On-Prem Microapps using the Citrix Connector Appliance for Cloud Services.

Citrix has announced that the Citrix Connector Appliance is now available as a public Tech Preview, enabling the use of the Jira and HTTP microapps to connect to on-prem systems of record.

The Connector Appliance enables a key use case for microapps, where the system of record is within the customer’s network rather than external, as a SaaS app. Initial use cases include the Jira microapp and the HTTP integration microapp, where customers can connect to their own internal REST/JSON systems (web servers).

The Connector Appliance is a Citrix component hosted in your hypervisor. It serves as a channel for communication between Citrix Cloud and your resource locations, enabling cloud management without requiring any complex networking or infrastructure configuration. Connector Appliance enables you to manage and focus on the resources that provide value to your users.

The Connector Appliance provides the following function:

• Citrix Workspace Microapps service delivers actions and notifications from your applications right into your Workspace or other channels.Build integrations from your application data sources to the Microapps service that pull actions from your applications into Workspace. Microapps then deliver actionable forms and notifications that write back to the source system to complete the application workflow. For more information, see Microapps. Citrix Workspace Microapps service works with the Connector Appliance to deliver content from the following locations:
  • Your on-premises applications
  • External systems that connect through your resource location

There might be other services in Technical Preview that also depend on the Connector Appliance.

Application integrations extend Citrix Workspace and their microapps provide users with a cutting-edge experience and user interface. Deliver relevant, actionable notifications, combined with intuitive microapp workflows, to make the most important use-cases of business systems and applications directly accessible from a user’s Workspace.

Save users time by reducing context switching and eliminating the need to learn how to use various applications for one-off interactions. This improves the user experience because they can focus on their primary responsibilities.

When you evaluate the Microapps service, the Citrix Service Operations team provides ongoing onboarding help. That team also communicates with you to ensure that the Microapps platform is running and configured correctly. The onboarding steps are:

• Have a Citrix Cloud account and Citrix Workspace experience access.
• Have Microapps entitlement.
• Download and use the Citrix Workspace app or use the workspace URL.
• Discuss integration requirements with Citrix.
• Review security whitepaper, the Citrix Workspace Microapps Technical security overview, and Secure Deployment Guide for Citrix Cloud Platform.
• Review the Integration Checklist to resolve security, legal, and development issues.
• Review our specifications documentation for target applications.

For more information about onboarding Citrix Workspace Microapps, see Getting started.