After a bit of back-and-forth (including a rejected registration), I was finally able to attend Citrix Connect Paris 2025, thanks to a nudge from some folks inside Citrix. And I’m glad I went. For those who couldn’t attend — or chose not to — here’s a breakdown of what I saw, heard, and felt during the two-day event.
As someone who’s been around the Citrix ecosystem for a long time — former Citrix Technology Professional (CTP, RIP), partner, and occasional evangelist — I try to stay plugged into what’s evolving, especially when it affects my clients and their infrastructure.
The Setup: Chic Venue, Familiar Faces
The event took place in a beautiful venue right in the heart of Paris, with around 140–150 participants, mostly Citrix customers and a few partners. The organization was solid, the atmosphere professional yet relaxed, and it was heartening to see some familiar Citrix faces still in the mix after all the corporate shifts in recent years.
Day 1: The Vision, The Stack, The Buzzwords
The first day was geared toward a broad audience — customers, decision-makers, and IT leaders. From a technical point of view, it was a bit light, but the sessions gave a good overview of Citrix’s current direction.
Highlights from Day 1:
- Opening Keynote by Shawn Bass
A high-level overview of Citrix's current positioning and future goals — with a strong emphasis on AI integration across products. Buzzwords were flying, but some themes were starting to emerge. - Security Best Practices
A refresher on Citrix’s recommendations — nothing groundbreaking, but a good reminder of how foundational practices still matter. - Infrastructure Modernization
Encouraging customers to automate and streamline their environments using tools like Ansible, Terraform, and Packer. While promising, the details were sparse — more of a teaser than a how-to.
Day 2: Technical Workshops (Kind Of)
The second day, structured as a half-day workshop track, was supposed to get more technical — and it did, slightly — but still felt underwhelming for those hoping to dig into advanced use cases or architecture.
Workshops included:
- Unicon and Windows 365
A brief dive into hybrid work scenarios and how Unicon endpoints can integrate with Microsoft’s Cloud PC offering. - UberAgent
Always an interesting tool for endpoint monitoring and user experience analytics — though this was more of a demo than a deep-dive. - Citrix Secure Private Access + Chrome Enterprise Premium
Focused on secure browsing and remote access use cases — interesting in concept, but again, light on implementation details.
Overall, the workshop day left me wanting more substance.
The Bigger Picture: Strategy, Licensing, and AI
Citrix’s Current Playbook: Sell the Whole Stack
Citrix is clearly pushing customers to use as many features as possible under their licensing bundles — whether they need them or not. This strategy seems aimed at justifying the recent surge in licensing costs. Smaller customers, or those only needing a limited subset of features, may find themselves overpaying for capabilities they’ll never touch.
Even more concerning: some customers are reporting tehy won’t even quote them unless they meet a certain threshold in terms of license volume. That’s not a great look in today’s competitive market.
AI Everywhere (Even if It Doesn’t Fit)
AI was everywhere in the messaging. Citrix is clearly trying to stake its claim in the AI space — though this isn’t a natural fit for the company. Based on what was shown (or hinted at), the plan seems to be:
- Enabling "Agentic AI" inside remote sessions (VDI/RDSH),
- Integrating AI into remote browsing solutions like Chrome Enterprise Premium,
- Possibly extending AI-driven functionality through NetScaler, leveraging its ha proxy and load balancing capabilities.
The intent is there — but whether Citrix can keep pace with AI-native companies remains to be seen. The brand still carries a legacy reputation in the tech world, and that inertia will slow down innovation.
Final Thoughts
Citrix Connect Paris 2025 was a mixed bag.
- Well-organized event, great networking, a polished venue.
- Reconnection with familiar faces in the Citrix ecosystem.
- Lack of depth in technical sessions, especially for long-time Citrix professionals.
- Aggressive licensing strategy that could alienate smaller clients.
- Heavy AI push to come that feels more like strategy-by-necessity than genuine transformation.
For existing Citrix customers, it’s more important than ever to critically evaluate the value they’re getting — and whether the direction Citrix is taking aligns with their own roadmap. For Citrix, the challenge will be to stay relevant in a fast-changing landscape where innovation, flexibility, and openness are no longer optional.
Last thing worth mentioning: I wasn’t invited to the partner group session on day two — apparently they didn’t need someone who might disrupt the atmosphere. A bit of a shame, honestly. That small group had a rare opportunity to ask any questions directly to Shawn Bass and Brian Madden. I know I would have made the most of it and soaked up every bit of insight I could. Hopefully next time, the conversation will be open to more of us.
