Savings From Incremental Output For Professional Workers

Evidence and data. Interviewees provided various examples of how Citrix DaaS increased session and application performance for broad groups of users.  

• The vice president of technology operations in transportation stated that their company realized significant productivity improvements after moving from a decentralized IT model to a centralized Citrix environment. Previous latency and instability with other solutions slowed workflows for global users in regions with poor connectivity. But the interviewee said using Citrix High-Definition Experience (HDX) technologies optimized performance across high-latency networks and enabled a 20% productivity increase for end users.

• The technical lead, cloud virtualization team, at an aerospace organization said Citrix DaaS collocated virtual workspaces with large engineering datasets in the data center, which accelerated workflows for engineers and knowledge workers while eliminating latency issues and reducing task completion times. They also said the solution provided a uniform experience across fragmented networks and supported secure access for thousands of contractors without compromising compliance. The interviewee explained that Citrix DaaS enabled their organization to access these GPU resources remotely and streamlined the sharing and manipulation of very large files across global teams, which supported faster and more collaborative design cycles.

• One healthcare interviewee stated their organization realized major productivity gains after integrating the Citrix solution into its AVD environment. Before this, users experienced performance issues, such as latency and data synchronization across back-end systems. After implementing the solution, application delivery and autoscaling improved, which increased productivity by 30%.

• Another healthcare interviewee said their organization applied Citrix technology to provide roaming virtual desktops that enable frontline medical staff to maintain persistent sessions across multiple workstations during their shifts as they travel to many patient rooms. They can log in once and then reconnect to a new workstation in 5 seconds or less instead of repeating full logins and application reloads, which previously took 25 to 30 seconds. Additionally, the interviewee stated their organization integrated a badge login capability with its Citrix workstations to further speed up the login process.

• Other interviewees commented on how Citrix functionalities improved productivity for users across their organizations. They said this is primarily due to the HDX protocol, which improved access speed and session reliability for large user groups across varied environments. These gains reduced delays, limited session interruptions, and preserved application states across shared devices and VMs. The Citrix solution architect at a consulting company said: “The biggest technology that Citrix has is the HDX protocol. That is engineered to deliver high-definition visualization, audio, and video — even in those long-distance environments.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Of the 15,000 Citrix DaaS users, approximately 20% (3,000) are knowledge workers who perform compute-intensive tasks. These workers spend about half their time (4 hours per day) on applications.

• With the Citrix solution, these workers experience a 10% performance boost from reduced latency and HDX benefits. This is applied to 40% concurrent sessions where latency is most apparent.

• An additional 2,000 Citrix DaaS users are frontline medical personnel knowledge workers who have 20 patient interactions per daily shift. Each interaction requires two application or device logins. With Citrix, persistent application states, these workers save 20 seconds per login.

• The average fully loaded hourly salary for a knowledge worker is $75.

• The average fully loaded hourly salary for a frontline medical professional is $100.

• A recapture rate of 25% is applied because not all recaptured time is put to productive use.

Risks. There are several factors that can affect this productivity benefit, including:

• The number of knowledge workers and frontline workers who access applications concurrently through Citrix DaaS.

• The wait times in workstations and application login process for frontline workers.

• The application use time for various types of knowledge workers.

• Salaries and growth rates for Citrix DaaS users.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 25%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $9.2 million.

Annual Cost Savings In Cloud Compute And Storage Costs

Evidence and data. Interviewees conveyed that their organizations realized measurable savings in compute optimization and storage management while improving scalability and user experience.

• The AVP, service engineering, in the healthcare industry said their organization ran its virtual desktop environment on Microsoft Azure and used the Citrix Autoscale feature to dynamically power machines on and off based on user demand. This aligned resources with peak and off-peak usage within clinics and hospitals to reduce compute costs. The interviewee estimated this saved 30% to 40% in VM operating costs instead of keeping all machines running 24/7. They said: “Citrix’s integration with Microsoft Azure allowed us to apply automatic scaling actions. We can minimize cost by tuning how [the Citrix solution] is managing [these] virtual desktops. This translates to hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings annually.”

• Interviewees said Autoscale helps reduce costs in the cloud by shutting down machines that are not needed during off-peak times or when there is low load on the catalog. They explained that it also helps to power on required machines before a new shift or workday when many users are logging in so that user experience is not affected by long login times when VMs boot.

• Interviewees said Citrix Machine Creation Services (MCS) and Provisioning Services minimized storage needs by using gold images and small write caches instead of full-size persistent disks. They explained that this reduced storage needs in the cloud for both VMs and servers. The technical lead, cloud virtualization team, at an aerospace company said, “[We realized] storage cost savings by utilizing the Citrix control plane to reconfigure Azure VM disks to a lower tier when the VM is powered down.”

• The director of IT, enterprise technology, in the healthcare industry stated that Citrix caching and database mechanisms provided more intelligent data handling and reduced duplication in virtualized environments, saving the organization around $1 million in annual storage costs. The interviewee attributed about 75% of those savings directly to the Citrix solution.

• Interviewees said that because Citrix Machine Creation Services I/O uses RAM to handle short-term activity before efficiently writing to disk, the optimization enhanced performance and lowered storage costs. They explained that this approach made sessions faster and more responsive while allowing their organizations to rely on more cost‑effective storage without sacrificing performance.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite deploys 4,000 VMs across its hospitals, clinics, and offices. These endpoints operate 24/7.

• The composite’s cost of operating a VM without the Citrix solution (including compute and storage costs) is $4.50 per day ($1,620 per year).

• The composite’s cost of operating a VM with the Citrix solution (including compute and storage costs) is $3.25 per day ($1,170 per year).

Risks. There are several factors that can affect this benefit, including:

• The number of VMs that operate 24/7 at operational locations.

• The organization’s cloud operating costs for a VM.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $3.8 million.

Data Center Infrastructure And Staffing Savings

Evidence and data. Four of the five interviewees said their organization realized savings by consolidating data centers or reducing costs after migrating infrastructure to the cloud. More than one said this was a driver for their organization’s adoption of Citrix DaaS.

• The vice president of technology operations in the transportation industry said their organization consolidated three data centers into one, which saved $3 million per year related to hardware maintenance and other operating costs.

• The AVP, service engineering, in the healthcare industry said their organization consolidated application hosting into a centralized data center and eliminated several regional data centers: “An organization like mine could say it’s going to have data center spaces in every one of its geographies. But there’s a big cost associated with that, so we wanted to consolidate. [The Citrix solution] allowed us to do that.”

• The technical lead, cloud virtualization team, in the aerospace industry said their organization transitioned from an on-premises Citrix environment to the Citrix Cloud control plane as part of an initiative to unify IT services and deliver a consistent user experience across business units. This migration involved retiring legacy farm control planes and consolidating management under Citrix Cloud, which the interviewee said streamlined operations and eliminated the need to maintain on-prem infrastructure. They explained: “The Citrix Cloud control plane allowed us to be very fast in rolling out additional sites. We’re not wasting time building dedicated Citrix farms on-premises because all of that is running already in the cloud.” The interviewee said this shift enabled faster site rollouts and reduced technical debt while positioning Citrix DaaS as the strategic management layer for future AVD deployments.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• With Citrix DaaS, the composite avoids infrastructure upgrades and maintenance costs of $1.5 million each year.

• The existing data centers are phased out over the three-year period.

Risks. There are several factors that can affect this benefit, including:

• The number and sizes of the organization’s data centers.

• The extent and pace that the organization phases out data centers.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $2.3 million.

Licensing Savings

Evidence and data. Two interviewees described specific cases of eliminating or reducing software and related costs after investing in Citrix DaaS.

• The technical lead, cloud virtualization team, in the aerospace industry stated their organization eliminated a user environment management tool due to Citrix Workspace Environment Management (WEM) that saved the company $90,000 per year. They said WEM helps control compute costs by automatically managing applications and explained that it monitors application behavior on the VDA and dynamically optimizes CPU scheduling, memory consumption for idle apps, and process I/O priority to protect user experience. The interviewee said it does this at the OS/process level instead of resizing the underlying VM in real time.

• The vice president of technology operations in the transportation industry stated their organization eliminated networking software after centralizing application delivery through Citrix Cloud. Previously, the company relied on private MPLS networks and local VPNs for remote access across its region and countries. The interviewee commented, “We completely got rid of MPLS and VPN dependencies, which [led to] cost savings and simplification of the network layout in every location.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite has 15,000 Citrix DaaS users.

• The composite saves $6 per user for a workspace environment software and $5.50 per user for VPN software.

Risks. There are several factors that can affect this benefit, including the organization’s tools for networking, systems management, and endpoint management.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $369,000.

Savings From Annual Support Desk Time Recaptured

Evidence and data. Interviewees said Citrix DaaS reduced support desk strain by improving system stability, simplifying troubleshooting, and enabling centralized management. These efficiencies translated into measurable labor savings and freed IT teams to focus on higher-value tasks.

• One healthcare interviewee reported that before implementing the Citrix solution, users experienced performance and scalability issues in their native AVD environments, which burdened the IT help desk’s Level 2 and Level 3 teams. After implementing Citrix DaaS, the organization eliminated more than 90% to 95% of these issues, cutting ticket volumes dramatically.

• The technical lead, cloud virtualization team, in the aerospace industry noted that moving to Citrix Cloud control plane removed the need for frequent database and infrastructure maintenance, saving 64 hours every quarter on updates and 160 hours per site rollout by leveraging Citrix Cloud automation. They said switching to Citrix Cloud control plane provided savings in terms of effort and resources required for day-to-day support. The interviewee explained: “We don’t have to deal with database upgrades. On average, that’s an update every three months … about 40 hours to plan, 12 hours to execute, and 12 hours for support. So, we’re looking at 64 hours saved every three months.”

• The vice president of technology at a transportation company mentioned receiving fewer complaints and having smoother operations after standardizing application delivery through Citrix. They said, “Our offshore teams finally had smooth video calls and responsive desktops.” This also reduced service desk call volumes.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite has 15,000 Citrix DaaS users.

•  Ten full-time support FTEs support the Citrix users.

• With the Citrix solution, each FTE reduces the weekly time allocated to resolving tickets by 2.5 hours (6%).

• A recapture rate of 75% is applied because not all recaptured time is put to productive use.

Risks. There are several factors that can affect this benefit, including:

• The number and roles of the organization’s Citrix users.

• The number of support tickets and the severity of issues generated prior to using Citrix DaaS.

• The average salaries and growth rates for IT support roles.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $109,000.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but could not quantify:

• Enhanced security and compliance. Interviewees said that features like RBAC, secure remote access, and advanced session management allowed IT teams to define granular permissions and apply consistent security policies across all users and applications. Additionally, they explained that Citrix DaaS integrated capabilities (e.g., browser isolation, watermarking, device posture checks) that helped prevent data leakage and ensured that sensitive information remained within controlled environments. These features reduced risk exposure across endpoints and gave IT teams greater ability to enforce and standardize security policies. The technical lead, cloud virtualization team, at an aerospace company stated: “Security was non-negotiable. Citrix gave us the controls we needed.”

• Operational flexibility and agility. By leveraging Citrix Cloud control plane and advanced management tools, IT teams gained the ability to deploy new sites, onboard acquisitions, and roll out applications in hours instead of weeks, which eliminated the need to build dedicated on-premises farms. This accelerated time to value for new projects and provided the flexibility to support diverse use cases. The technical lead, cloud virtualization team, at an aerospace company said, “We can roll out new sites without building farms from scratch.”

• Strategic alignment and ecosystem fit. Interviewees stated that the Citrix solution enabled or enhanced their organization’s cloud-first strategies, hybrid architectures, and Zero Trust security models without forcing disruptive changes. The technical lead, cloud virtualization team, in the aerospace industry said their organization used Citrix Cloud as the control plane for AVD to deliver a uniform experience across business units. Similarly, the vice president of technology operations in the transportation industry said their company leveraged Citrix DaaS to standardize application delivery globally, which was critical for its mergers and acquisitions. Interviewees said because the Citrix solution integrates with SaaS ecosystems, it’s a natural extension of existing platforms. This interoperability reduced retraining costs, accelerated onboarding, and helped ensure compliance with industry-specific regulations.  

• Rapid recovery from outages. The AVP, service engineering, in the healthcare industry said the Citrix solution helped their organization quickly recover from a major outage by leveraging nonpersistent image management technology. They said that with MCS and Provisioning Services — which rely on gold images rather than persistent configurations — the IT team simply rebooted affected machines, which instantly reverted them to a clean state and allowed the team to avoid manual remediation. As a result, Tier one applications were restored within 4 hours instead of a week for traditional workstations. The interviewee commented: “Because of our use of nonpersistent image management with Citrix, we were able to bring everything back quickly.”

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Citrix DaaS and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Expanding cloud adoption. Some interviewees said their organization plans to leverage Citrix to increase its cloud footprint. The director of IT, enterprise technology, at a healthcare organization stated, “We expect 70% to 80% cloud adoption in the next few years, and Citrix is central to that strategy.” Interviewees said having this flexibility would allow their organizations to scale workloads dynamically, reduce infrastructure dependency, and optimize costs through autoscaling.

• Having support for M&A and global expansion. Interviewees explained that Citrix DaaS enables rapid onboarding of new entities and users during mergers and acquisitions, ensuring their organizations can integrate new business units without major infrastructure changes. The vice president of technology operations at a transportation organization commented, “We onboarded 300 entities and 23,000 employees within the timeline because of Citrix.”

• Leveraging Citrix Entitlements for cost avoidance. Interviewees said their organizations have access to bundled entitlements (e.g., Enterprise Browser, analytics tools) within the Citrix platform license that could create future cost savings if adopted more broadly. The AVP, service engineering, in the healthcare industry noted their organization plans to use the Chrome Enterprise entitlement. “[It] will save us $4 million per year.”

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).