Thin client specialist Citrix is planning to release
tools in the near future to improve load balancing and application
monitoring and performance.
Speaking at the iForum user conference in Edinburgh, Citrix
chief executive Mark Templeton (pictured) said the company would be
developing tools for monitoring and measuring end-user application
performance and auditing who accessed what, when and where. It will
also be offering compliance-based auditing tools and support for
forensic capabilities.
Some users have reported problems load balancing Citrix-based
applications, because it is difficult to prioritise certain types
of users, such as the finance department during busy times.
Templeton said, "We need to improve load balancing: today you
have to hard code the load balancing algorithm. It is very
sophisticated and highly capable, but it needs to take a back seat,
and the system needs to learn how the user uses the application to
auto-optimise bandwidth and offer the best access experience."
The recent acquisition of NetScaler, which produces technology
that can speed up applications by up to five times, should help
Citrix to improve both application throughput and load balancing.
Citrix said it would integrate NetScaler technology into the core
Citrix Access suite.
NetScaler will perform application load balancing and integrate
with Citrix's Presentation Server, carrying out Secure Sockets
Layer encryption processing, which can tie up server processing
power. This should speed up Citrix-based applications.
Citrix unveils SME Presentation Server
Citrix demonstrated a small business version of its core
Presentation Server at the iForum conference. The product, Citrix
Allinone, can support 75 users on a single server.
Allinone is a simplified version of Presentation Server, with
simple wizards used to configure all aspects of the system.
Independent Citrix analyst Brian Madden said the real value of
Allinone was in the configuration wizard. The wizard automatically
installs Windows Terminal Services, then the Terminal Services
Licensing Service. It then steps the administrator through the
various configuration options.
“I cannot express how cool this wizard is. The Allinone version
of Citrix looks like it will have most features of Presentation
Server except for being allowed to participate in a farm,” said
Madden.
Windows Server 2003 is required and pricing and release dates
are to be announced.