Citrix Workspace Suite & NetScaler Integration
Citrix Workspace Suite provides secure access to applications for over 50,000 employees across 26 hospitals.
One of the largest healthcare systems in the U.S. — 26+ hospitals, 50,000 employees
The Challenge
One of the largest healthcare systems in the United States needed secure application access for more than 50,000 employees across over 26 hospitals. The virtual desktop environment had to be highly available and resilient with no single point of failure; deliver Windows 7 virtual desktops via XenDesktop supporting 60,000 concurrent desktops with headroom for 120,000, plus more than 19,000 applications; integrate Citrix NetScaler Gateway for secure remote access; and implement Citrix XenMobile for mobile device management — all validated first through a production-ready proof of concept.
The Solution
IntelliSuite designed a pod-based Citrix Workspace Suite architecture spanning two geographically separate data centers, then built and documented a production-ready proof of concept for it.
- Deployment across two geographically separate data centers, each built from independent pods
- Twelve XenDesktop 7.6 pods in total — six per data center — supporting up to 120,000 VDI desktops
- High-availability NetScaler MPX 24100 pairs in each data center for Global Server Load Balancing
- A XenApp 7.6 environment consolidating twelve older XenApp farms
- XenMobile with four clustered Enterprise servers and three ShareFile Storage Zone Controller servers
- Proof of concept built on XenDesktop 7.6 / XenApp 7.6 delivering Windows 7 desktops
- Two-node StoreFront 2.6 deployment load balanced by NetScaler
- Two-node Provisioning Services 7.6 farm for single-image management
- Two-node Desktop Director 7.6 deployment for helpdesk support and monitoring
- Active Directory Group Policy Objects to optimize the virtual environment
- Entire infrastructure deployed on VMware vSphere 5.5 with NetApp storage
- Full documentation and knowledge transfer delivered to the client's engineering team
The Results
- Continuity design survives the loss of multiple pods or an entire data center
- Improved HIPAA compliance and data security through centralized hosted desktops
- Greater mobility for clinical workers, with secure virtual desktops that follow them between locations
Technologies Used
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
- Microsoft Windows 7
- Citrix XenDesktop 7.6
- Citrix XenApp 7.6
- Citrix StoreFront 2.6
- Citrix Provisioning Services 7.6 (PVS)
- Citrix Desktop Director 7.6
- Citrix NetScaler MPX 24100
- Citrix XenMobile & ShareFile
- VMware ESX vSphere 5.5
- NetApp Storage
- Epic Clinical Suite
- Nuance Dragon
- Cisco UCS Blades