By: Lora Johnson
For today’s IT teams, the number of end-user requests can be overwhelming — and extremely time consuming. As a result, it turns IT teams into tactical executors instead of strategic stewards for the organization. However, by leveraging vRealize Orchestrator to automate and streamline many of these requests, it frees up time for your team to focus on strategic IT management and deployment.
To support the need to improve application management, Blue Medora today announced the launch of the Citrix NetScaler Plug-in for vRealize Orchestrator (vRO). The plug-in enhances VMware’s vRO solution to extend workflow automation into Citrix NetScaler workloads, as well as other vRO plugins that you may be using.
In this blog post, I’ll cover the top use cases that the Citrix NetScaler Plug-in from Blue Medora helps your team simplify.
Automate the deployment and management of applications
In today’s digital era, applications are at the core of any organization — for some, essential to meeting their business objectives and even revenue goals. This increased reliance means that more applications deployed more frequently, snowballing application management and consuming your time.
The Citrix NetScaler Plug-in for vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) from Blue Medora makes it easier to respond to these application requests. By streamlining provisioning, it enables your team to spend more time on strategic tasks — like risk management, migrations and roadmap development and management.
Figure 1: Example of setting your parameters for the SDX on which the cluster will be created on, which is part of the Deploy L2 Cluster workflow with the Citrix NetScaler Plug-in from Blue Medora
Initiating a workflow, like the Deploy L2 Cluster workflow showcased above, requires minimal time. The Blue Medora Plug-in for Citrix NetScaler features a user-friendly user interface, including drop downs and default values, to create a wizard-like experience and offering clear insight and directions into the workflow process.
With the ability to automate VPX creation, configuration and deployment, for example, users can use workflows like “Get SDX Usage” to programmatically determine the best SDX to deploy the VPX to, rather than figuring that out manually, which consumes a significant amount of time and can result in errors.
Respond to bottlenecks faster
The increased number of applications can result in more issues for your team to respond to, which can also eat up a significant amount of time.
Figure 2: Example of the Distribute Cluster Traffic workflow in the Citrix NetScaler Plug-in from Blue Medora
With the Citrix NetScaler Plug-in for vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) from Blue Medora, simplify the automation process with a number of key features, including:
- Use more than 10 out-of-the-box workflows to automate application lifecycle management and simplify troubleshooting
- Access entire NITRO REST API in workflows and in any custom scripts/workflows written by users
- Gain complete control of application lifecycle management with more than 40 scriptable actions.
Because of the increased control and visibility into your Citrix NetScaler workflows and applications, you can ensure that bottlenecks don’t bring your environments to a screeching halt. In fact, you can see it in action here.
Use a single console to manage infrastructure
If your organization could use a self-service portal, built on top of workflows to eliminate the need to provision environments manually, how would that improve efficiency and resource utilization?
This doesn’t have to be on your team’s wishlist — the Citrix NetScaler Plug-in from Blue Medora enables you to see all the information that you need right in vRealize Orchestrator. In addition, you can leverage other plug-ins to truly enhance your vRO experience and simplify infrastructure management.
Figure 3: Leverage the vRealize Orchestrator Control Center to streamline application management
With the Citrix NetScaler Plug-in from Blue Medora, transform your IT operations and ensure their goals align with strategic business initiatives to meet end-user requirements, and in turn, drive towards key business objectives. Visit the Blue Medora Plug-ins for vRealize Orchestrator page to learn more and for a free trial.
