XenApp 6.5: “All good things must come to an end!”

Interesting expression indeed, why must they come to an end? Inthe case of XenApp, this is not a sad statement at all, on the contrary, XenApp v6 had its moment in the limelight, but now it is time for it to bow out gracefully and allow XenApp/XenDesktop v7.x to take its rightful place in center stage.

XenApp 6.5 reached the end of maintenance (EOM) on December 31, 2017, and the end of life (EOL) date is quickly approaching on June 30, 2018. There were many who feared upgrading to the new technology due to the fact that when it was released, it was missing many of the features that they had come to depend on, e.g. Local Host Cache.

Since the release of the new platform, Citrix has quickly restored all of the missing features and even added some that were not available in the past, making this platform more powerful than ever before. Keep in mind that the new XenApp software is built on proved XenDesktop technology. A technology that has been battlefield tested and has been proved to be able to support thousands of desktops across many disparate, geographically disconnected regions. This is all possible due to the underlying technology, IMA being replaced with FMA or FlexCast Management Architecture.

With FMA, the features you have come to love and depend on are back and better than ever. Here are a few of the features that are back and have been improved:

LHC – Rebuilt from the ground up, no more rebuilding the Local Host Cache every time there is an issue!

Load Balancing – More granular policies are now available with zone preference and application groups to help ensure the most efficient delivery of the desktop or application!

Zones – Zone preference is now available based on location, user or application!

In closing, there has never been a better time to migrate to the new technology. In fact, Helient is the knowledge leader when it comes to designing a multi-site, high-availablity, uber-responsive end-user experience which always impresses the user population. If you still have questions, our Team is always on hand to answer any questions and help you with your migration plan. Act now,  by sending an email to service@helient.com and one of my team will be in touch!

Aaron.