On Tuesday, at the 2017 Citrix Synergy conference in Orlando, Citrix unveiled a new secure digital workspace, new cloud services, and a new product called Citrix Analytics that it wants to use to power the “future of work.”

Building on the company’s work in remote access, Citrix unveiled its enhanced secure digital workspace at the conference, which aims to make it easier to access and manage mobile apps, SaaS products, web apps, Windows apps, documents, data, and workflows. Users leverage single sign-on to get to these apps and documents, accessing them through a “seamless, consistent experience on any device,” a press release said.

The new secure digital workspace aims to be contextual, balancing security and productivity based on who the user is, what device they are using, and even where they are working, the release said. Users will be able to collaborate on a document, then work on something completely different without re-authenticating between the two apps or services.

SEE: Samsung, Citrix turn Galaxy S8 into desktop environment via the Samsung DeX (ZDNet)

In terms of enabling productivity among end users, Citrix vice president of product marketing Calvin Hsu said, “You want to have them be able to work from anywhere, you want them to have all the tools at their disposal, but at the same time you want that to be contextual in the way that we’re applying security.” However, Hsu also noted that an additional goal is to avoid “unnecessarily clamping down on productivity by putting so many barriers and hurdles.”

All types of enterprise apps and data can be secured and managed through the new digital workspace, and it will help with configuration and monitoring across multi-cloud and hybrid environments, Hsu said.

Citrix also updated its overall approach to security with conditional access controls based on users, endpoints, and networks. A software-defined perimeter helps to extend protection, and proactive monitoring helps to detect threats so users can respond more quickly, Hsu said. A big part of this approach to security is to ease the transition of apps and data to the cloud.

Another part of the company’s approach to security is Citrix Analytics, a new security analytics product that takes what Citrix did with NetScaler Management and its Analytics System (MAS) and extends them with “new behavior detection, insights, and proactive risk resolution capabilities,” the release said.

Instead of rule-based analytics, Citrix Analytics relies on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to process data at rest and in motion more quickly. The service pulls data from XenApp/XenDesktop, XenMobile, ShareFile, and NetScaler to look at user behavior and detect anomalies.

Citrix also touted previous updates to its platform of cloud services including XenApp Essentials, XenDesktop, NetScaler Gateway Service, and more.

Additionally Hsu said, Citrix updated their client software to be better optimized for the Samsung Dex interface, and the company will provide access to certain Win32 apps for Windows 10 S users as well.

The 3 big takeaways for TechRepublic readers

  1. At the Citrix Synergy conference in Orlando, Citrix unveiled a new secure digital workspace that will allow users to more easily access certain apps, data, and documents from a single unified experience.
  2. Citrix Analytics is a new security and behavior analytics product that uses AI and machine learning to more quickly analyze data and help users find anomalies.
  3. Citrix also explaing the advances it has made in cloud services over the past year, including updates to XenApp Essentials, XenDesktop, NetScaler Gateway Service, and more.