
To deliver the best possible user experience, Citrix environments need to be not only well architected but also
well monitored and managed, to identify and diagnose problems early on and prevent issues from escalating and
impacting end users and business processes.
DABCC and eG Innovations conducted a comprehensive survey to explore the state of Citrix performance management
and to better understand current challenges, technology choices and best practices in our Citrix community.
The survey results have been compiled into a data rich, easy to digest report to provide you with benchmarks and
new insights into the best practices for Citrix performance management.
Thanks to everyone who participated in this report.
Douglas Brown
Founder, DABCC, Inc.
Holger Schulze
VP Marketing, eG Innovations, Inc.
CITRIX PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT REPORT 2

Key Findings
1
2
3
4
SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS
Performance management is critical for the success of Citrix deployments. 97% of
respondents consider performance management to be important for the expansion
of their Citrix infrastructure. 86% of respondents consider performance as a key
concern during migration of Citrix versions.
The biggest performance challenge respondents face is that Citrix gets blamed for all
problems – even if the problem is not with the Citrix tiers. However, a majority of the
time (65%), performance problems are NOT directly caused by the Citrix tiers.
In over 60% of cases, respondents spend more than 30% of their time fire-fighting
and troubleshooting performance problems. One of the key reasons for this is that
Citrix performance management is mostly manual. In fact, 80% of respondents have
to deal with two or more tools for managing their Citrix infrastructure.
A majority of respondents (68%) are looking to make Citrix performance
management proactive by getting automatic alerts so they can fix issues before
users notice.

1 What Citrix products do you
use in your environment?
Not surprisingly, Citrix XenApp is the most widely deployed Citrix product. 69% of users have XenApp 6.5 deployed.
23% of users have already migrated to XenApp 7.5 which was released only in April 2014. There is still a lot of
XenApp 6 and previous versions out there. 29% of respondents still have Citrix XenApp 4.5 or lower running in their
infrastructure, despite these products reaching end of life. From the results, we infer that many companies have
multiple Citrix XenApp farms and are running newer versions on some farms, but still have older versions on others.
69%
48%
38%
35%
29%
29%
29%
28%
26%
23%
23%
13%
12%
4%
2%
11%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
XenApp 6.5
Netscaler
Provisioning Server
Storefront
XenDesktop 7.x
XenDesktop 5 .x
XenApp 4.5 or lower
XenServer
XenApp 5.0
XenApp 6.0
XenApp 7.5
ShareFile
XenMobile
Citrix Cloud Platform
XenDesktop 4 or lower
Other / Not sure
• The growing importance of Netscaler
in Citrix infrastructures is apparent
from its popularity.
• Compared to XenApp, XenDesktop
is less widely deployed. Less
than a third of respondents have
XenDesktop.
• Despite its lack of importance
within the Citrix product portfolio,
XenServer has as many deployments
as XenDesktop.
• Deployment of XenMobile and
ShareFile are still in their infancy.
12% of respondents have these
technologies deployed.
• Only 4% of respondents are
deploying the Citrix Cloud Platform.

2 What type of Citrix Licenses do you have?
Not surprisingly, only 17% of respondents have the standard/advanced Citrix edition. The value-added
capabilities of the Enterprise and Platinum editions are clearly in demand (e.g, provisioning services, vGPU
processing, delegated administration, etc.).
Responses in %
44%
17%
10%
5%
50%
Enterprise Platinum Standard Not sure Other
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
• The platinum edition adds
AppDNA functionality, historical
performance monitoring with
EdgeSight, Netscaler Insight
monitoring support and SSL VPN
support, besides others.
• 50% of respondents have Citrix
enterprise licenses, while 44%
have platinum licenses.
• The responses also indicate that
some respondents own a mix of
licensing options.

3 For what use cases are you using Citrix
technologies?
There are many use cases of Citrix technologies. Providing remote employees access to centralized resources
in the enterprise (76%) and allowing workers in remote branch offices to connect to the head office (54%) are
the most common use cases. 36% of our respondents are using Citrix technologies to support BYOD initiatives.
Remote employees access 76%
54%
52%
49%
36%
35%
35%
20%
18%
18%
14%
2%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Branch office access
Consolidation & centralization
of desktop management
Secure access to desktops
Remote partner access
Bring your own desktop/laptops
/smartphones (BYOD)
Mobile application access
Offer remote desktops
as a service provider
PC Refresh
Call centers
Virtualizing graphics processing
Not sure

4 What virtualization platforms do you
use for your Citrix environment?
It is well understood that a majority of organizations are using virtualization technologies to support Citrix access.
A whopping 76% of respondents are using VMware vSphere as the virtualization platform. 37% are using Citrix
XenServer and only 22% are using Microsoft Hyper-V. As expected, only 4% of respondents are still running Citrix
products on physical servers.
VMware vSphere 76%
Citrix XenServer
37%
22%
4%
1%
1%
3%
2%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Microsoft Hyper-V
No virtualization
(we use physical servers only)
Oracle VM
RedHat Enterprise
Virtualization (RHEV)
Not sure
Other

5 How soon are you likely to migrate fully to the
latest versions of Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop?
Migrating from Citrix XenApp 4.5 to 6.5 took a long time. As the response to question 1 shows, 29% of
respondents are still using XenApp 4.5 or lower. So it is surprising to see that 44% of respondents believe
they will be migrating to XenApp 7.5 or XenDesktop 7.5 within the next year. Given that 69% of respondents
are already using XenApp 6.5, this answer points to an interesting trend - of administrators moving to the
latest versions of Citrix more rapidly than they did in the past.
will migrate within
6 months to a year
12%
19%
25%
13%
5%
21%
5%
25%
19%
| Already migrated
| Within 6 months
| Within 1 year
| Within 2-3 years
| When my current version
reaches end of life
| Not sure
| Other

6 When you migrate from one version of Citrix XenApp
to another, performance is one of the key concerns
Migration between Citrix versions can be a significant effort. Applications that worked in the lower version
must continue to work in the higher version. In addition, there is the expectation that new functionality must
work seamlessly. Often, a migration involves changes not just in the Citrix applications but also changes in the
underlying infrastructure - e.g., changes in the virtualization platform, server or desktop operating system,
etc. 86% of our respondents are concerned about what happened to user perceived performance of the Citrix
service after a migration.
86%
agree that performance
is a key driver
46%
40%
6%
1%
6%
1%
46%
40%
| Agree
| Strongly Agree
| Disagree
| Strongly disagree
| Not sure
| Other

7
What are some of the common complaints
you receive about your Citrix environment?
Several years ago, Brian Madden and Kevin Goodman created a chart describing in detail the complexity of the
Citrix logon process. Given the number of steps involved in the logon process, it is no wonder that slow logons
are the most common complaints received by Citrix admins (48%). Frozen sessions (43%) and long application
launch times (41%) are the other two issues that make up the top three common performance complaints.
Logins are slow 48%
Frozen sessions
43%
41%
38%
36%
31%
26%
26%
20%
14%
7%
5%
4%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Applications are slow to launch
Printing does not work
Slow remote sessions
Poor user experience
Users get disconnected often
Application access was faster on the
physical desktop than the virtual desktop
Cannot log in
Screen is slow to paint
None
Other
Not sure
The chart also shows that
only 26% of the time,
users are complaining that
applications were faster
on their physical desktop -
signifying a growing maturity
of Citrix technologies.

8 What are the biggest performance management
challenges in your Citrix environment?
For years, the biggest complaint of Citrix admins has been that they get blamed for everything. Over all these
years, this situation has not changed. 53% of our respondents face this issue regularly. Two other observations
are interesting:
53%
49%
46%
45%
45%
40%
36%
27%
24%
20%
16%
7%
4%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Citrix being blamed for everything
Users often notice issues before you do
Lack a single dashboard to monitor
all Citrix tiers (Provisioning server,
XenServer, Netscaler, StoreFront, etc.)
Not able to measure the user experience
Need better / deeper monitoring of
the Citrix XenApp servers
Diagnosis / troubleshooting is
too slow & complex
Lack of correlated, integrated
end-to-end performance view
No visibility outside of the Citrix tiers
(VMware, network, storage, etc.)
Too many silo tools /
expert tools to look at
No simple way to forecast/plan
for future growth
No visibility inside the virtual desktops
Not sure
Other
• There is now increasing awareness of the
need to be proactive. The second biggest
challenge that our respondents faced
is that users were noticing problems
before they did (49%). This points to
an increasing need for better proactive
performance management.
• Also of interest is the increasing need
for a single dashboard across the Citrix
tiers (46%). As we pointed out, Citrix is no
longer a single product company. With
the many products in the Citrix suite,
customers are struggling to cope with the
different administration and monitoring
interfaces for each technology. Today,
Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop, XenServer,
Netscaler, XenMobile, ShareFile, VDI in
a Box all have different administration
and monitoring tool. Our respondents
see an increasing need for unifying the
monitoring, diagnosis and reporting of
these technologies.

9 What performance management features
are most important to you?
The performance management features considered most important are a direct reflection of the biggest
challenges experienced in Citrix environments. Proactive alerts (68%) are the most important performance
management feature, followed by a single interface to view the state of all Citrix and non-Citrix tiers that impact
performance (66%).
Proactive alerts 68%
66%
60%
52%
52%
51%
47%
37%
32%
30%
4%
1%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Single interface to view the state of all the Citrix
and non-Citrix tiers that impact Citrix performance
Ability to measure and alert on end user experience
Simple interface that even the helpdesk can use to
troubleshoot a problem and call the right expert
Intuitive dashboard
In-depth metrics that help you
troubleshoot problems quickly
Ability to generate reports for your management
Capacity planning and forecasting reports
Reporting for post-mortem diagnosis of problems
Capability to generate reports for compliance
Not sure
Other

10 How important is performance management
to the expansion of your Citrix environment?
Most respondents see their Citrix deployments growing in the next few years. A vast majority (97%) say
that performance management is very important or somewhat important to the expansion of their Citrix
environment. Based on the response to this question, performance management is important for normal
operation of the Citrix infrastructure, during migration and for scaling of the infrastructure.
97%
think performance
management is important
65%
32%
3%
32%
65%
| Very important
| Somewhat important
| Not important

11 What tool(s) do you use for managing
Your Citrix environment?
Citrix EdgeSight/Director is the most commonly used management console for Citrix infrastructures (56%).
This is no surprise given that a very high percentage of respondents has access to Citrix platinum licenses,
which includes EdgeSight.
24% of respondents are using Microsoft SCOM with third party plugins to manage Citrix applications.
19% of respondents indicated that they are NOT currently managing their Citrix environment with any tools.
Citrix EdgeSight / Director 56%
24%
22%
19%
9%
8%
29%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Microsoft SCOM
Citrix Netscaler Insight
None
Solarwinds
Not sure
Other

12 How many tools do you use to manage the
performance of your Citrix infrastructure?
The answer to this question explains why Citrix admins have to spend a long time troubleshooting issues.
55% of respondents have to use two to five management tools to manage Citrix performance. 25% of
respondents are using six to ten tools.
80%
are using more than 2 tools
to manage the performance
of their Citrix infrastructure
4%
55%
25%
7%
3%
6%
55%
| 1
| 2-5
| 6-10
| More than 10
| None
| Not sure
use between 2-5 tools

13 How often DO you find out after extensive
investigation that the problem is not Citrix?
Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop provide application and desktop virtualization services to users. The
performance of these services is determined by the Citrix applications that are involved. However, many
non-Citrix tiers – for example, the network, the SQL datastore, the virtualization platform, the storage tier,
profile servers and Active Directory – can also affect the user perceived performance of the Citrix service.
65% of respondents believe that in over 50% of cases, after extensive investigation, they find out that
Citrix performance problems are NOT due to the Citrix tiers. This points to a growing need for end-to-end
performance management that includes the Citrix tiers and the non-Citrix tiers of the infrastructure.
Responses in %
3%
9%
8%
65%performance problems are NOT due to Citrix.
7% 7%
of respondents find that in over 50% of cases,
2%
15% 15%
11% 11% 11%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Problem is not Citrix [%]

14 How Often Does the Helpdesk Resolve User
Complaints without involving the Citrix Expert Team?
The more user complaints the helpdesk can resolve without involving Citrix experts, the faster the
problem resolution and the lower operations costs (experts can perform more productive tasks than
fire-fighting). 78% of respondents indicate that less than 50% of the time, the helpdesk is able to resolve
user complaints without involving the Citrix expert team. The results indicate that there is a significant
opportunity for organizations to optimize the way that they are doing Citrix performance management.
By leveraging tools that empower the helpdesk to do more, organizations can reduce the workload on
their Citrix experts, lower their support costs and improve user satisfaction.
Responses in %
9%
say that the helpdesk resolves less than 50% of user
78%complaints without involving the Citrix expert team.
15%
7%
14%
13%
9%
2%
5% 5%
3%
18%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
User complaints resolved without Citrix expert [%]

15 HOW MUCH time does your IT team spend on
troubleshooting performance problems?
The responses to this question are not surprising given what we saw in the response to question 14. 60%
of respondents indicate that they are spending more than 30% of their time troubleshooting performance
problems. Organizations can gain significantly by enabling the key experts to spend time on productive
tasks rather than on routine fire-fighting activities.
of respondents spend more than 30% of their
time troubleshooting performance problems
4%
Responses in %
60%
7%
18%
16%
12%
9%
6%
5%
20%
1% 1%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Dont Know
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Time spent troubleshooting [%]

16 How often do you do a performance
benchmark of your Citrix infrastructure?
Despite the interest to manage Citrix performance proactively, very few respondents have solid performance
benchmarks of their Citrix infrastructure. 26% of respondents have NEVER conducted any performance
benchmark. 18% conducted benchmarks only during migration. Clearly, there is awareness of the need for
performance baselines. Yet, given the time they spend troubleshooting routine issues, Citrix administrators
are ending up being very reactive.
13%
15%
11%
18%
26%
13%
3%
26%
| Monthly
| Every 6 months
| Once a year
| Once during migration
| Never
| Not sure
| Other
never conduct a
performance benchmark.

17 Who do you rely on for recommendations
on performance optimizations and trends?
We asked respondents to indicate who they rely on for performance recommendations and tuning.
Given the profile of our respondents, it is not surprising that a majority of them (58%) rely on in-house
expertise. Citrix consulting services are used by 37%. 33% also use independent consultants to help.
Inhouse citrix experts 58%
37%
33%
27%
15%
11%
5%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Citrix Consulting
Independent consultants
Vendors
VAR
Not sure
Other

18 How many Citrix concurrent users do you
support across XenApp/XenDesktop?
To better understand the size of typical Citrix deployments, we asked our respondents to indicate the number
of concurrent users they support. 36% of respondents are supporting less than 500 concurrent users.
16%
14%
11%
8%
5%
3%
6%
36%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
0 to 500 users
501 to 1,000 users
1,001 to 2,500 users
2,501 to 5,000 users
5,001 to 10,000 users
10,001 to 25,000 users
25,000 to 100,000 users
More than 100,000 users
Not sure
49%
of respondents have
between 500 and 10,000
concurrent users

Demographics & Methodology
This survey was conducted from June through August 2014. We collected 640 responses from Citrix professionals.
JOB TITLE
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
CITRIX ROLE
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
Specialist
Consultant
Manager
Director
CTO, CIO, CMO, CFO, COO
Owner / CEO / President
Vice President
Other
Citrix admin
Citrix architect
Citrix consultant
Citrix service provider
Citrix VAR / reseller
Other
Not sure
COMPANY SIZE
(EMPLOYEES)
4% | Fewer than 10
15% | 10-99
26% | 100-999
19% | 1,000-4,999
12% | 5,000-9,999
13% | 10,000-49,999
6% | 50,000-99,999
4% | more than 100,000

About eG Innovations
eG Innovations provides intelligent performance management solutions that automate and dramatically
accelerate the discovery, diagnosis, and resolution of service performance issues in virtual, cloud, and
physical service infrastructures. Managing some of the largest Citrix deployments in the world, only eG
Innovations offers 360-degree service visibility with virtualization-aware performance correlation across
every layer and every tier - from desktops to applications, and from network to storage. This unique
approach delivers deep, actionable insights into the true causes of cross-domain service performance
issues and enables administrators to pre-emptively detect, diagnose, and fix root-cause issues - before
end users notice. More: www.eginnovations.com
DOWNLOAD the White Paper
“Performance Assurance for Virtualized Citrix
XenApp Infrastructures” and find out how to
overcome performance challenges and deliver better
service uptime and user satisfaction while reducing
cost and complexity.
Watch the Demo
Get a Tour of eG Enterprise: Performance
Monitoring, Diagnosis and Reporting.
Watch the webinar
Learn how to achieve total performance visibility,
enhance user satisfaction and realize the ROI you
need for your Citrix environment.
Free Trial of eG Enterprise
Learn how eG Enterprise can help you radically
simplify and accelerate application performance
management to boost user experience and ROI -
across your Citrix environment and beyond.
Download the Solution Brief
Learn how to stop guessing what causes performance
challenges. With eG Enterprise you can you can monitor,
analyze and correlate metrics across every layer, every
tier of the infrastructure to really understand the root
cause of performance slowdowns.
Download the Case Study
Learn how a leading commercial services
company boosts user productivity and reduces
support costs with eG Enterprise.
More about the benefits of eG Innovations for Citrix
© 2014 eG Innovations Inc. All rights reserved.

Citrix Performance Management Report 2014

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Citrix Performance Management Report 2014