Xenmobile Tech Overview
Xenmobile Tech Overview
Xenmobile Tech Overview
citrix.com
Citrix
XenMobile
technology
overview
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citrix.com
Citrix XenMobile Technology Overview | White Paper
The bring your own (BYO) device movement, the
proliferation of smartphones in the workplace, and
enterprise tablet initiatives have made mobility a top
priority among CIOs. Today, the average employee
uses three devices a day to get work done, and on
average, owns at least one of them. At the same
time, there has been an explosion in the number and
type of applications created for and used on these
devices. In a recent survey, Citrix found that most
enterprises today support more than 200 applications
in their increasingly diverse portfolios. In the near
future, half of these are expected to be web, SaaS and
mobile applications. In addition, most employees use
personal cloud-sharing services to store les outside
the corporate rewall. Collectively, these trends have
prompted IT departments to seek a way to support
employees who choose where, when and how they
want to work, all the while securing corporate data
and protecting the network from mobile threats.
What businesses need is a solution that supports these new devices, applications
and data with appropriate security and policy controls. Specically, IT wants to:
manage and congure corporate and BYO devices throughout their lifecycle with
enterprise-grade mobile device management (MDM); provide users key secure
productivity apps like email, browser, and data sharing; secure and control custom
or third-party apps in a consistent, centralized way; make any app available on any
device with a unied app store; make access simple for users and give IT access
control with identity management, single sign-on and scenario-based access controls.
Most solutions either focus on device management with little regard to apps and
data, or address the latter two without providing foundational MDM. Moreover, most
solutions optimize for IT needs without factoring in the user experience. An effective
solution allows employees to choose their devices, get access to the apps and
data they need to get their jobs done, and all the while give IT the ability to secure
corporate data and protect the network. This solution is Citrix
XenMobile.
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Citrix XenMobile Technology Overview | White Paper
Citrix XenMobile is a comprehensive enterprise mobility management solution
that includes:
Enterprise MDM
Secure email, browser and data sharing
Mobile app containers
Unied app store
Identity management, SSO and scenario-based access control
As depicted in Figure 1, XenMobile is part of the Citrix end-to-end enterprise
mobility management solution, which also includes Citrix Receiver
and Citrix
ShareFile
.
Figure 1: End-to-end enterprise mobility management architecture
The following sections detail how Citrix XenMobile, together with Citrix XenDesktop
and XenApp
Active Directory
(AD) to import groups, user accounts, and related properties. Note that LDAP
integration is direct, meaning that each device-server interaction (e.g., device
authentication, policy deployment) prompts a query to the directory. This is unlike
solutions whose on-premise products sit in the DMZ and cache LDAP data in the
product.
Administrators can also congure XenMobile MDM to make certicate requests
to a central certicate authority such as Microsoft Certicate Services to enable
certicate-based authentication for Wi-Fi, VPN and Exchange ActiveSync proles.
The solution does this by acting as a client to Microsoft Certicate Services and
requesting certicates on behalf of users with enrolled devices. For non-Microsoft CA
environments, the administrator can accomplish this through the solutions Universal
PKI mechanism, which will make a web services call to the PKI server.
Administrators congure devices via a six-step wizard-based conguration workow
in the administrative console. They can specify which devices can enroll and receive
policy proles (e.g., based on operating systems, OS versions, and patch levels),
designate device ownership as corporate- or user-owned (and, if they choose,
upload corporate asset metadata from an asset or conguration management
database), and congure platform- or OS-specic device settings such as
passcodes, encryption, ActiveSync email, Wi-Fi, VPN and PKI. If they choose, they
can also deploy a certicate to the device for automatic access to Wi-Fi and other
enterprise resources. IT can also restrict default apps and device resources as well
as blacklist or whitelist apps.
Provision
Administrators can provision access to users by nalizing and scheduling delivery
of the proles they create during the conguration process. They can make it easy
for users to self-service enroll their devices. They select the enrollment mode and
method to push the enrollment invitation to usersemail or SMS. They can send
out an invitation URL, enrollment PIN, or enrollment password, or any combination
of the three. They can also specify whether users can use the self-help portal.
Users can self-service enroll either by downloading the agent or upon receiving an
invitation from the administrator. The user downloads the agent, accepts the terms
and conditions, and goes through a wizard-based series of prole and certicate
acceptances. If users are provisioned access to the self-help portal, they can access
it via a web-based console and can do basic functions such as enroll, locate, lock
and wipe a device.
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Citrix XenMobile Technology Overview | White Paper
Secure
Besides conguring device security settings, IT can take further security action in
the event of loss, theft or user departure. This includes the ability to locate, track
and geo-fence devices, lock devices if theyre lost, wipe devices if theyre stolen
and selectively wipe a BYO device if the user leaves the organization. The solution
keeps an audit trail of administrator actions and integrates with security information
and event management systems for threat correlation, forensic analysis and
compliance reporting.
Support
IT can provide help desk functions, remote support and troubleshooting for mobile
users. This includes the ability to view mobile alerts and information via a one-click,
interactive dashboard. IT can drill down into and remedy device issues individually
or by group.
Monitor and Report
IT can monitor and report on device and app inventory, device status and security
and compliance status. They can also integrate with log management and security
information and event management systems by exporting logs in syslog format to
those systems. IT uses this integration to pull mobile into the threat picture during
real-time network event analysis as well as for after-the-fact auditing, such as
reporting on administrator actions like device wipes.
Decommission
IT can decommission devices when they are lost, stolen, replaced or upon
user departure in a secure fashion. The admin can do this either from the
dashboard for a group of devices, or for a single device in the devices tab. When
a device is fully wiped, it is turned back to its factory settings and ready to be
recommissioned. When it is selectively wiped, the corporate prole and all of its
associated apps are removed (such as corporate email and apps that have been
pushed or made available via the corporate unied app store). Besides being
secure, this process is fully auditable for compliance purposes. IT can identify
inactive devices, fully wipe corporate devices and selectively wipe BYO devices.
IT can also disable the full device wipe function if they want to prevent admins
from accidentally wiping a device.
Receiver
Citrix Receiver comes in two different forms.
Receiver for Web is browser-accessible and hosted by the StoreFront server. It
facilitates the users initial session until a native Receiver is installed and activated.
Receiver for Web is also used for ongoing sessions on platforms that do not
support a native Receiver, or when it cannot be installed for some reason.
In contrast, native Receiver is installed client software that can be launched from
a users start menu (or equivalent) and is designed to take advantage of platform-
specic capabilities to deliver the best possible user experience.
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Citrix XenMobile Technology Overview | White Paper
Essentially a portable workspace for Windows apps, Receiver provides a consistent
user interface across all client platforms. For mobile and web apps, Receiver has
evolved to serve as a control point on mobile devices, so it serves as the initial
delivery mechanism (unied app store), but doesnt force the user to access mobile,
web, and SaaS apps via its interface on an ongoing basis. It also incorporates the
Citrix ICA
, Android
and @WorkWeb
SharePoint
integration. IT centrally
congures SharePoint document library access (folders and sub-folders) and the
control policies that are tied to the documents in each based on AD group. Besides
tying policies to folders, IT can also tie policies to content metadata, making it
content-aware. Once resources are congured and data control policies specied,
IT provisions a mobile app to users on iOS or Android devices that allows them to
access the content based on the policies specied. The app has been secured with
a Micro VPN and data vault for secure connectivity and data leakage prevention.
It also supports document annotation. Beyond data control policies that dictate
whether users can email, copy/paste, sync and take other actions on the content,
IT can also set policies for automated actions to occur based on a status or event.
For example, they can set a policy that will wipe the vault clean of content after a
specied number of failed logins or if the device becomes jailbroken or rooted.
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Citrix XenMobile Technology Overview | White Paper
ShareFile integration
ShareFile, which seamlessly integrates with XenMobile, is a solution that enables
organizations to securely store, sync and share data, both within and outside the
organization. Using ShareFile with XenMobile provides IT with enterprise directory
(e.g., Active Directory) integration capabilities for easy, enterprise-wide provisioning
and deployment of user accounts. The combined power of XenMobile and
ShareFile enhances authentication and data security while giving users the freedom
and exibility to access, share and sync data on multiple devices. Additional user
benets include:
Easy single sign-on access to corporate applications and data with Receiver.
Ability to access and edit data with editors available on the device or with
Windows applications hosted by XenApp for a rich content editing experience.
Complete mobility with ofine access to corporate data.
How ShareFile works
ShareFile is an IT managed secure data-sharing service that delivers enterprise-
class capabilities. ShareFile gives IT robust reporting functionality that enables
comprehensive logging of user activity, download and usage notications, as well as
granular folder permissions to control and monitor how data is accessed and shared.
The secure product architecture (Figure 3) is comprised of two components:
Control system This system is responsible for maintaining user account
information and brokering functions. This information is completely protected,
encrypted and stored in Citrix managed datacenters.
Storage system This is where the data is hosted. The innovative ShareFile
StorageZones feature gives IT the control and exibility to securely store
data on premises, in the cloud or a mixture of both. Cloud-based storage is
hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) with an option to use one of seven
datacenters in the United States, Ireland, Brazil, Japan and Singapore. The
storage servers run on Amazon EC2 while the backend storage resides in
Amazon S3. All les are encrypted in transit and at rest via SSL. The on-
premises option allows IT to store data locally (entirely or partially) to meet
unique compliance requirements, enhance performance by storing data
in close proximity to the user and to build the most cost-effective solution.
With the on-premises option, Citrix can support any CIFS or NFS-based
network storage system and enable access to existing on-premises le stores,
such as Windows network shares and SharePoint to eliminate the need
for data migration. Regardless of the customers choice of StorageZones,
the control system resides in highly secure Citrix managed datacenters.
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Citrix XenMobile Technology Overview | White Paper
Figure 3: ShareFile architecture with StorageZones
Using ShareFile with XenMobile
While ShareFile and XenMobile are separate products, there are substantial benets
to leveraging the integration between them to deliver a mobile, collaborative and
secure enterprise. Most importantly, using ShareFile with XenMobile provides IT
with AD integration capabilities for easy enterprise-wide provisioning, management
and de-provisioning (including remote wipe) of ShareFile accounts and data.
Additionally, users can log in to Receiver with their usual credentials (single-factor
or multi-factor) and access to all their documents, in addition to their apps, in a
single place.
StoreFront
StoreFront provides a set of service interfaces for use by Receiver that enable
access to AppController (which controls and delivers mobile, web and SaaS
apps and ShareFile data resources) and XenDesktop (which controls and delivers
virtualized Windows desktops and apps). StoreFront is an optional component that
extends a customers existing XenDesktop/XenApp environment and integrates
directly with AppController.
StoreFront is modularized for maximum exibility and easier updates to various
functionseffectively future-proong the deployment, as depicted
in Figure 4.
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Citrix XenMobile Technology Overview | White Paper
Figure 4: StoreFront modular architecture
This modular architecture is reected in the StoreFront administrative console,
which uses the same ve tabs (Receiver for Web, Authentication, Store, Gateways
and Beacons) as the starting points for conguration. Under this framework,
customizations are not lost when upgrading to a new version.
Following are more details on each StoreFront element:
Receiver for Web this hosted Receiver separates the display logic for
browser-based users from the remaining StoreFront services.
Authentication this service provides a single factor authentication experience
for users. Submitted credentials are not only validated but also provided to other
services and components as needed to keep users from having to enter them again.
Store a primary function of the Store service is the enumeration of resources
available to a given user. To accomplish this, it queries designated content
providers (i.e., AppController for mobile, web and SaaS apps and XML Broker for
associated XenDesktop farms), aggregates the returned responses and makes
adjustments to account for the subscription information stored in its local
database. This information is then made available directly to native Receiver or
via Receiver for Web for browser-based users.
The Store service is also responsible for processing user requests to launch
applications. For virtualized Windows resources, this happens as it has in the
past. Based on information obtained via the corresponding XML Broker, an ICA
le containing the necessary details is prepared and forwarded to Receiver so that
it can connect either directly to an appropriate resource server (in the case of an
internal user session), or via NetScaler Gateway (for external user sessions).
A different launch process is used for resources managed by AppController and
is explained in the AppController section below.
Gateways this is actually not a service, but rather a dedicated container
for maintaining essential gateway objects and settings and making them
available for consumption by other services as needed (e.g., to generate ICA
and Receiver conguration les). This approach provides greater exibility
than previous Web Interface deployments, including the ability to support
congurations using multiple gateways.
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Citrix XenMobile Technology Overview | White Paper
About Citrix
Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) is the cloud company that enables mobile workstylesempowering people to work and collaborate from anywhere, easily
and securely. With market-leading solutions for mobility, desktop virtualization, cloud networking, cloud platforms, collaboration and data sharing,
Citrix helps organizations achieve the speed and agility necessary to succeed in a mobile and dynamic world. Citrix products are in use at more
than 260,000 organizations and by over 100 million users globally. Annual revenue in 2012 was $2.59 billion. Learn more at www.citrix.com.
2013 Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Citrix, ICA, XenDesktop, XenApp, XenMobile, Receiver, ShareFile, @WorkMail, @WorkWeb and
NetScaler Gateway are trademarks or registered trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered
in the United States Patent and Trademark Ofce and in other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their
respective owners.
citrix.com 0513/PDF
Beacons the beacons container stores objects used to help automatically
determine whether a user is operating within the corporate network or externally.
This distinction is needed to indicate whether or not the ICA le generated in
response to a launch request should include gateway information.
Native Receivers use the provided beacons. If Receiver can ping an internal
beacona server with an address that is only accessible from within the
organizationthen it knows it is operating within the corporate network.
If Receiver cannot reach the internal beacon, but can reach an external beacon (e.g.,
www.google.com), then it knows to signal StoreFront that it is operating externally.
For browser-based users leveraging Receiver for Web, the internal/external
distinction is established by a remote ag in the HTTP header of a users initial
connection that indicates whether the trafc is coming in via NetScaler Gateway.
Conclusion
Citrix XenMobile is an enterprise mobility management solution that securely
delivers mobile, web and Windows